Folks, I hope you're following what's happening in Iran. Things are moving so fast and I haven't been able to find the time to write anything about it because I've been caught up with so many things this week including the public forum yesterday (will post something on that later).
But here are some links you might be interested in:
Photos of the demos in Tehran here. And in Esfahan here.
An eyewitness account of what is happening in Iran can be read via the blog MyAsylum here.
The Iranians are really relying on Twitter to get the news out so if any of you are on Twitter, do follow IranElection and do retweet the news. The Iranians are relying on you to get the news out on what is happening there because the Iranian government has cut off access to Facebook and even smses.
If you'd like to show your support, wear green which is the colour of the Moussavi side.
There are many allegations that the elections were rigged to favour Ahmedinajad. Even Grand Ayatollah Montazeri, one of Iran’s leading religious figures, has slammed the results of recent elections and addressed an open letter to the Iranian people, referring to them as “oppressed.”
Montazeri is one of the leaders of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and is best known as the one-time designated successor to Ayatollah Khomeini.
In 1989 he fell out with Khomeini over the government’s repressive policies and the lack of freedom and human rights and has been a harsh critic of the ruling regime ever since.
The Council of Guardians, the most powerful body in Iran, is now agreeing to a recount because you can't ignore the millions of Iranians protesting the results and also the protests abroad.
And talking of which...when you see how young people and women are supporting Moussavi and are being beaten and teargassed there, you have to wonder why should we do the same to them here? How do we support them by revoking their visas? Do we want to send them back to danger at home? How would we feel if we were abroad and all this turmoil was going on in our own country? There is nothing in this story that suggests to me that teargas was warranted. And nothing starts chaos quite like unprovoked use of teargas. Imagine...if Moussavi did finally come into power, what would he say to us knowing we had teargassed his people? And what would the Iranian students here tell their folks back home about the way we behaved towards them?
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
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22 comments:
It was the same here when your daddy was the Prime Minister. How many were jailed without trial during Operasi Lallang? Thousands... and some for as long as 4 years. What have you got to say about that?
Are you sure we can wear green to
support the Iranians in Malaysia?
Will PDRM lock us up coz we wear
green tee shirts and drinking coffee
in restaurants?
Greenbug, so does this mean you DON'T support the people of Iran in their struggle?
I like the idea of Green T Shirts. Hey, maybe instead of black our own protests can turn green now. Two in one. After all what it is that the Iranian protests represents is not too far off from what the Anak Bangsa Malaysia crowd are protesting against right here.
the main point that is coming out of Iran is that people don't want to be told how they ought to live their lives.
My first night in Teheran I remember being taken for dinner at this park that spread over a hill an there was a restaurant there where there were several young couples. I was told that they were together in defiance of the authorities. There were also other young couples sitting around or walking hand in hand in the park. It was sad really.
Obviously the Iranian Islamic State has failed miserably. It has failed its young people an it has failed them to the point that nature is what I think is making them respond the way they are. The human spirit is something I suppose governments would rather did not exist.
You worried about Iranians been teargased & want to show support but you did't worried & support when our own Malaysian been teargased & jailed for protesting against the BN goverment.
Greenbug, the sins of the father cannot be placed on the children.
Anyway I did not hear ur voice when a 1000 people were killed a day over a 20 day period last month.
I did not hear ur voice, when this country's constitution was thrown out by the Judiciary. Kindly read loyarburok.com, especially Justice N.H.Chan's write-up.
By the way, if a guest comes to my house. Doesnt like me or something I said, as such does not drink the coffee or tea I offer, I will accept his/her implied criticism. But my guest should not throw the contents of that drink to my face. That's rude.
My apologies if I m viewed as an unruly guest 2.
Do you know when Malaysians have gut to make the people power here .. to make a fundamental change in this country?
or are we still happy to live as slave and/or to be treated as slave by our gov't?
Malaysia Boleh!
This mass protest fuelled by rising mass unemployment and a yearning for democratic rights, especially amongst the youth – 60% of the Iranian population is under the age of thirty. The urban youth in particular are in revolt against the theocratic repression which they have suffered. An important feature of this movement have been the mobilisations of young women, demanding “equality”. At the same time, while the mass opposition in the cities has rallied to Mousavi, he is no defender of the working class and the poor. A former Prime Minister, his pro-capitalist programme is limited to reform of the current theocratic state. However, the attempt to rig the election by Ahmedinejad has possibly opened the flood gates to a mass movement that could topple his regime and open a new era in Iran.
http://asocialistmalaysia.blogspot.com/2009/06/iran-mass-protests-erupt.html
I donated some money to Avaaz to help them with their independent vote count project here:
"Avaaz is urgently organising a rigorous “exit poll” of Iranian voters and a media effort to publicise it -- working with an international polling firm to do a telephone survey of Iranian citizens to ask how they voted"
You can go to their website to do so.
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/iran_vote_truth/
If Malaysians in London, say, were to demonstrate against BN and they were tear gassed, beaten up and deported by the British police (which is unlikely), I have no doubt that the BN government will be in support of the British police. To me, the tear gassing of Iranians against Ahmadinejad in Malaysia is just an expression of support from one oppressive government to another.
I would emphatize more on the cause of the Iranians if their solidarity stands for freedom from the hierarchy of their democratic system. In other words, their solidarity to get rid of the Guardians Council, which ultimately has always been a hindrance to any reform agendas their people longed for. Even during the presidency of Khatami who was quite moderate then.
I doubt Mousavi, given the ticket to govern will create any reform changes. We must remember he is a loyalist of Rafshanjani, the very same candidate whom Ahmadinejad defeated during the last election. Rafshanjani is tainted with corruptions allegations (the reason why the Iranians rejected him) and now is very powerful sitting in the Guardians Council.
And now on Twitter, news about Mousovi giving speech, questioning Ahmadinejad where did the $400B go to, where is the wealth of the nation and promising freedom and hope to his people.
Can he pass through those council of mullahs? He should ask those mullahs where did the money go to? He should ask Rafshanjani specifically.
Otherwise, it is all bull....just like the politics here in Malaysia.
Despite the communication barriers imposed by the government and restrictions on journalists, it is so inspiring to still see snippets of news coming through the wire thanks to technology, the www and the audacity of the youth.
I pray that the will of the people of Iran, home of the 5000 year old Persian civilization, will prevail.
Sambal, what persian civilization? It's been replaced from head to toe by islamic and arabic dominance. Even if it still exists, it's greatly oppressed by religious authorities there..
Sambal,
"the audacity of the youth". i love that line :]
The Iranian students would say, "It's just like home."
Joseph, that's as daft as saying, "what Chinese civilization? it's been replaced by --- Communism".
the Persians are very proud of their history and identity, and they'd hate to be compared to the Arabs let alone be said to have evolved into being Arab.
may i introduce you to my Iranian friend. this particular one has a bad temper. i'd like to see what he does to you when you tell make your comment to his face :]
Marina,
Selalunya bila US tak suka akan keputusan sesuatu pilihanraya disatu satu negera, selalunya ia nya kerajaan terpilih tersebut baik untuk rakyat dan negara tersebut.
Kita di Malaysia, telah memaluinya semasa pemerintahan Ayahanda Tun. Kita semua okay , bergerak kehadapan and ... kami rindui semuanya itu.
Tak payahlah nak ajak "kami" pakai baju hijau. Iranian disini? Ada diantara mereka penyumbang kepada statistik jenayah negara.Atau mereka yang tidak lagi mampu hidup di US, dan merindui right mereka semasa disana. Right? minum,women,MYOB,....bla bla.
juanajaafar, chinese government is evolving into a more open type of communism after decades of failure in that system. That's why not they adopt open markets and slowly move to more democratic way of governing. It's good to know one's mistake and make adaptation rather than follow everything in an ideology blindly forever =.=
After, human covilizations always evolve. Stagnant ones died off or just faded away..
omg, I had too many typo error in last comment.. btw, MM, I bet you are a fan of Max Mara as I saw your photo at their new product launch in June issue of Prestige :)
Joseph,
I dont think you understand what you are saying. You are just shooting shit from your own mouth.
If you do want to sound intelligent, tell us since when did Iran become "arabic dominance"?
Post an article I found. Kind of a replay of whatever happened 30 years ago.
Sorry Marina, I know its a little long and does not really belong here. But to understand a little more of what is happening in Iran I thought this would be helpful.
Protests aren't enough to topple the Islamic Republic
by Michael Rubin
Los Angeles Times
June 19, 2009
Street protests in Iran are important but are themselves not enough to force change. The supreme leader will not be swayed because he considers himself accountable to God, not to the people. Indeed, even the Islamic Republic's clerical establishment is irrelevant in this calculus. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's invocation of folk religion -- his appeals to the messianic Hidden Imam, for example -- is a way to bypass senior religious figures who, according to Shiite theology, will be among the greatest obstacles to the Hidden Imam's return. Nor does the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, pay too much heed to his fellow clerics in Qom. They have always refused to bestow on Khamenei a level of religious legitimacy to match his ambition. Today, the majority of Iran's grand ayatollahs oppose the concept of theological rule. Not by coincidence, the majority are now in prison or under house arrest.
Khamenei can weather the public's disdain so long as the Revolutionary Guard serves as his Praetorian Guard. Khomeini, the Islamic Republic's founder, formed the Revolutionary Guard to defend his revolutionary vision. It is more powerful than the army and answers only to the supreme leader. That the Islamic Republic has lost legitimacy in the eyes of the Iranian public is now evident to the outside world, but it is not news to the regime. In September 2007, Mohammad Ali Jafari, the new Revolutionary Guard chief, reconfigured the force into 31 units -- one for each province and two for Tehran -- on the theory that a velvet revolution posed a greater threat to regime security than any external enemy. Guardsmen are not stationed in their home cities so that they do not hesitate to fire on crowds that might include family and friends.
In the public mind, the Islamic revolution 30 years ago looms large. The regime is not aloof to this. It understands the shah's mistakes and is determined not to repeat them. Next month marks the 10th anniversary of the student uprising, which erupted after the security forces attacked a student dormitory. Their brutality shocked the Iranian public, and demonstrations spread throughout the country. For a few days, regime survival was also subject to speculation.
In the aftermath of the protests, the Chinese government supplied security consultants to Tehran. Rather than bash heads and risk protests and endless cycles of mourning, Iranian security services began photographing demonstrations, after which they would arrest participants over the course of a month when they were alone and could not spark mob reaction. With the assistance of European businessmen, the Iranian government upgraded its surveillance of communication (and the Internet).
Ultimately, the theocracy will fall only if servicemen in the Revolutionary Guard switch sides. There will be compromise. The end will come only over Khamenei's dead body. Certainly, Iran today is a tinderbox. The question is whether the regime is better at putting out fires than demonstrators are at starting them.
Michael Rubin, a senior editor of the Middle East Quarterly, is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a senior lecturer at the Naval Postgraduate School.
Assalamualaikum Puan,
Memperkatakan Iran menjadikan teruja untuk meminta Puan membicarakan ISA dari sudut hak-hak berasasi bagi mendapatkan perbicaraan terhadap pertuduhan yang tidak menzahirkan ketidakupayaan undang-undang memberikan pemeliharaan hak untuk warga yang ditahan dibacakan alasan-alasan dia dikenakan tahanan.
Bagaimanakah pandangan Puan terhadap pengiktirafan Perlembagaan terhadap :
1- Islam sebagai agama rasmi.
2- Bahasa Melayu sebagai bahasa rasmi negara.
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