Mohammed Nuruzzaman: Protests in Iran - A Different View

Dr. Mohammed Nuruzzaman writes about the Protests in Iran — A Different View.

Clearly, the protests had no chance to succeed, primarily because they were manifestations of intra-elite conflicts, not largescale mass uprisings against the government supported by powerful internal groups. If history is of any witness, political movements in Iran succeed only when they build on mass anger against foreign powers and undue foreign interference in Iranian affairs. The best examples are the 1891 anti-British tobacco movement, the anti-American and anti-British nationalist movements of the late 1940s and early 1950s concerning Iran’s oil resources, and the monumental anti-American and pro-Islamic movements leading to the 1979 revolution. The latest protests had no foreign element involved; it was directed against the government but hardly was there any blueprint to dislodge the government.

Accept it or not, the Iranian political and economic systems, despite their shortcomings, are much more representative than many countries in the Middle East. That explains why the Arab Spring did not touch down on Iran, while the neighboring undemocratic countries had to use force to contain mass protests or bribe their peoples to stay calm. In Iran, there has been an elected parliament without disruptions since 1979, the president is regularly and periodically elected by the people, and the members of the Assembly of Experts, a body responsible for selecting the Supreme Leader and overseeing his activities, are also directly elected by the Iranian voters. So, channels of vetting angers and protests are there and the government also recognizes the constitutionally guaranteed rights of the Iranians to protest peacefully.

It is the democratic practices that undercut the potential of massive popular movements to oust elected governments in Iran — conservative or reformist. Needless to say, it is useless to dream of an overthrow of the Islamic establishment in Iran someday in the future. Both the conservatives and the reformists equally believe in the fundamental ideals and objectives of the 1979 revolution — maintaining and strengthening Iran’s independent voice in a US-dominated world. And the Iranians are very unlikely to be fooled by President Trump and his cohorts.

Emphasis Mine

In Marxist-Leninist terms, there was no revolutionary party to drive and sustain the protests. And the people had not yet given up on trying to achieve their goals through democratic reforms. The democratic process in Iran has not been exhausted.