November 19, 1999
By Dariush Sajjadi
When the right-wing Iranian Majlis (Parliament) in spring impeached Ataullah Mohajerani, culture minister in President Khatami's reformist cabinet, on the charge of giving excessive freedom to the press, it was bent on removing him with a no-confidence vote. But thanks to his special strategy and tact, Mohajerani won another vote of confidence from the conservative-dominated legislative body.
The issue was at first viewed as a successful step forward for President Khatami's political development strategy and a further boost to Mohajerani's tolerance toward the Iranian press that sought freedom. The impeachment motion, however, failed to produce the desired results for the conservatives, creating disgrace and a psychological complex and grudge for them.
During his impeachment hearing, Mohajerani was unable - or unwilling – to convince the conservatives. He used his enchanting and eloquent words and power of speech to get a vote of confidence even without convincing the legislators who opposed him. He was well aware that his opponents could not be convinced, as they only wanted to remove him from power by recourse to the impeachment motion.
Mohajerani, therefore, did not waste his energy and time to convince the Parliament. He took the upper-hand by presenting a brilliant speech and boasting of his high potentials and prestige to make his opponents passive and defeated.
Eleven months before that day, then Interior Minister Abdullah Nouri was impeached on similar charges as those leveled against Mohajerani. Nouri lost his Cabinet seat, since he endeavored to convince the conservatives without being aware of their intentions and without grasping their behavioral psychology.
Mohajerani, however, got his lessons from Nouri's impeachment and did not repeat the same mistakes. Also Nouri's impeachment somewhat pacified the conservatives who had developed a grudge over their defeat in the 1997 presidential election.
For this reason, when Nouri's successor Abdul-Vahed Musavi Lari followed the same policies and plans in the Interior Ministry, he faced no objection from the right wingers who thought the case was closed after Nouri was deposed. Lari, therefore, was able to take up the same policies with ample elbow-room and no fear of impeachment.
Following their defeat in the presidential election, the conservatives resorted to impeachment as a means to remove certain influential pro-Khatami personalities to rid themselves of their own grudges and complexes.
This is an instance of socio-political psychosis. To compensate for their defeat and regain their exhausted energy, the conservatives need to create a purposeful challenge - even if an artificial one - to pacify themselves and justify their failure and defeat.
Success in creating such a challenge leads the conservatives toward political sadism, while failure sparks political masochism.
Some manifestations of the conservatives' political sadism since President Khatami took office include the trial and conviction of Tehran's successful mayor Ghulam Hossein Karbaschi, the ballyhoo in Qom following Ayatollah Montazeri's critical speech in 1997, and the right-wing laments over the desecration of Islam after a play was published in Mowj, a small circulation student publication.
After their 1997 election defeat, the conservatives also insistently lament the fading away of the Islamic Revolution's values and insincerely cry out that Islam is being desecrated and destroyed. This is the conservatives' masochistic approach to regain their lost mental and spiritual calm and peace.
In the wake of their unexpected defeat on May 23, 1997, the conservatives have grappled with a political stress aggravated by the psychological consequences of their failure to win the peoples' votes. They also have been subjected to ironical references and grieve and envy the popularity of their left-wing rivals who won the presidential election.
As a defense mechanism against their victorious opponents, the right wingers inevitably show neurotic reactions.
Following their unsuccessful attempt to impeach Mohajerani, the conservatives never regained their initial composure and calm and eventually became indifferent toward Mohajerani.
In fact, the conservatives in Parliament, the press, and political circles have adopted "political Oblomovitism" vis-a-vis the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and Mohajerani himself.
Mohajerani's tactful approach toward the Parliament saved just him from the crisis. From the day when the Parliament lost its incentive to challenge Mohajerani, the conservative-led Judiciary took over to question Khatami's political and cultural development. This time no need was felt to counter the Minister of Guidance, since the conservatives directly addressed, rebuked, and even closed down the reformist newspapers.
After Mohajerani gained a vote of confidence, the Judiciary, ironically, stepped in to increasingly reprimand the reformist papers through closure of dailies such as Salaam and Neshat and sensational trial of Khordad Managing Director Abdullah Nouri and Asre Azadegan Editor Mashallah Shamsulvaezeen.
All the while these developments were going on, the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, which is the backbone of the press in Iran, remained disturbingly silent.
Iran's reformist press are paying the price of the battle-without-a-victor between the Ministry of Culture and the conservatives during the impeachment of Mohajerani in spring.
Apparently Mohajerani has no intention to expose himself to another risk by challenging the conservative Parliament and is waiting for this Parliament's term to end and see the political shape of the sixth Parliament which will be decided by the peoples' votes in February.
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