Mousavi and Ahmadinejad; Two Sides of the Same Coin

A demonstration was held today at the Iranian embassy in The Hague, the Netherlands. I arrived at the embassy seeing large crowds as I approached. At first I thought they were the ones demonstrating, but I couldn’t spot any familiar faces in the crowds. It also struck me as odd that these people were standing in line…oh that’s right; these were the people who were going to vote.

Up the street from the embassy, about one hundred meters away from the embassy, the demonstrators had set up camp. Well, set up camp sounds a bit odd. Let’s just be honest and call it what it was; an improvised cage set up by the police wherein they were forced to stay. The demonstrators were far fewer in numbers than the voters. It seems that the “refugees” of the Netherlands have forgotten why they became refugees in the first place, or maybe when you have some extra cash in your pocket those ugly memories are easily forgotten…

What struck me as odd is the incredible lengths the police went to defend the voters while intimidating, harassing, and just generally annoying the protestors. When voters walked down the street from the embassy to get to their cars, mostly modern luxury cars I might add, they exchanged friendly chitter chatter with the policemen and women. When we chanted something or held up a sign which they found “shocking”, couldn’t understand (either because it was written in Farsi or because they were too stupid), or didn’t like, they forced us to stop doing whatever we were doing or else we’d be arrested for “disturbing public order”.

Yes! Trust the police to ensure the safety of public order! They, the ones who arrest innocent people for protesting a dictatorial regime (which their own government ironically also considers to be a dictatorship, officially anyway), are the ones who are ensuring the safety of the public order. No, I think it’s the other way around. I think the people who are protesting and demonstrating for freedom, for justice and for democracy are the ones who are ensuring the safety of public order.

All in all 7 protestors of justice, freedom and democracy were hauled away. In a society which claims to be democratic and claims to uphold freedom of speech, they were the ones who adhered to it, while the police, the institution supposedly maintained to ensure these rights, opposed it.

Then comes the Iranian elections. Who will win or who will lose? That is not really the question here, however much the media may say that it is. No, the question is; does it matter who will win or lose? When we analyze the politics of these two “democratic” candidates, we can see the striking similarities. Mousavi, a former prime-minister, has the blood of 4000 people on his hands. He personally ordered their execution. Ahmadinejad has presided over a government which has arrested, tortured and executed many unionists and workers for standing up against him.

In a nation where such a thing is a crime, any type of election is a farce. The people who still buy into it are deluded, but soon their delusion will be brought to light. If Mousavi wins, they’ll see that he’s no better than Ahmadinejad (they seem to have forgotten this before, at least the previous generation has, perhaps this new generation will do something more radical when they have learned this lesson), if Ahmadinejad wins, the hopes of the delusional group, which number in the millions, will be turned into anger and despair. Anger is one requirement for the emergence of a strong movement against the current system. Despair can lead it astray. But the ones who despair at their disposition will find the courage to fight against it, and change it, for it is the only solution to their life-or-death problem.