The Shah’s Ghost Lingers

Iran’s 1997 presidential elections gave the reform-minded candidate, Mohammad Khatami, nearly 70% of the vote, a landslide win inspiring hope that the reign of conservative clerics would soon end. Khatami’s supporters included moderate politicians, Islamic liberals and men and women wanting a secular government and society rather than a theocracy. In the postelection years, Khatami had rough going against his opponents; yet reformers did well in parliamentary elections four years ago, adding to the hope that democracy was not too far off.

The sensible course for Iran’s hard-liners would have been to listen to the young, the students, the women for whom the 1979 revolution that toppled the shah and installed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was history -- an older generation’s triumph.

The conservatives should have encouraged political debate, loosened restrictions on the press and fostered the rule of law. Instead, they shut newspapers, hamstrung political parties and brutally suppressed street demonstrations.

When that wasn’t enough, they rigged Friday’s elections, refusing to let thousands of people be candidates for parliament. Rather than energize citizens to take part in one of democracy’s fundamental activities, the reactionary clerics provoked reformers into urging a boycott of the poll.

The main culprit was the unelected Guardian Council, whose 12 members can determine not just who can be a candidate but also whether to let legislation passed by parliament take effect. Iran’s supreme leader is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who suggested reviewing some disqualifications but refused to postpone the election even after current members of parliament barred by fiat from seeking reelection staged a three-week sit-in. The depth of anger at the hard-line mullahs was clear this week when about 80 legislators sent a letter to Khamenei accusing him of taking sides in a political battle.

In what is formally an Islamic republic, with Khamenei the successor to Khomeini, that’s political heresy. It is also the truth. Khamenei’s supporters shut two newspapers that printed the letter.

Khatami angered some reformers by not fighting harder against conservatives and not urging a boycott of the elections, but conservatives who muzzle the press and cripple reform legislation have greatly weakened the president.

The men who ran the shah into exile now imitate him with their authoritarian rule. Their obduracy dares Iranians to change the regime through mass protest movements rather than elections. It is a challenge citizens eventually accept when autocrats block their alternatives.