by Jalal Yaghoubi
Last week, the ministry of interior published the bill on the establishment and activities of parties in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Prior to this, the minister of interior Rahmani Fazli had announced during a meeting with representatives of various political parties and groups that a draft had been in the works. “We shall reexamine the political party law and present our final bill to the full cabinet,” he had said.
The gathering was held on January 4th and representatives from 62 parties and political groups participated. The two key reformist groupings, the Hezbe Mosharekat Iran Islami (Islamic Iran Participation Party) and the Sazemane Mojahedin Enghelab Islami (the Organization of the Islamic Revolution Mujahedin) had not been invited to participate. In its report on the gathering, hardline Kayhan newspaper had a story under the headline, “The ministry of interior did not allow the seditionists to come to the gathering” and wrote, “The seditionist leaders, under the two seditionist parties of ‘Participation’ and ‘Organization of the Mujahedin of the Revolution’ tried hard to attend the conference but failed in view of them having been dissolved and announced illegal.” Seditionists is a label Iran’s conservatists use for those who openly protested the results of the 2009 presidential elections that re-instated Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president. Kayhan added that the ministry refrained from inviting former reformist president Mohammad Khatami and Mousavi Khoeniha as leaders of Majmae Rohaniyun (pro-reform) clerical organization. It instead invited Majid Ansari as the representative of the Majmae Rohaniyoon (a conservative clerical grouping). Ansari did not attend.
Etemad Melli party, led by Mehdi Karoubi currently under house arrest for his role in the 2009 post-election protests, was invited. Rasool Montakhabnia confirmed the invitation and in response to the view that the party had been shut by officials said, “We would not have been invited if we had been shut.”
On the same day, Mohammad Reza Khatami told a reporter who said that the Participation Party was illegal, “Just because a party does not have a licence from Constitution Article 10 committee of the Majlis does not make it illegal, just as Jame Modaresin Hoze Elmie Qom (The Qom Seminary Teachers Association) and Jame Rohaniyate Mobarez also do not have licenses.” He had earlier also said that while he may disagree with the views of the Steadfast Front but was not believe that a party needs a government licence to be active.
A few days after the gathering of the parties and political groups at the ministry of interior, the minister stressed that, “The ministry is not opposed to the activities of political groups and for whatever reason that the House of Parties (Khaneh Ahzab) has been shut in the last eight years, the ministry was not responsible for this.”
He also said that people did not trust parties because of their actions before and after the revolution when they intended to overthrown the regime or hurt its religious leader.
But he also said that groupings and parties that work seasonally should be stopped. “We must group parties into active, inactive and half active categories and cancel the licenses of parties that are not active and create an engineering system over parties, which is the responsibility of the House of Parties.” It was during this gathering that Fazli announced the existence of a new bill on parties and political groups.
In the course of the gathering, some parties asked for government financial assistance, something that the minister rejected. Mohammad-Reza Bahonar, the head of the Jame Islami Mohandesin (the Islamic Society of Engineers) and the head of the Peyrovane Khate Imam va Rahbari (Followers of the Line of Imam and the Leader) announced, “I believe something must be done regarding the financial problems of parties so that their use of state funds is based on rules.”
Rasool Montakhabania, the number two man at the National Trust party said, “The ministry of interior must take action to finalize the status of some parties. The record of a party that has over two million membership applicants has been damaged.” His words were objected by some conservatists. Kayhan for example tried to belittle the number of supporters that it said from whom Karoubi had received votes.
While tens of members of the pro-reform parties have been in prison since 2009 and 2010, some conservative personalities and groups such as Mohammad Nabi Habibi, the secretary general of the Islamic Coalition Party attacked pro-reform parties and their representatives at the gathering. He also criticized Rouhani’s administration for appointing some of the pro-reform personalities to senior positions of his government.
Reform parties have come under unusual media attack by conservatives in recent weeks and some observers have attributed these to the remarks that Mohammad Reza Bahonar had made earlier. Speaking at a provincial gathering of the Islamic Coalition Party he had said, “There is the danger that the direction of the next Majlis may change. The ice of the reformers is gradually melting since the arrival of the new administration came to office. Some seditionists want to launch a new sedition; so we must never forget the seditions of 2009 and 2010.”
Fear of what may happen in the next Majlis is said to be the greatest concern that conservatists currently have. While on a trip to the northern province of Gilan, ayatollah Ahmad Janati said on January 2, “Some are planning for the next Experts Assembly and the next Majlis. We must be alert so that they do not succeed in their dirty goals. The Guardians Council should do its duty authoritatively within the law.”
These remarks brought forth a sharp response from Mostafa Tajzadeh, a former pro-reform deputy minister of interior who wrote a letter from prison to the secretary general of the Guardians Council (ayatollah Janati). In the letter he said that through his remarks Janati had revealed that he and others were concerned about the future Majlis and had said that principlists needed to unite while the independent and pro-reform candidates had to be disqualified from running. This showed the reign of the Guards and the dictatorship, Tajzadeh wrote.
http://www.roozonline.com/english/news3/newsitem/archive/2014/january/15...
