Sunday
Jan172010
UPDATED Iran Video & Translation: Dr Etaat’s Opposition On State Media (14 January — Parts 3-5)
Sunday, January 17, 2010 at 17:40
Like the first two parts of the video, translation is by our friends at The Flying Carpet Institute:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybYjWnReM3Y[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT5pg8_yRSg[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFJTOAsQZj0[/youtube]
Part 3
*Among all those people you have put in jail, Behzad Nabavi (prominent reformist detained after the Presidential vote) told me that, four days prior to the elections, they had already issued his arrest warrant.
Let’s assume that (former US Secretary of State) Henry Kissinger was responsible for Nabavi’s political activities. Now I ask you, since when does Mr.Kissinger decide for an Iranian? You pretend to love the Imam (Khomeini), but it was he who saidm “America can’t do a damn thing”! Kissinger was decades ago the foreign minister of the United States and now you make him bigger than he is. If Kissinger had so much power to organize protests inside Iran, why couldn’t he avoid Ahmadinejad's re-election, who by your claims won the majority of the votes. So please don’t say things that might ridicule yourselves.
*You put a lot of people in jail and that is contradicting with the values of Islam. And now people are critical to you. They are critical both of your economic and political policies.
*Imam Ali (the first Imam of Shi'a Islam) said, “Keep those people close to yourselves who criticize you. Their words might even be bitter but in the end you will benefit from them.”
*You closed many newspapers. Keep in mind Ali’s words and please tell me now why you did that. Did they do anything else but express their dissatisfaction? Didn’t they just criticize you the way Ali wished?
*When I talked with students before the election, they said that they consider (Mir Hossein) Mousavi a conservative and a representative of the establishment. Mr. Mousavi, who is a conservative, is according to you now the leader of the Fitna (sedition) and a counter-revolutionary. Even Ali saidm “If you want to rule be wise and fair because nobody is free from error and even I can make mistakes.” But whatever your opponent says, you try to crush him. An opponent who even has not the opportunities you have….
Please tell us how we can express our opposition. I will be very thankful if you could help me out. We say that according to Article 27 of our Constitution it is allowed to protest publicly. We even demanded a live TV debate where at the end of it people can decide by SMS (text message) who is right and who is not.
*One of your parliamentary colleagues once said that the price of fuel must be maximum 30 Tomans. Now your colleagues say 600-700 tomans? What does that mean? My conclusion is that the government has absolutely not a clue what it is doing....You don’t have a proper plan to solve the country'ss problems and that makes the people angry.
Again, you forbid the people to have their own free media, you forbid them to hold rallies and you generally forbid people to gather. Please tell me, what are we allowed to do in this country?
Part 4
*Your faction in Parliament once said that the reformers had no economic agenda when they ruled the country, but the truth is that our policies were far more effective than yours. You said that we couldn’t people’s problems. What about you?
Let me say this: The problems of the people must be solved by democratic measures. The conservative elite turned down a lot of candidates for Parliament for whatever reasons. If you don’t let peoples true representatives enter the parliament, be sure that the problems can’t be solved.*
*It’s a fact that the more democratic the system is, the wealthier its people are. I simple comparison between Eastern Europe and the more democratic Western Europe shows that.
*It’s a shame that officially 14% of our people are living under the poverty line, and we are becoming even poorer, despite the fact that we are an oil-rich country.…
Part 5
*I’ll give you an example of Saadat Abad in Tehran. You know that Saadat Abad is in uptown Tehran (Balaye Shahr) and that the average of its inhabitants is wealthier than in most other parts of Tehran. I remember that the price for bread (Noone Sangak) was 200 tomans and every time I wanted bread I had to wait in a very long queue. Now when I want to buy bread there is no queue, because people have to pay 500 tomans nowadays. So if even the rich can’t afford bread, now imagine how the lives of those people who live under the poverty line are.
*We had written a letter to the Supreme Leader to solve the country's problems and [said] that the representatives will face serious difficulties in legitimating themselves if the problems aren’t solved. But you attacked us back then and said that we were disrespectful to the Supreme Leader.
*According to the law of the Islamic Republic, it was our right to send representatives as observers to the polling stations. That’s according to your own laws, and when we demanded that, you said that we are part of an international conspiracy.
*You pretend that every single vote is holy but 700,000 votes in Tehran, during the last parliamentary elections, were counted as invalid. We all know that the election supervisor was a staunch conservative.
*But what about the Presidential elections last summer? You even paid people to vote for you. On 25 Khordad (15 June) people showed their dissatisfaction about the way the counting of the votes was conducted.
*Imam Ali said: “If people are suspicious of you, you must convince them about your aims. You will benefit only because your people will thank you. And you have showed that you are capable to serve them."
*You are afraid that people could riot when you let them protest. But I ask you this: What are paying the security forces (Nirooye Entezaami) for?
*By what logic did the Ahmadinejad hold his “victory rally” right after the elections, when the Guardian Council hadn’t even confirmed the result yet?*
*You seriously say that the regime showed tolerance after the elections? How can you even say that when you didn’t let people gather legally, when you jailed prominent reformists? Their “crimes” were to hold speeches for Mousavi and Karoubi before the elections. Please tell me were the regime was tolerant!
*We acknowledge fair and free elections and accept our defeat but when 8 of 12 members of the Guardian Council are known as staunch supporters of Ahmadinejad, you don’t have to wonder why people don’t accept the election results.
*You say that you predicted the people’s reactions? Of course you predicted it, because you knew that you would make people angry. If you have plans to slap someone in the face, it's normal that you predict a reaction. So your prediction was no masterwork.
*The policies of this administration are an insult to people’s intellect. You build a defective railroad system from Shiraz to Tehran. The second time this railroad was used by a train it jumped the rails. You built this railroad system only for propaganda reasons to win more votes. Your policies are fatal and then you wonder why people are angry with you.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybYjWnReM3Y[/youtube]
Iran Video & Translation: Dr Etaat’s Opposition On State Media (14 January — Parts 1 and 2)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT5pg8_yRSg[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFJTOAsQZj0[/youtube]
Part 3
*Among all those people you have put in jail, Behzad Nabavi (prominent reformist detained after the Presidential vote) told me that, four days prior to the elections, they had already issued his arrest warrant.
Let’s assume that (former US Secretary of State) Henry Kissinger was responsible for Nabavi’s political activities. Now I ask you, since when does Mr.Kissinger decide for an Iranian? You pretend to love the Imam (Khomeini), but it was he who saidm “America can’t do a damn thing”! Kissinger was decades ago the foreign minister of the United States and now you make him bigger than he is. If Kissinger had so much power to organize protests inside Iran, why couldn’t he avoid Ahmadinejad's re-election, who by your claims won the majority of the votes. So please don’t say things that might ridicule yourselves.
*You put a lot of people in jail and that is contradicting with the values of Islam. And now people are critical to you. They are critical both of your economic and political policies.
*Imam Ali (the first Imam of Shi'a Islam) said, “Keep those people close to yourselves who criticize you. Their words might even be bitter but in the end you will benefit from them.”
*You closed many newspapers. Keep in mind Ali’s words and please tell me now why you did that. Did they do anything else but express their dissatisfaction? Didn’t they just criticize you the way Ali wished?
*When I talked with students before the election, they said that they consider (Mir Hossein) Mousavi a conservative and a representative of the establishment. Mr. Mousavi, who is a conservative, is according to you now the leader of the Fitna (sedition) and a counter-revolutionary. Even Ali saidm “If you want to rule be wise and fair because nobody is free from error and even I can make mistakes.” But whatever your opponent says, you try to crush him. An opponent who even has not the opportunities you have….
Please tell us how we can express our opposition. I will be very thankful if you could help me out. We say that according to Article 27 of our Constitution it is allowed to protest publicly. We even demanded a live TV debate where at the end of it people can decide by SMS (text message) who is right and who is not.
*One of your parliamentary colleagues once said that the price of fuel must be maximum 30 Tomans. Now your colleagues say 600-700 tomans? What does that mean? My conclusion is that the government has absolutely not a clue what it is doing....You don’t have a proper plan to solve the country'ss problems and that makes the people angry.
Again, you forbid the people to have their own free media, you forbid them to hold rallies and you generally forbid people to gather. Please tell me, what are we allowed to do in this country?
Part 4
*Your faction in Parliament once said that the reformers had no economic agenda when they ruled the country, but the truth is that our policies were far more effective than yours. You said that we couldn’t people’s problems. What about you?
Let me say this: The problems of the people must be solved by democratic measures. The conservative elite turned down a lot of candidates for Parliament for whatever reasons. If you don’t let peoples true representatives enter the parliament, be sure that the problems can’t be solved.*
*It’s a fact that the more democratic the system is, the wealthier its people are. I simple comparison between Eastern Europe and the more democratic Western Europe shows that.
*It’s a shame that officially 14% of our people are living under the poverty line, and we are becoming even poorer, despite the fact that we are an oil-rich country.…
Part 5
*I’ll give you an example of Saadat Abad in Tehran. You know that Saadat Abad is in uptown Tehran (Balaye Shahr) and that the average of its inhabitants is wealthier than in most other parts of Tehran. I remember that the price for bread (Noone Sangak) was 200 tomans and every time I wanted bread I had to wait in a very long queue. Now when I want to buy bread there is no queue, because people have to pay 500 tomans nowadays. So if even the rich can’t afford bread, now imagine how the lives of those people who live under the poverty line are.
*We had written a letter to the Supreme Leader to solve the country's problems and [said] that the representatives will face serious difficulties in legitimating themselves if the problems aren’t solved. But you attacked us back then and said that we were disrespectful to the Supreme Leader.
*According to the law of the Islamic Republic, it was our right to send representatives as observers to the polling stations. That’s according to your own laws, and when we demanded that, you said that we are part of an international conspiracy.
*You pretend that every single vote is holy but 700,000 votes in Tehran, during the last parliamentary elections, were counted as invalid. We all know that the election supervisor was a staunch conservative.
*But what about the Presidential elections last summer? You even paid people to vote for you. On 25 Khordad (15 June) people showed their dissatisfaction about the way the counting of the votes was conducted.
*Imam Ali said: “If people are suspicious of you, you must convince them about your aims. You will benefit only because your people will thank you. And you have showed that you are capable to serve them."
*You are afraid that people could riot when you let them protest. But I ask you this: What are paying the security forces (Nirooye Entezaami) for?
*By what logic did the Ahmadinejad hold his “victory rally” right after the elections, when the Guardian Council hadn’t even confirmed the result yet?*
*You seriously say that the regime showed tolerance after the elections? How can you even say that when you didn’t let people gather legally, when you jailed prominent reformists? Their “crimes” were to hold speeches for Mousavi and Karoubi before the elections. Please tell me were the regime was tolerant!
*We acknowledge fair and free elections and accept our defeat but when 8 of 12 members of the Guardian Council are known as staunch supporters of Ahmadinejad, you don’t have to wonder why people don’t accept the election results.
*You say that you predicted the people’s reactions? Of course you predicted it, because you knew that you would make people angry. If you have plans to slap someone in the face, it's normal that you predict a reaction. So your prediction was no masterwork.
*The policies of this administration are an insult to people’s intellect. You build a defective railroad system from Shiraz to Tehran. The second time this railroad was used by a train it jumped the rails. You built this railroad system only for propaganda reasons to win more votes. Your policies are fatal and then you wonder why people are angry with you.