Monday, January 11, 2010


On the 10 commandments of the 5 musketeers!

The more I read the 10 commandments issued by the gang of 5 (Ganji et al), the less it made sense to me. Even if there was a semblance of meaning to be extracted from this 10 point declaration - which only Robin Wright was apparently able to decipher - the follow up interview by a member of the band (Mohajerani) sent me back to square one. Never mind what this declaration is all about. Let’s consider an easier question. Who is the target audience of this declaration? Obviously not me, and most likely not you my dear reader. And absolutely not the Iranian diaspora. Oh, Mohajerani said it in his interview: it’s talking to all the good God fearing people of Iran who according to Mohajerani make up the majority of the people. So let me see if I get it now. People have been risking their lives, tortured, raped, killed because they want Khamenei to answer to the Assembly of Experts. Hmm, are we talking about the same Assembly of Experts whose speaker is Rafsanjani, whose members are tied via a circular process back to Khamanei himself, and which by the way reinstated Khamenei in his position just a few months ago? Of course! How ignorant of me! Now that the gang of 5 has spoken, the Iranian people who have been incapable of expressing their demands by now, have suddenly found a new meaning and purpose in life. Yes! It’s all clear. It all makes sense now! Never mind who this declaration is talking to. Let’s consider another question. What happened to the Ganji of the Republican Manifest? What happened to the person whose courage and intellect broke new grounds? What happened to the person who set a new discourse in the fight against religious tyranny? What happened to the person who you could not stop admiring even if you didn’t agree with a word of what he said? I want that Ganji back. We need that Ganji more than any other time.