Barnett, Raf and the Iranian Youth

Thomas Barnett recently wrote about the announcement of former president Ali Akhbar Hashemi Rafsanjani running in the upcoming Iranian elections. He said that “Rafsanjani’s ideas speak to Iran’s overwhelmingly young and incredibly ambitious youth population. He’s all about individual empowerment and the diminishment of the mullahs’ reach.”

As mentioned before, I just don’t see this. No one I spoke to in Iran, young or old, was rooting for Rafsanjani. In fact many youth in Iran (as well as intellectuals) accuse him of getting rich off of the state; the only “individual empowerment” that matters to him is his own.

And speaking of “speaking to the youth,” Khamenei has been doing his share saying “that because the country is young, its government must also be young.” Since Raf is one of the older candidates, that must knock him out of the running as Khamenei’s favourite (so says Hoder), and we all know that he is the man to please when it comes to elections.

EDIT: Seems that Raf only got 55% of the vote when he first ran in 89, and 51% in 93. Brooding Persian has the stats and comments.

Mr. Rafsanjani, the moneybag himself, has already served two terms. He is a serious contender now, although he is not very well liked anymore. Apparently he is deemed too rich, too corrupt, and powerful. Even though by all accounts we too are all in love with money, and always aspiring for as much power via that shortcut money provides. Hence our worship of Mammon. We are probably mostly just as corrupt ourselves! Why does he want to be a president anyway?