Loyal Critics Lash Out At Iran’s Raisi On His First Anniversary
President Ebrahim Raisi's critics and political allies alike voiced their disappointment over his performance as he started his second year in office this week.
President Ebrahim Raisi's critics and political allies alike voiced their disappointment over his performance as he started his second year in office this week.
Some, like lawmaker Mansoor-Ali Zarei, representing Sari, were still hopeful about the government's success and promised "good things to happen in the next month or two. "However, knowing how limited the government’s capabilities and options are, he said, "If this is not accomplished, we will increase our supervision over the administration."
Others, such as member of parliament (Majles) Rahmatollah Norouzi were so disappointed that said: "The Majles is planning to reduce its cooperation with the government," adding that "The Majles is planning to impeach several of Raisi's cabinet ministers."
Most of the complaints made by both groups were about Raisi and his ministers' broken promises and their inability to solve the country's economic problems. Meanwhile, the spokesman for the parliament's Economic Committee Gholamreza Marhab reiterated that US sanctions on Iran are unprecedented in modern history, and the government should try to improve its performance to compensate for the damage.
While acknowledging that the deadlock over the revival of the 2015 nuclear agreement was a major obstacle to this, like most Iranian politicians, he repeated the formulaic rhetoric that the country's economy should not be tied to the problems resulting from the nuclear issue.
Criticism of Raisi and his cabinet began a few weeks after he assumed office in August 2021 and gained momentum earlier this year, but confidence of even his supporters was shaken when a decision by the government in early May led to a sudden jump in food prices.
Raisi decided to eliminate a key subsidy for food imports, and this led to an across-the-board jump in prices.
An infographic published by Etemad Online website on August 6 indicated that the price of cooking oil has increased by 367 percent in the past year, rice by 200 percent, yogurt by 185 percent, pasta by 168 percent, cheese by 133 percent, butter by 120 percent, eggs by 114 percent, sugar by 102 percent, poultry by 101 percent.
Meanwhile the Tehran Chamber of commerce announced in a new report that meat and rice consumption in Iran has dropped dramatically during the same period.
MP Zarei said it is a shame that Iran has so many economic problems while it owns seven percent of the world's resources and has only one percent of the world population. He added that despite all the economic problems, the members of Raisi's economic team have still not learned to speak in one voice after one year in office.
Norouzi, the lawmaker for Golestan Province also criticized the government for giving a 10 percent pay rise to a small part of workers in Iran while the overall inflation rate in the country is more than 50 percent.
He said, "the Majles has serious criticism of the government's one-year performance, and we expect Raisi to work hard to improve the nation's livelihood."
He added that Iranians are in a very difficult situation and government ministers need to come up with practical plans to solve their problems. He pointed out that costs of housing, meat, dairy products, rice and all other essential commodities have risen dramatically during the one year Raisi and his colleagues were in office.
Norouzi warned that the Majles should put an end to its hesitations and take strict measures against the government if it fails to deliver.
It was the outcome of Europe’s multifaceted ascendance in the 19th century that motivated Iranian intellectuals to demand freedom and justice.
Justice was the main demand, and many thought “Constitution” meant justice and a process that would eventually lead to the establishment of courts of justice [Edalat Khaneh or house of justice]. For several centuries, Iranians, then called Persians, were suffering in the hands of despotic monarchs and Sharia judges. Since the 16th century, the oppression by courtiers and Shiite clerics close to the court became unbearable. Kings and grand ayatollahs did whatever they wanted without consulting members of the public.
Particularly under the Safavids (1501-1736) and the Qajars (1789-1925), despotism was the main characteristic of the Persian governments. Under the Qajars, many intellectuals and learned clerics fled Iran and went to the Ottoman Empire or India and set up newspapers and magazines to promote democracy and justice in Iran.
Once the revolution was successfully established, the idea of justice was soon forgotten or pushed to oblivion by the kings, but democracy flourished in the form of a parliament (Majles or Iran's National Assembly) where most seats were occupied by clerics. The parliament, throughout the Qajar period was divided between pro-British and pro-Russian factions who were constantly fighting each other. Traditionally, Russia supported the despotic monarchs, and Great Britain lent its support to intellectuals and Westernizers.
The Qajar kings who were supposed to be the guarantor of the Constitution could hardly tolerate it. Muzafareddin Shah who signed the decree of Constitution and Muhammad Ali Shah, his son, who bombed the Majles with the help of the Russians, are widely believed to have been Russian puppets. They were educated and trained by Russian advisers in Tabriz as crown princes. Muhammad Ali Shah finally fled to Russia.
The only likeness of a modern judiciary system was created under Reza Shah Pahlavi with modern courts, and a civil code based on the laws of Belgium, albeit with some clauses to guarantee some benefit for clerics who were no longer partners in the government.
Although the Majles experienced increasingly less upheavals under the Pahlavis, it was never the institution envisaged by the forefathers of the constitutional revolution. However, the limits the Constitutional Law imposed on the power of the kings were respected by Reza Shah and his son Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi.
But if the Constitutional Revolution also meant free and fair elections for a parliament represented by all walks of life, the Pahlavis were somewhat successful in upholding the law although there are many reports about rigged elections throughout the period and arrests of political opponents. Apart from that, the Shah held his position for life, and his eldest son would inherit the throne.
Under the Islamic Republic, the Constitution and the Parliament lost their true meaning, as the Supreme Leader’s powers are boundless and for life, and candidates for parliament and president are first chosen by the Guardian Council, controlled by the Supreme Leader, before the people can vote for them.
During the past few days, Empress Farah Pahlavi, and Prince Reza Pahlavi, both in exile, paid tribute to the people’s quest for democracy and remembered the Constitutional Revolution and its heroes. Politicians in the Islamic Republic generally ignored the occasion as freedom and justice, the main elements of the Constitutional Revolution are dangerous issues to raise in Iran under the Islamic Republic.
Gholamreza Nouri-Ghezeljeh, chairman of the Independents’ Faction in the parliament told Salam-e No website Thursday that the government is collaborating with hardliners in favor of restricting access to the internet by reducing its speed and disrupting connectivity.
“They are restricting access to the Internet to make communication between people harder … Those who wrote the Siyanat bill don't want people to conjoin in the cyberspace, talk to each other, and discuss social and political issues,” he said.
Siyanat (Protection) refers to a draft bill proposed last year by ultra-hardliners titled “Legislation to Protect Cyberspace Users’ Rights”. An ad hoc parliamentary committee in February approved the outlines of the Siyanat bill which will result in broad restriction of social messaging platforms and access to the global net, in addition to extensive blockage of thousands of websites and most social media platforms, if approved.
Out of 290 members of parliament, 190 representing the hardliner majority issued a statement in January asking the government and the conservative Judiciary for measures to restrict peoples’ activities on the internet. Some of the Siyanat bill’s supporters argue that Iran should emulate China in creating a national intranet to control cyberspace.
In the past few months mobile and broadband internet users have reported considerable reduction in speed and unexplained outages.
Most Iranians use mobile internet rather than broadband. According to government figures, there are 10.6 million broadband and 84.1 million mobile internet subscribers.
NetBlocks, which monitors cybersecurity and the governance of the internet, on Monday said it had registered a significant internet outage in Iran affecting cellular and fixed-line services including Irancell and the TIC gateway. “Real-time network data show national connectivity at 79% of ordinary levels; incident ongoing,” Netblocks reported.
The Telecommunication Company claims that recent widespread disruptions in internet service were caused by a fire in infrastructure facilities or power fluctuations but the Electricity Distribution Company has refuted their claims.
The slow internet has affected many areas of life from navigation of taxis and cars to tens of thousands of large and small online businesses that rely on Instagram, as well as government and public online services.
Telecommunications minister, Issa Zarepour, in April said Iran ranked between 140 to 150 in broadband speed and 70 to 80 in mobile internet speed globally.
Slow speed also disrupts access to circumvention software and VPNs (virtual private networks) which an overwhelming majority of Iranians routinely use to access blocked websites and applications.
These include platforms such as Facebook and You Tube and messaging applications such as WhatsApp, currently the most popular messaging and social media platform in Iran with over 50 million users. Instagram is the only major social-media platform not blocked in Iran.
Authorities also appeared to have simultaneously reduced the bandwidth (rate of data transfer) for Instagram and WhatsApp which makes them very hard or impossible to access.
Iran has one of the world’s worst internet censorships, with tens of thousands of websites blocked since the early 2000s and most social media platforms banned. In the absence of free media and the very high level of censorship, many Iranians turn to social media for political news and information.
Usually when Kayhan Daily attacks an individual or entity it signals a policy or attitude by hardliners. The paper is linked to and supported by the office of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Its front-page story on Wednesday, August 4, accusing the ‘reformists’ who are loyal to the Islamic Republic, can be a signal of an impending campaign by hardliner followers of Khamenei.
The Kayhan has gone farther, charging that reformist media outlets publish lies and censor positive news daily to instil despair in society and suggest that Iran is entangled in a deadlock and that there is a wide rift between the nation and the government.
The accusation is characteristic of Kayhan's behavior in fabricating incriminating cases against intellectuals, journalists and political activists.
The paper claimed that the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington DC has suggested to the US government "to exert psychological pressure on the people of Iran and use the accumulated anxiety and anger among Iranians to instil hatred toward the government, while “beautifying” its enemies.
Kayhan charged that reformist media in Iran constantly portray ordinary problems as crises to accomplish that objective and further Cato's agenda to reinforce the West's “minions” and collaborators. The effort, said Kayhan, is aimed at discrediting the government, erode the people's trust, having the idea of a regime change on its agenda.
Kayhan presented no evidence to support its wild accusations and it was not clear why it singled out the Cato Institute or how the US government could influence government-controlled media in Iran.
Like similar cases in the past, the Kayhan quoted Khamenei’s past warnings about a media onslaught on the Islamic Republic. In this way Kayhan accused the reformist media and journalists of working against Khamenei's will as accomplices of the United States.
The Kayhan said that Shargh newspaper's coverage of recent flash floods in Iran was an example of the kind of articles that have a destructive role. Shargh had written mostly objective reports about lack of government warnings about the impending floods and lack of preparedness to deal with its aftermath.
The Kayhan also mentioned another report in the same newspaper last year about child marriage in Iran and characterized it as portraying a disparaging image of the country.
Kayhan made the same accusation about a similar report in Ebtekar newspaper and went on to quote a report in Etemad newspaper about the suicide attempts by 8 desperate workers, calling it mud-slinging against the government.
The hardliner daily also accused Iran's reformist press of featuring articles by Iranian expat journalists and criticized them for interviewing former deputy chief of the Iranian Environmental Agency Kaveh Madani, charging him as always of being a fugitive spy, while Madani has never been officially charged with any offense.
The Kayhan also accused the Jomhouri Eslami, a newspaper founded by Khamenei in 1979, of spreading lies by writing about drought in Iran quoting Madani, who happens to be an expert on water resources.
Meanwhile, the Kayhan claimed that some reformist journalists work for foreign-based media from Iran and get paid in dollars. Although some of these accusations are hard to prove, or in fact do not constitute an offense under Iranian laws, the hardliner Judiciary can use Kayhan’s claims to prosecute journalists in the future.
The Kayhan quoted Khamenei as saying in a meeting with Judiciary officials in June: "Some people tell a lie, or they spread a rumor… One of the duties of the Judiciary is to deal with these instances…If you do not have a law [for a certain situation], quickly make a law."