Iran Feature: "Accept that the Regime is in Its Final Days" --- Dr Maleki's Letter to Supreme Leader

Earlier this week, Dr Mohammad Maleki, the first Chancellor of the University of Tehran after the 1979 Revolution, was summoned to Evin Prison to serve a six-year term.

The 78-year old academic has been convicted of "contact with unspecified foreign groups and working to undermine the Islamic system", but his latest "crime" was an open letter to the Supreme Leader last week, criticising the regime’s mismanagement of the ongoing economic crisis, its internal conflicts, and its inability to resolve the widespread dissatisfaction within the Iranian population.

The letter specifically accused Ayatollah Khameini of continued mismanagement and poor decisions, urging the Supreme Leader to resign in order to allow a free and fair referendum about the state of the country.

The English translation of the letter has been posted by our partner Arseh Sevom, the NGO promoting civil society inside Iran.

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In the name of God,

Dedicated to Sattar Beheshti [the blogger who died last month under interrogation in prison] and other martyrs on the path to freedom and equality,

Doubt not, tomorrow is your turn.

My dear countrymen, free Iranians,

About 6 months ago (22 May 2012), I wrote in a letter to the rulers of the regime:

I know that the story of the rulers of this land is the story of Pharaoh who claimed to be God, who was drowned in a river of ignorance and arrogance, who struggled to retain his evil power up until the last moment. But is this regime wise enough to think about the destination of its path at the final days of its life?

Now six months have passed from the time the letter was written. Many changes and evolutions have occurred at the national, regional, and international level during this period, each of which could bring a shock to the frozen minds of this people. However, the oppressors are so entrapped in the loose network of their illusions that they cannot feel the shock until the impact is too huge for them to be able to groan.

I wrote in the letter:

Before the sound of silence of Iranians is so loud as to shake and destroy the palace of the oppressors’, I want to announce for the last time that people have lost their patience. They cannot witness the destruction of their beloved land any more. People cannot see their country burned any more. This is the last warning to the rulers of tormented Iran.

Now, six months after that last warning and the negligence of the rulers, their final days is close. It can be clearly felt. I want to have a word with the main player in the scene of this oppression and disorder. I want to have a word with Mr. Seyed Ali Khamenei. I want to write about the path he has passed to reach the position he holds today.

Before the victory of the Islamic Revolution, I found him a man interested in literature, poetry, music, and art; a man of speech, a man capable of and talented in writing, a man interested in dialogue with youth, especially revolutionary and MKO students of whom many of those in power today were proud of in those days.

However, as we approached Shah’s final days, the gap between Seyed Ali Khamenei and his former friends and companions increased. He came closer to the people who called themselves “Hezbollahi” [of the party of God] the people with the slogan: “The only party is Hezbollah, the only leader is Rouhollah [Ayatollah Khomeini]”. After being appointed as one of the leaders of Islamic Republic party, in order to achieve power, he suppressed youth, students, his own friends, and opposition groups who were not satisfied with the activities of the party. The same cleric who claimed to be anti-oppression, the man who had been imprisoned and sent into exile several times, was now the supreme leader and rightful! successor to the Imam Zaman. He was dominant over anyone and anything. Now he claims that “I’m your mighty God".

Mr. Seyed Ali Khamenei! Now that your power spell is broken by the stone of public uprising, I want to share a word with you as someone who knows you from the old days. You may believe that death is the final destination of all of us. However, we will undoubtedly have different deaths. You and your allies have surely planned for that day, but only God knows to what extent you will be able to realize your plans. My story is different though:

I do not know my destiny.

I do not know where in this ruined land I shall die,

I do not know what I will harvest in my life.

I just wish though that, after my death,

Someone among my friends,

A bewildered poet,

Clamours: "People! He carried the gallows on his shoulders his whole life; he died in love...."

Yes Mr. Khamenei! You and I will live more or less for 80 years. But the difference is that I spent 50 years hoping Iran and Iranians would be free, while you spent 50 years loving power and office. I do not know who the winner of this gamble was; you or me? I gambled all I had on freedom and equality. I am left with nothing but a whim to have something to gamble with again. But you were seemingly the winner of this gamble. You have “power” and “office” and, I do not know what other ambitions and fantasies.

Sometimes when I hear your speeches I feel that you are so distant from reality. Recently, in Northern Khorasan, you mentioned two civil movements. The first one was the demonstrations after 2009 presidential elections. You called the demonstrators a group of seditious people, while I saw hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of people defending their votes and announcing the fraud in elections ordered by you. The second one was the demonstrations in Tehran’s Bazaar. You called the demonstrators West-followers who were only capable of setting some trashcans on fire, while I saw thousands of people in the footage. The question is, how can one explain this obvious difference? Either my eyes were seeing more than the real numbers, or your eyes were seeing fewer.

Mr. Khamenei! I do not know how you are reported on concerning the situation of people and society and who does it in your office, but do not take the programs planned for your trips too seriously and believe that people are so willing to see you during these trips. Just for once give an order not to close offices and schools and forcefully bring rural people to see you. In that case, you would see clearly what it is that brings people together for your visit: force and money and dissimulation, or interest in the regime and its symbol, the Supreme Leader?...

Actions speak louder than words! You arrange predefined elections and gather people during your trips and consider these as a kind of referendum. But why do you not arrange only one really free referendum on the guardianship of the jurist regime under the observation of international missions?

Do accept that the regime is in its final days. Do not trust in the information your allies provide you. Their only concern is their interests. At the end they will leave you on your own. Now, Iranians see you as responsible for all their problems. It was you who denied, and is still denying, the endless problems of the people. It was you who made incorrect decisions and let foreigners impose sanctions on Iranians and make their lives miserable. It was you who implemented strategies that brought the entire world against Iran. It was you who showed a green light to his men to take terrorist actions everywhere and shed the blood of Iranian intellectuals. You, as former president and current supreme leader, are responsible for mass killings of the 1980s and martyrdoms of Hoda, Haleh, Neda, Saba, Sattar and many others.

Yes, it was you who called the demonstrations of people “sedition.” It was you who called demonstrators slaves of western countries. It was you who allowed his men to imprison, torture, and sometimes even kill the best children of this nation: students, teachers, workers, lawyers, journalists, and ordinary people, just for criticizing the regime. It was you who did not have mercy even on your critical allies [such as 2009 Presidential candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi] and put them under house arrest. It was you who after the costly Iran-Iraq war allowed the Iranoam Revolutionary Guard Corps gain absolute power to take control of all military, political, economic, cultural, and security affairs. Today the IRGC, with a creeping military coup, has taken control over the government, parliament, and high ranking posts and with its mismanagement has put the country on a steep path to collapse and destruction.

Today, Iran is totally managed by your appointed commanders of the IRGC. Was the intention of our martyrs to let a group take advantage of war and collect enormous wealth and make themselves castles like Korah? Why should we even go that far? It was you who intervened against your own way after the 2009 election and prior to the Guardian Council’s endorsement made Ahmadinejad a fire that has burned the Iranian people since 2009, recently engulfing you as well. Today, Ahmadinejad, who you preferred over your old friends like Hashemi Rafsanjani, stands against you and your appointees at the legislature and judicial powers, bullies you and if you mess with him he “will reveal secrets". Isn’t this just the result of your incompetence and mismanagement?

I want to have a word with my friends who still try to stop you from ruining the country; those who try to correct you. If Moses could lead Pharaoh to the right direction, we can do it as well. We know that it is only people’s anger that determines the destination of oppression. History will take its path. The destination was defined long ago.

Read full letter....