Illustration: Ramachandra Babu/Gulf News
Supreme Leader takes sides
By Francis Matthew, Editor at Large
Published: June 24, 2009, 22:47
The struggle going on in the streets of Tehran may well wind itself
down, as the protesters supporting opposition candidate Mir Hussain Mousavi
come to the conclusion that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is going to remain in
power whatever they do. But even if the protests tail off, there has been a
very important political shock to the political system of the Islamic republic.
The violent military and police response to the daily marches has horrified the
nation and added to the sense that something important has changed, but this
shift in perceptions will take some time to manifest itself in the daily round
of political events.
The most important change is that the status of Ali Khamenei as
Supreme Leader has been sharply diminished. He can no longer be revered by all
as a remote but great authority with almost mystical powers. Khamenei has taken
Ahmadinejad's side, which means that he has gone from being a national
religious figure with unquestionable political authority, to being just another
politician. By so vigorously supporting the re-election of Ahmadinejad,
Khamenei has linked his political future with that of the incumbent president.
By taking this drastic step, Khamenei has opened a lively debate
which has moved beyond the election to include the Constitution. Among the
senior Shiite scholars and clerics, a discussion has started over the role of
the Supreme Leader. The whole idea of having a senior Shiite legal scholar as
the 'guardian' or ruler of the country was invented by Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini when he argued that in an Islamic theocracy such as the Islamic
Republic of Iran, no political decision should be lawful until it is approved
by the Supreme Leader (Velayati-e-Faqih).
Khomeini extended this authority of approval over the political
life of the country to cover the taking of office by the democratically elected
president, but he had a special position as the founding leader of the 1979
Islamic Revolution. In the immediate aftermath of his death in 1989, there was
a vigorous debate as to how to continue his towering role in the country. Many
clerics argued that after the passing of Khomeini, a unique figure in the
revolution, the position of Supreme Leader should cease to exist.
In the end, the clerics initially proposed that a council of three
take over Khomeini's position, recommending Ali Meshkini, Mousavi Ardabili and
Ali Khamenei - who had been president for six years - for the roles. The
Assembly of Experts rejected this idea, and then another leading religious
scholar, Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Golpaygani, failed to get enough votes
in the Assembly to be appointed. Finally, on June 4, 1989, Khamenei was elected
Supreme Leader after winning two thirds of the votes.
Now, after 20 years, Khamenei has returned to the active political
life he had when working for the revolution and as president of the republic.
He has made partisan comments about the politics of Ahmadinejad and the
opposition, saying bluntly "of course, the president's ideas are closer to
mine" than those of Mousavi. He also declared that he has "many differences of
opinion" with Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, who is Mousavi's main backer.
Rafsanjani, who dislikes Ahmadinejad, his populist politics and his
confrontational foreign policy, was deliberately absent from Khamenei's Friday
sermon this week, in which he called for the nation to back the president.
Ali Larijani, Speaker of the Majlis and Ahmadinejad's former
nuclear negotiator, has also weighed into the debate, and said, "The law cannot
be broken in the name of the nation's rights, however, the voice of the people
who have taken part in rallies must also be heard ... a majority of people are
of the opinion that the actual election results are different than what was
officially announced".
In commenting on partisan developments throughout the senior Shiite
establishment, Larijani said: "Although the Guardian Council is made up of
religious individuals, I wish certain members would not side with a certain
presidential candidate."
As these differences are aired so publicly, it is very important to
remember that all of the key players in this drama share a belief in the
principles of the Islamic Revolution, otherwise they would not be there. They
have all served for years as senior politicians and religious leaders who have
made the Islamic Republic work. Khamenei was perfectly sincere when he
described his critic Rafsanjani as being one of the architects of the
revolution and one of Iran's most important political figures for many years.
This political uniformity has also been enforced by the 12-member
Council of Guardians which disqualified 470 would-be presidential candidates,
including 42 women, even before the race began.
The arguments rocking Iran this week, and the open partisanship of
the Supreme Leader, are indications that change is on its way. What change is
hard to tell, and it will not happen immediately.
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