Forty-One Years of Iranian بیشرف Bisharaf Ruling Part 2/2:
Read part 1/2: Bisharaf Ruling: The Scoundrels’ Norm
Mea Culpa
In the early hours of Saturday January 11th, as the irrefutable evidences over the Iranian responsibility were gathering, Hassan Rouhani, the president and Amir Ali Hajizadeh / امیرعلی حاجیزاده the commander of Aerospace Force of the IRGC recognised that an Iranian missile had mistakenly downed PS752 – UIA, killing 176 civilians from Afghanistan, Britain, Canada, Iran, Sweden and Ukraine. Both recognised the responsibilities and expressed their shame.
They offered a pretext for their deceit: no one in the high offices of the State was informed. Did the super digital savvy regime that had implemented a performing Halal internet to spy on its citizens and hack the Internet, use a broken wing carrier pigeon to communicate in this matter?
Khamenei, Commander in Chief of the Armed forces, was once more majestic and above all mortals. He published a short letter expressing his condolences to the families. Circumspect and in general terms, he advised the General Staff of the Armed Forces to pursue the negligences and possible faults in a painful accident.
Mea Culpa … the regime counts on a sin confessed is half forgiven.
What brought the Iranian regime to make such a dramatic U-turn? The hard evidences shown in the pictures and videos published over the web? The mounting international pressure?
Perhaps, there was something else. In the past decades, in various circumstances, the regime has ignored them both. Since, as we learned two missiles were fired by the IRGC, the phrase intentional downing has already been associated with the tragedy. Notwithstanding the causes, Khamenei and his gang of militarist-religious have the blood of 176 innocents on their hands. It adds to the thousands of innocents already scarified to their power.
In Tehran, a mounting anger toward the incompetence and lack of responsibility of the regime, burst. The people needed answers to their questions. Vigils and candle lightings in the city to the memories of victims grew in number.
Why did the IRGC not coordinate with Civil Aviation Authority? During the missile attacks on the Iraqi soil, why was civilian traffic not rerouted or stopped? If it took a few seconds to down the aircraft, why did it take about three days to inform the Iranian leader and the president? Who would be naive enough to believe that Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Commandant of the Armed Forces, was kept in the dark?
The convoluted explanations from IRGC commanders satisfy no one. There were, and there are, lies within lies, within lies … adding to amateurism, mismanagement, lack of coordination, and misplaced vainglory.
The façade unity displayed during the Soleimani burial had died out, and his portraits were torn up. The November 2019 protests have flared up, less violent and subdued, mainly in Tehran. Nonetheless, the protesters’ peaceful slogans were met with tear-gas, rubber bullets and arbitrary arrests of scores of protesters that called the leader, Rouhani etc. a scoundrel bastard / بیشرف.
New slogans were chanted, in contrast to Yes / Labeik to the Leader:
- Death to the Liar /مرگ بر دروغگو
- All these years of crime, death to Velayat-e Faqih / این همه سال جنایت، مرگ بر این ولایت
- Don’t call me Intrigant, the devilry comes from your tyranny / به من نگو فتنهگر، فتنه تویی ستمگر
- IRGC is the dictator, IRGC is our Daesh /دیکتاتور سپاهی، داعش ما شمایی
- IRGC is the criminal, Leader supports it / سپاه جنایت میکند، رهبر حمایت میکند
Asking for further clarification and holding the regime accountable are sins to repent of. If the protests and vigils persist, live ammunition replaces tear-gas.
Feeling Shame in the Islamic Republic of Iran system lasts within the time frame of uttering a short declaration. Vainglory and self-promotion return before the day is out.
Iran Drowned in the Ayatollahs’ Crocodile Tears
Presently, the benighted little reptiles, the sycophants, the self-righteous experts, have changed their discourses, as if they never happened. The Iranian media of the worst kind that ever existed cannot have enough when it comes to publishing the bullshit that abuses and manipulates the tragedy:
- The accountability and apology of the armed forces is valuable
- IRGC Speaker: We have no other wish but to be dismembered for the safety and security of our people
- Condolences of Ayatollah Safi Golpayegani’s Office to the Families of the Plane Crash (and dozens of other geriatric clerics)
- Ukrainian plane crash victims are considered martyrs
- IRNA – Shiraz – Commemoration ceremony of Ukrainian air crash victims, January 14, 2020, was held in the shrine of Prophet Ahmad bin Musa Shahcheragh (AS) in the presence of people and a group of provincial officials
Were they chagrined in contemplating their own end? Certainly not! The regime is resilient, manipulative and cunning.
Behind the crocodile tears, mourning the victims is not on their minds, they may even be basically happy with things as they are, if things stay as they are.
Out of breath, with few options, and little room for manoeuvre, the regime is comforted in the lack of credible opposition movements and its own formidable force of repression.
Business as Usual
On January 17th, in a rare appearance in leading Tehran’s Friday prayer, Khamenei had this to say: As much as we were saddened by the plane crash, and felt grief in our hearts, the enemies rejoiced. […] Some have tried to adorn the circumstances [of the crash] in such a way that the God’s Glorious day [یوم الله ] in which [Soleimani] was martyred, to be forgotten. […] There were some ambiguities in the plane crash. We thank the commanders for explaining them to the people.
Move along folks! There is nothing to see here! We stick to our routine, no matter what has happened and what the population’s demands are.
The regime’s admitted shame did not last long. Khamenei did not offer apologies in downing the aircraft by his men.
Forty-one years of Bisharaf ruling … and counting.
Presently, the poorest Iranian province, Sistan and Baluchistan, is flooded. The usual government lies, false promises and bragging make the Iranian media headlines. Hassan Rouhani overdid himself by spending a few hours there. In a clownish flamboyant appearance, he declared: It was a pleasure to meet with proud and faithful people who would not bend despite the flood … Rain is both a divine bounty and a great blessing, but sometimes a problem. […] I thank God for giving us the opportunity to be with a group of ministers and officials, in the service of the people of Sistan and Baluchistan. […]
In the future, you will see railway, ship, highway and airport side by side in the province. These will be major developments.
The locals, missing the basic living standards before the floods, mockingly listened with their feet in the mud. In their flooded quarters, they are still waiting for a little food and the basic emergency help, but they have been given a piece of cheap Islamic soap to rub their belly with.
Hassan Rouhani, the phoney president, might be scarified to the IRGC’s interests.
Forty-one years of obstructionism
There will be many twists and turns in the coming days regarding the fallout of the PS752 – UIA downing.
The Iranian authorities are masters of obstructionism. This art is even taught at school: delay a foregone conclusion for the sake of a petty protest.
In the past, the astounding arrogance of the Iranian delegations in the West was met, face up, with complacent amusement, and behind their backs with marked impatience and irritation. How many times did the Iranian delegates sabotage a conference in the West, for a piece of art that displeased them? How many important meetings were postponed because the Iranian flag seemed to be a couple of centimetres shorter (which they were not) than the others?
In the aftermath of the tragic downing of the PS752 – UIA flight, the proceedings are to be met with the same arrogance and obstructionism from the Iranian system and outright treachery by the men involved in it.
For a starter, despite Iran’s technical inability to read the black box of the downed Ukrainian aircraft, it is still unwilling to deliver it to another country with a long-standing expertise. Domestic aircraft crash numbers, civilian and military, are among the highest in the world. Reasons for this include economic sanctions, poor level of quality control, mismanagement, and bypassing international standards on aircraft safety. In-depth investigations of domestic aircraft crashes have never been a matter of concern to the Iranian authorities.
Soon, the Canadian government and the families of dual-national (Iran / Canada) victims will have to face a harsh reality. The dual-nationals, as they travel to Iran, are considered by the Iranian State as Iranians. Iran does not recognise dual nationality. Full stop.
Iran, responsible for the downing, will take its time to grant the rights of the victims, if ever they do. The Iranian authorities are masters in obstruction, paperwork, red-tapism, last minute bogus formalities, and … pointless palaver.
Update, 15 February, 2020:
More than a month after the downing of Ukrainian aircraft, there is no progress in the investigations due to the Iranian regime’s obstructionism and waywardness. Mohammad Javad Zarif declared that Iran was unable to extract the black box information. But, he insisted that the Islamic Republic of Iran was unwilling to hand over the black box to Ukraine or other countries.
A moron’s twisted logic…
The fallacious arguments that all are America’s, Britain’s, France’s, Israel’s … the enemies’ … faults will continue to pour out of the endless deceit well of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif’s tweet on January 11th had an early start in this: Human error at time of crisis caused by US adventurism led to disaster.
This, in plain language, can be rewritten: Pissed off and confused, we did something stupid, but it is the Americans’ fault.
The Iranian Colonialism
The Iranians, rulers and ruled alike, have trapped themselves in hating an enemy, the USA, for decades. Inconsistent as it may be, this has not prevented the Iranians from setting up the largest Iranian diaspora in the USA and the clerics from sending their children there for education and settlement.
This suits the ayatollahs just fine despite the fact that there is no warrant for the internal situation to be sustained. Internationally in a deadlock, internally in ruin, the rulers and the ruled are tied together.
The Iranian influence, gained by the Quds Force led by Soleimani, his advisers and Iranian people’s money in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, has been eroded for many months. If the Iranians reject the Western and American imperialism – the foreign hands meddling in their internal affairs – why should Iraqi and Lebanese people accept the Iranian Colonialism, a foreign hand meddling in their domestic affairs?
The Iranian population is submissive. For decades, they have obeyed and followed their rulers in policies that have ended up in corruption, mismanagement and repeated, worn out lies. For centuries, the only system of governance they have known has been dictatorship. Years of propaganda, denials, apathy and submissiveness have blurred the minds beyond the outlines of sound political judgments.
Then, what is the gift of the Iranian people to the countries they want to influence, and ultimately rule? Would the poisonous gift be the Iranian homespun social and political mess, to add to their own miseries?
The protesters in Lebanon and Iraq reject the Iranian politics and governance, the Iranian Shiite ideology.
Would they contemplate the possibility of a robust consensual alliance for their country above the sectarian cleavages facile for the foreign hands to exploit?
Purpose vs Irresolution
For more than four decades the critics of the theocracy have seen the Iranians as a population taken hostage by their clerics. This is a myth and a delusional view. It presents Iran as the home for the baddies, clerics in power, and a prison for the goodies, a suffering population.
However, the events of the past weeks have shown a contrasted and divided Iranian nation.
The clerics can still galvanise the masses anytime, either by playing on people’s faith or using brutality. A large number of sycophants and benighted little reptiles would back them in any fabricated argument or the specious script they propose. As exasperating and preposterous as it may seem, there are far too many people ready to chant Yes / Labeik to my Leader. Sadly, far too many benighted little reptiles, sycophants, self-righteous experts unashamedly go on poisoning the social fabric.
A large fraction of the population has had enough of the current situation and is eager for a change, but is incapable of having the critical masses that can pull the rope together and pose a real threat to the clerics.
There is no vision on how and with what system of governance to replace them. Those critical of the Velayat-e Faqih are volatile in their beliefs and in the evils they reject today. But, they easily change cap and backpedal in the morrow.
The lies over the tragedy and the cover-up shocked the Iranians. This is paradoxical, almost strange. In forty-one years of Bisharaf ruling, lies, cover-ups, smokescreens, and obstructionism have been the norm. The people have known about them all these years, joked about them, and adapted their lives to them.
Perhaps, this time it was just one lie too many; and joking about it seemed indecent. However, the admission to it by the regime is the sign of its pragmatism and has its purpose.
They well know that the sorrow and the heartfelt pain expressed in vigils and thousands of social media messages will soon die down; it has not the dynamics to transform to an outrage that pushes for collective actions.
To save face, a few disposable people, small fries in the eyes of the regime and even not remotely connected with the Glorious Islamic Air Defence System, may be hanged. It is worth remembering who is in charge of the Judiciary. Ebrahim Raisi, the Deputy Prosecutor General in the blood bath of 1988, is an expert and an experienced hangman.
For now, the regime arrests those who videoed the downing of the aircraft and published it on the net.
In Iran, the bereaved families of the victims are under close surveillance to keep their thoughts to themselves and to participate in any public burial that the regime deems suitable, amid the heavy presence of ruthless IRGC commanders and hypocrite mullahs.
For the Iranian diasporas, and their families anywhere in the world, the downing of the aircraft is the harsh reminder that Islamic Iran is in rubble and their memories have bitterly betrayed them. The regime has never cared for human lives.
The expression of ire from pockets of protesters will not radically change things, unless the dynamics needed to hold people together are established by a leadership and a clear-eyed assessment of the realities. Those who showed their anger by vigils and street protests are volatile. Driven by emotions, they lack purpose, design and unity.
The protests rolling since 2017 are disorganised and wasting precious time and energy.
They die out for a while before rekindling episodically.
Would they one day constitute a critical mass to convince the mourners of Soleimani, or the mobs participating in Friday prayers, to join them in challenging the clerics and deserting the street rallies?
Deserted streets are what scare the clerics most.
Catch the Reptiles
To radically change things for betterment, targetting the leadership only is not effective. The sycophants and benighted little reptiles need to be aimed at. If one wants to be an experienced hunter, one should start to experience catching these reptiles. They should be declared social pariahs and ostracised.
When the students protest, their teachers lick the boot of the oppressor by justifying the violence by which they were met. Deserting their teaching would be a start to barring the routes of these unprincipled teachers and academics.
The Iranians diasporas run away from each other and their rare public meetings end up in strife. We could learn to listen to and hear each other. We could also read more and learn about our country instead of hanging onto stale family memories.
Devising purposeful and heart-warming Vivas instead of bleak Death to Bisharaf is the key for the change.
Forty-one years of naive expectation … and counting.
