Pedestrian

In the midst of all the questionable data that is “tweeted”, written and produced, trying to make out what is really happening on the ground is consistently and constantly excruciating – even if you are there. Unfortunately for most of us, both the right and the left have turned this into an epic Hollywood movie with one bad guy (Ahmadinejad and Mousavi respectively) going after the good (Mousavi and Ahmadinejad respectively). On the ground however, things just aren’t as simple.

We love to hate Rafsanjani. The man who was largely responsible for Ayatollah Khamenei’s current position as the Supreme Leader, head of the powerful Assembly of Experts, president from 1989 to 1997, and quite possibly a very wealthy man. He may have money, but the revolutionary guard, the basij, and the main core of the leadership (both financially and militarily) are not within his grasp. Just yesterday he came out in full support of the Supreme Leader signaling his position clearly.

We love to pound Rafsanjani. Link Mousavi, Karoubi or Rezaie to this extremely controversial man. And I personally have enough reasons to despise him. But what do we really know about their opponent? I also find problematic the dark, wealthy, mysterious men who surround Ahmaidnejad, few of whom you know of, or whose names you might have ever heard.

I think one quandary that we Iranians are by now quite used to grappling with is the level of complexity that has come to unfold, and I see most foreign outlets (right, left, center, etc) reducing that complexity to trivial child’s play. Freedom fighters fighting an oppressive, brutal regime or Clueless teenagers unknowingly working for foreign means or Rasputin (Rafsanjani) working to overthrow a kind, righteous man (Ahmadinejad)

None of these views are politically or socially correct. Not entirely at least.

I wish more than ANYTHING that Ahmadinejad’s “Sahaam-e Edaalat” and “Maskan-e Mehr” were as clear-cut and dignified as certain progressive outlets believe them to be. But sadly, I know for a fact that that is NOT the case. Nor do progressive outlets battling “neo-liberals” have a clear cut view of basically one of the only mega-corporations in Iran – the revolutionary guard … and we all know who that corporation is supporting.

An unknown man whom only some Tehran residents knew as a relatively weak mayor, Ahmadinejad, ran for president four years ago with six other candidates. Amidst wide allegations of fraud, he was pushed up from spot #3 to #2 in very dubious circumstances. That year, like this year, the other candidates cried foul. But they were immediately silenced by Ayatollah Khamenei.

When he was brought to number 2 and ran a second time against Rafsanjani, his win didn’t surprise many as he was running against a very unpopular fellow.

But 17 million votes for an unknown? Maybe … But we certainly can not be sure anymore.

In retrospect, his rise was all part of a wider move signaling the ideals and ideas that had emerged within the core of the Iranian leadership at the end of the Khatami era. Motivated by sincere calculations, or malicious ones we will never know. We do know however that they have come to believe that the reformist era MUST come to an end, by ANY MEANS NECESSARY – vote rigging, assissations (the assassination of the reformist Saeed Hajjariyan) or suppression of the masses (silencing student movements).

This move began with the the seventh parliamentary elections which to this day remain Khatami’s most disgraceful sell-out. The Guardian Council went so far as to disqualify parliament members themselves and gave new meaning – even compared to its own standards – to handpicking the winners. Khatami was asked NOT to go along with the election, but he did anyways.

Hardline Control of Parliament: Check.

Hardline Control of Goverment: Check.

The judiciary and the leader were already theirs.

This phenomena has forced us to rethink and reevaluate our own usage of the word “hardline”. We have come up with a slew of alternatives: pragmatist hardliner, reformist hardliner, hardline hardliner, ad nauseum.

But I don’t think the Ahmadinejad circus ends there. During his four years as president, he disposed of over 15 ministers and high ranking deputies.

This man sure loves his soccer. When he was asked why he ran such an unstable, shaky government, he compared running the country to a game of soccer where the players “might be continuously shuffled around.”(You may remember, that after the election when asked about the allegations put forth by the other candidates, he once again used the sport to explain the situation)

And I think in that very metaphor he continuously uses, you have the secret to Ahmadinejad’s success. Those explanations he gave sound quite fanatical and deranged. But for some, he’s just the kind of guy whose words you can understand.

And in this game he was playing, you may have heard of Ali Kordan, Ahmadinejad’s interior minister who was forced out by parliament for having a fake degree from Britain’s Oxford University. You may also remember his bizarre, comic speeches about his “honorary degrees” – and how undeniably outlandish they were.

At times they were SO outrageously macabre, that they sounded unreal – scripted.

And while we cried, hissed and hollered at the outrage, and praised the despised parliament for throwing him out, Ahmadinejad quietly brought in Kordan’s place, a little known man by the name of Sadeq Mahsouli.

After the outrage Kordan had caused, many of us were not that concerned with the return of Mahsouli who had once been rejected as a nominee for the oil ministry, given his immense wealth, questionable ties and lack of experience. And these were not accusations hurled at him by people or the reformist camp – but that very parliament.

By many accounts, Mahsouli is one of the masterminds behind this charade  and the recent absurd, ludicrous behavior of his ministry do little to qualm those worries.

And frankly, I don’t think he gives a damn.

If there is one thing the events of the past few weeks have shown ALL of us Iranians, no matter which side of the political spectrum we are on, it’s that while Western media and many Iranians themselves laugh off Ahadminejad as a brainless psychotic, the operations he runs (or vice versa) are indeed B-R-I-L-L-I-A-N-T beyond our WILDEST imagination. And now I can only wonder: when there are such humongous brains behind him, why introduce someone as laughable as Kordan?

In the spirit of conspiracy theories, I believe this was part of that “bigger picture”. This was a surefire way to get Mahsouli – and a certain faction of the revolutionary guard- within the interior ministry.

In retrospect, a man with a fake “honorary” PhD may have been to our advantage.

We may have felt momentarily triumphant, but for now at least, he is the one to have the last laugh.