SMS: Crisis in Iran

Wed, 06/24/2009 11:35 AM  |  Reader's Forum

Anti-government movement in Iran: In this photograph posted on the Internet, an Iranian woman carries rocks at an anti-government protest in Tehran, Iran on June 20. (AP)Anti-government movement in Iran: In this photograph posted on the Internet, an Iranian woman carries rocks at an anti-government protest in Tehran, Iran on June 20. (AP)

Your comments on the arrests of political activists by Iranian authorities following violent rallies to protest the result of the presidential election which incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed as a victory.

The people are not mature enough to face the election result. I agree with the Iranian autho-rities, who continue to arrest the activists protesting the result of the election.

There are so many foreigners behind the protests, the Iranian authorities should fight against them. It has happened in our country too, foreigners are always behind such movements.

I think the root of the problem in Iran is foreigners that have connections to countries which disagree with the nuclear programs developed by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Ardiyan
Jakarta

Why do the Indonesian people seem indifferent to the situation in Iran?

I suppose the news is mainly focused on the current elections here and elections like those in Iran that turn bad can be a bit hard to talk about at the moment.

Traveling a lot, I think the media in Indonesia are among the most critical in Asia, which is why I am surprised that the situation in Iran is treated as a secondary event by the country with the biggest Muslim population in the world.

Christophe
Jakarta

No matter how many revolutionary guards, Basij militia and riot police President Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei might unleash on the demonstrators, sooner or later the voice of the people will prevail. The Iranians are ready for a more open, less conservative and less authoritarian leadership.

V.T. Hopkins
Jakarta

It is the right of the Iranian government to prevent the protesters from causing anarchy.

Such violence will invite foreign interests to intervene in Iranian internal affairs. It should be a lesson for the upcoming presidential election in Indonesia. We have to avoid any horizontal conflicts.

Yogi
Tangerang, Banten

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Rahadi Widodo (not verified) — Mon, 06/29/2009 - 5:04pm

Kenichi - You got it all wrong.. I am also a Muslim and do not think of Muslim as a gang as you seem to do. You do not automatically take sides when you dont know the facts (would you jump off a bridge because other Muslims did).
Ahmadinejad has a history of balming others rather than himself. If he admitted his mistakes such as calling the people of Iran worthless , yes he said this and this is why they took to the streets. Once they took to the streets they were shot which has now created more anger and now the supreme leader took sides even before the election count was finished. So I have to say Kenichi speak for yourself and not me a muslim who can think !

Kenichi (not verified) — Sat, 06/27/2009 - 4:39pm

Surprised that many Indonesians are silent about the protest crackdown in Iran? Well, if you are, you don't really understand us...

Most Indonesians are reactive and we don't really care / know what liberal democracy means. We went to streets for a big demonstration when the US attacked Afghanistan or Iraq not because we believe that Afghans and Iraqis, as other human beings, have human rights that need to be protected. Instead, it is simply because they are Muslims and most of us are Muslims.

If they are Muslims, they are our friends and brothers. Hence, they need to be defended against the 'Christian' or 'Kafir' American imperialist forces.

If they are not Muslims, well, sorry we don't care that much...

Hence, when Papua was shook by an earthquake

When Lapindo Mudflow inundated the whole villages in East Java

No one bother to go for demonstration except the victims themselves...

Simply because they are not part of our 'brotherhood'

In Iran's case,since the perpetrator is Ahmadinejad... we re not sure what to do because he's such a charismatic Muslim leader...

So, all the chaos now must have been engineered politically by the evil West...

That's why we support Ahmadinejad...and keep our mouth shut about the suppresion of Westernised Iranians...

Majeed (not verified) — Sat, 06/27/2009 - 11:45am

Has Ahmadinejad done a Mugabe on the Iranian people?
His challengers made a very reasonable request - have a
Complete recount and if the election turn out to be flawed,as very
likely then have a fresh election.

What are the ayatollahs afraid of? That their grip on the country
may suffer if a liberal and non- confrontative would emerge if
the election was conducted fairly ? The brutish call by the demagogic
cleric Khatami to inflict the greatest harm on the protestors could
indicate how irrational these mullahs can be.
The statement that questioning the veracity of the vote counting
was against Allah's command was the most outrageous and
self-serving pronouncement I have ever heard.

Iran and it's leaders have to be serious with themselves. They don't
have to listen to Obama but just their own people.
The US has always had double standards - remember what
happened in Algeria, Lebanon and on the Palestine.

By the way who elected the Ayatollahs? Why should they
exercise so much power? I hope they won't say it's God
who deputise them.

Marc (not verified) — Thu, 06/25/2009 - 10:18pm

Why does the iran has to expell all journalists? Why do they try to control every picture? Why do they first deny the death of Neda and later tell the people, that she was killed by foreign agents? Why do the want a bullet fee from families of shot protesters to give out their bodies (very haram! in my view of islam).

A free state doesn´t have to do this, even when foreign states would meddle inside iran - A free state doesn´t need to act with that injustice. Just a fashist regime needs to do so.

If the US ist putting people to Guantanamo, everyone is crying out (and its right to cry out about it!), but if a islamic state is hurting, beating, torturing people - every other islamic state is silent - no one speaks out! That is bigot! (well, many people in the mideast blame the west as well for this bigot thinking and they´re also right in many cases). But... if we want to change the world for good, then we have to look both at our own mistakes and change them and support people who try to change and don´t redo mistakes of the past.

Of course europe and the US should not blame the Iran to loud, because they did too much wrong in the past (the problems today are also a result of the mistakes of the west in the past), but this doesn´t mean that the protesters in Iran don´t have a right to protest and to speak out. If they would just be guided by the west, why are they ready to die for there ideals? Those accusations dont make any sense. It´s a world of fairy tales with evil US and of more more more more most of all totally evil evil evil zionists (who with much of mystery control everything, perhaps with little flying jewish elfs, with radar and laser-cannons.) wake Up and face reality. Not everything in mideast, indonesia, iran etc. what goes wrong is caused by the west.

Fariborz Shamshiri (not verified) — Wed, 06/24/2009 - 6:02pm

@ Ardiyan

That you wrote “people are not mature enough to face the election result”!

So you need to tell me what do you know about Iranian people and their maturity? What do you know about Iranian society? I bet you know nothing more than what propagandists fed you.

People know who did they vote for and they want their votes to be counted which their right is. They want their voice to be heard. And also FYI, in Iran’s constitution article 15 people can go demonstrate peacefully and yet again, this is fanatic radical Islamic regime is suppressing people and taking this right away by banning demonstrations.

So before jump too quick to judge about something that you have no clue, get your facts straight.

Oh by the way, I didn’t vote for Mousavi or green movement, so I am not taking side here. I am just being too blunt and too frank and yeah, I support their right and I help them their voice to be heard.

Paulmaximus (not verified) — Wed, 06/24/2009 - 1:36pm

The Iranian election had a massive turnout with a clearly democratic result. The election results were in line with those predicted by an independent pre-election survey, both in voter turnout and support for the four candidates.

The losers called foul and instead of pursuing the legal options for disputes went on a series of illegal and violent street rampages desulting in deaths to innocent bystanders. They were given every opportunity to prove the allegations of a rigged election by the government but failed to come up with any credible evidence to support their case.

Was there a western conspiracy to destroy the election? The evidence for this includes an offical $400 million covert operation by the CIA to destabilize Iran, and a whole stream of false reports by the BBS and CNN. Typical of the latter was to crop a photo of a major rallo in support of the Government and circulate it as a rally to support the opposition leader Mousavi.

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