Pedestrian

Does a government that enjoys popular support need to PAY its supporters to attend rallies?

The following letter was authenticated by the Aleph news agency that is affiliated with hardline parliament member, and Mousavi critic, Ahmad Tavakoli.

Translation:

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Interior Ministry

Fars Province 

Town of Firouzabad

Data: 25th of Ordibehesht, 1388 [three weeks before the election]

To the office of Mr. Reza Zadeh

The popular and esteemed governor of the province of Fars

Subject: Expenses incurred by the town of Firouzabad for sending local residents to greet the honorable president

As you are aware, the glorious and dedicated province of Fars was witness to a magnificent epic of full proportions in greeting the popular and beloved president of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Thankfully, with the great efforts of your administration and all government bodies involved, a dazzling spectacle was held in honor of the president. In this epic, the small town of Firouzabad did all that was in its ability, despite many shortcomings, and sent 2500 people to this great gathering. Despite the crowds and the ensuing traffic, these dedicated individuals were able to go and  return with safety.

With our best efforts and despite the extreme budget limitations we have, our town was able to organize 40 buses, 10 minibuses, and a number of equipped vehicles along with drivers and aids to transport the towns people to and from the rally [in Shiraz]. The total cost of this came to 16,000,000 Tomans ($16,000) for the town and must be immediately paid to the parties involved. Given the extreme budget limitations of the town office and other small town government bodies, the town is unable to pay this fee. We are hoping that the honorable office of the governor will compensate this amount and lay our worries to rest.

Thus, I ask your excellency to look into our request towards a reimbursement and respond with due consideration.

Mohammad Reza Rahimi,

Local Government Representative of the Town of Firouzabad

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Some very important things you should note:

Firouzabad is not very far from the Shiraz, the center of the province where the rally was held (~80 km). If you have ever traveled on a local bus or minibus inside a province you will know that it would cost at MOST (and this is a very high approximation) 1000 Tomans. Both ways, that would add up to 5,000,000 Tomans (~$5000) for 2500 people. That $16,000 amount is an extremely high one for transportation alone. Either some parties were paid to attend, or at the least, their lunch and dinner was paid for by the authorities for them to attend. Either way, it was not only transportation.

All three candidates have detailed Ahmadinejad’s use of government funds for his campaign. His reply? (As well as answers offered by the “enlightened” left here in the West) was that all presidents use government transportation to go to rallies during campaign season.

But that is NOT what the three candidates were speaking of as they later outlined in their multitude of letters. They were referring to PAID transportation for ordinary people, and bribes offered by the government.

A letter such as this one goes to show that the “enthusiastic poor” who Ahamdinejad has so violently confiscated WERE PAID or at least ASSISTED to attend his rallies. There are numerous instances of such events, I have chosen to write of this one because it is now fully verified EVEN by sources close to Ahmadinejad.

When Khatami first announced his candidacy in April, in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad a small, relatively poor province in the south west the vehicles that came to his rally spanned OVER 30 kilometers and that was verified by government news agencies. NONE of those people had government transportation at their disposal.

So to go back to my original question: WHY does this government need to pay its so called “base”  to attend its rallies if it enjoys such popular support?!