Rapid fire columnistas and Iran

For a week, several commentators have splashed some colour over events in Iran.
They painted it as a straight-forward contest between an unreconstructed hardliner and a democrat, wearing a green wrist band.
The dress of the protestors were to SkyTV’s liking. We could identify with them. They were so much like us. They had to be right…… Why aren’t we doing more to support them?
Guardianistas were readying themselves for 1979, this time with the ‘right people’ winning….
Instead, we should have had a period of calm.

Whatever happens, it is not so simple and most commentators have no access to any facts.

Mousavi was a Prime Minister before and is not a radical democrat. He just has extensive contacts with Western power brokers and his urban middle class core understand Twitter etc etc etc.

It seems both sides jumped the gun.

How on earth would Mousavi have known the result an hour after polls closed.
Why did he make a public announcement that he had won?
How could he have known that the rural population, apparently more in support of Ahmedinejad, would have turned out for him?
Why did no one criticise him on that score?
It was brinkmanship.
While it is too early to claim that his side were engaged in another infamous ‘Colour coded Revolution’ and we should respect the legitimate right of protestors to question the result, his opening gambit was provocative.
Then the Interior Ministry, in true Soviet-style, decided it would not wait the required three days and instead said it had completed counting and that Ahmedinejad had won handsomely!
They made the laughable claim that the reason they could complete the process was that they had been counting continuously through the day……..
Perhaps Mr. A got 52%, rather than 69% but we have no idea.
It smells for sure…. and in London, whoever I talk to feels there must have been some electoral fraud – it’s the degree that’s at question (what nags me is that actually we are relying on one side to make the claim… none of us have any independent evidence….. and perhaps letting our prejudices fill in the rest….)
This all looks too much like Thailand, amid reprehensible state brutality and an urban-rural divide that is not so apparent abroad…

Events have proved that the regime had been prepared for a Colour coded challenge and so decided to up the ante, even while its claims of such a massive victory looked incredulous. They clamped down on most communications (SMS, Internet & foreign press)

I, like more commentators, have no idea of the truth, hence I have waited over a week, unlike many others. And even now I am tentatively approaching this.
I condemn the Bhasiji militia on motorbikes for clubbing or shooting democratic protestors.
I also remember how much Western media (and its coluministas) stand by in similar occasions when it suits them (South Asia comes to mind…)

What it looks like is a messy contest between billionaire carpet seller, Mr. Rafsanjani, supported by Khatemi, against the Supreme Leader Khamenei, and the incumbent President.
At present, it looks like the street protests have run out of steam. Some of Rafsanjani’s family members are under arrest and may even face charges over corruption – widely believed by voters…..

For the moment, Mousavi has blinked.

The Israelis in the Knesset made an interesting observation which implied that the present President made policy towards Iran easier to execute……
The Saudis have been aggressive in their criticisms – now, that’s a tall order from a Wahabi extreme theocratic regime which cannot spell the word ‘democracy’….
Note how we all ignore the Saudis and Gulf States. Barring the occasional mild criticism, when did we last get excited about setting Twitter & Google on them?!? Or use the Armed Forces in theatre as a threat to force democratic change…
Of course not, they are our fossil-fuel rich friends

While the Western media are scrambling to raise this to fever pitch levels, others are hedging their bets.
While Chavez did not cover himself with glory. most other countries are holding off.

Due to historical reasons, Britain is again targetted.
While Sky went apoplectic about Khatemi’s comments on Friday, how many Sky viewers were aware of British government involvement in destroying the democratic government of Mossadeq in 1953… all on behalf of oil company BP….?
While you may wonder that it’s been a long time since then, should we forget that Britain was in the lead in invading Iraq only six years ago in an illegal act…. for which this part of Asia is still paying for….
What on earth are we doing in criticising anyone……..
It may play well in the Guardian or Daily Mail, but it looks preposterous that we should be lecturing anyone when we have bombed our way next door…… with our incumbent Prime Minister guilty as sin as he stood shoulder to shoulder with Tony Blair….
The Green Party has the right to criticise, given its consistent stand on peace and war.
The New Labour Government has no place in making pronouncements on Iran, or Georgia…. or Sri Lanka….
It lost that right on March 2003.

Farid Bakht