The Persian Abyss: Ahmadinejad's empire of beggars

Fraud... that is what is now realized by most observers, both within and outside of Iran, as being the cause of the outcome of the Islamic Republic's 10th presidential elections, held on the 22nd of Khordad, 1388 A.P. (June 12, 2009). Yet one must be astute about such things and understand that vote rigging is not merely a process to obtain or retain political power, but is usually buttressed by powerful hidden forces that guide the actions of those engaging in such activities.

So we must now ask, who was the real winner of this election? Was it the Islamic Republic system as a whole? Was it a certain faction within the contours of the power struggle that is now open for all to see amongst Iran's elite? Was it only the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that walked away the true victor....or, was it the brilliant maneuvering of one Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the Islamic Republic's convoluted labyrinth that ensured he remain at the seat of government?

In reality, it was none of the above.

To explain further, come with me on a virtual tour of a recent, typical Ahmadinejad rally in any corner of Iran. When you approach the throng, entering the forest of black-laden Iranian women, some with babies in their arms or young children by their side, always accompanied by their meekly dressed husbands with anxious eyes, you will discover the real winner of this past week's elections.

Walk further into the crowd, and if you can ignore the cacophony of crying children, repetitious Shi'a hymns that are blaring on variously dispersed speakers, or the sounds of plastic utensils scraping the paper plates that is currently being used to consume a free lunch provided by the Iranian government, you get a sense that you have not entered a political rally, but are more likely in the midst of the barracks of the Islamic Republic's army of the dispossessed.

Photo: AP

A 360? purview of your surroundings will show you diverse peoples from all regions of Iran, with different spiritual proclivities and local customs. Yet, if you look closely, you will ascertain the one unifying factor that has brought them to the city square to hear their president’s musings under a merciless hot Iranian sun – that is.... unvarnished and naked poverty.

Much has been written about the Iranian president's penchant to use messianic rhetoric or outlandish statements about the current world order. Yet taking ill-translated and most often, meaningless euphemisms, and from them, constructing a faux Iranian Genghis Khan bent on conquest is both erroneous and self-defeating. Beneath the veneer of Ahmadinejad's jingoism lies a fervent, powerful, and dedicated rage against an entrenched Iranian establishment that either has been oblivious to the plight of the poor within the country or helpless to alleviate their circumstances. The West shutters when they hear words such as "martyr," "justice," and "rights," yet though they may be interpreted as having spiritual connotations, they come directly from the lexicon of the segment of Iranian and Middle Eastern society that have been purposely and blindly excommunicated from the golden palaces that the region's elites have built for themselves. While the Iranian president did nothing to create this army, he has cunningly co-opted them and their conferrers alike throughout the region, tapping into the very large pool of grievances that he knows all too well - for he comes from amongst them.

Look within the crowd. Observe their humble apparel, the men clad with the banality of gray garb while no accouterments are to be found upon their women. Notice their method of transportation" 25-year old rusted vehicles or the least expensive motorcycle produced in Iran, which amazingly has the capacity to fit a family of four. Look within the faces of their children, and the second hand Chinese dolls they've tucked underneath their bosom - all of whom are conspicuous yet simultaneously invisible. The same saga unfolds in every regional country, specifically Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Persian Gulf sheikdoms.

Traditionally, it was these very people that did the heavy lifting for the elite that the revolution gave birth to, quietly blending into the background of Islamic Iran. Yet as time progressed, either by their ignorance or the selfishness of others, they were gradually cast by the wayside. These are the people who were given no stake in Rafsanjani's reconstruction efforts after the war with Iraq, when many of Iran's neo-bourgeoisie made literally billions off the new foreign direct investment flooding the nation from Europe and Asia. These are the people who view Khatami's Dialogue of Civilizations as either a bad joke or a self-serving circus.

Photo: AP

It is this reality that average, well-to do Iranians, living in North Teheran, on the Caspian Coast, or plush ranches on the outskirts of Tabriz, Shiraz, or Isfahan have no tangible, organic connection to. It is this force that has shaken the very pillars the System.

What Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has essentially done is unleash the chained dogs of class warfare within not only Iranian society, but also in many of the so-called 2nd world nations that have yet to be fully developed. In this context, not only do economically disenfranchised Iranians, but also the forgotten of the Arab world, the residents of African shantytowns, and their Latin American counterparts find a symbolic figure that they feel, at least in part, represents them. A simple review of those within the international community who sent felicitations to the Iranian leader is telling enough.

So while the Iranian president achieved, at least for now, a second term by chicanery, it is this segment of Iranian society that will defend, both by words and blunt force, their champion's tactics.

For now, Ayatollah Khamenei's gambit of supporting Ahmadinejad, despite the Iranian's president's myriad of lies and deceit, has proved effective, but it may ultimately be Faustian. Although the Supreme Leader was raised in humble settings, his idiosyncrasies mirror the very same targets of Ahmadinejad's economic policies and rhetoric - the status quo establishment whom he labels as being fundamentally corrupt.

While approving of Ahmadinejad in the public domain, the Supreme Leader, being a music connoisseur, fluent in many languages, having virtually memorized tomes of poetry and philosophy, in addition to having opulent influential offspring who control their share of the Iranian economic pie, has really no natural claim to empathy for the Iranian president’s positions. Therefore, while he consistently warns of an Eastern European type "velvet revolution," he may be risking a more ominous Islamic style Che Guevara take-over of the system he helped create.

From an international standpoint, those, like myself, who have long argued that sanctions and threats of war only help consolidate the power of target regimes, are now being vindicated, as the US president's willingness to dramatically change the course of Iranian-American relations are becoming a major contributing factor in the rift in the Islamic Republic establishment - for what is taking place in Iran is not a perfunctory fight between "reformers" and "conservatives," but about the future direction of the Islamic Republic in how it operates internally and how it behaves externally.

This very ancient nation, that has been invaded time again this last hundred years, has no longer has any real existential threat to blame for the lack of political reform. The US, having created for itself catastrophic strategic calculations in the region, is faced with the ironic reality of having its interests align with that of the Islamic Republic of Iran. And while Iran's elections were a farce, the American taxpayer subsidized the very same experiment 4 years ago in Egypt, therefore any US criticism flies in the face of reason and decency.

If left alone the internal contradictions of Iran will be reconciled by its own people.

And while those who favor Ahmadinejad are currently boisterous about a new found political power which they have never had, if the time comes that the average Iranian businessman feels that the erosion of purchasing power amongst the body politic, caused by populist revisionism, is becoming inimical to the bazaar's or the establishment's interest, then the Iranian president will ultimately be returned to the mob whence he came from.