Mohammad Khatami Was the Fifth President of Iran - Essay Example

?Khatami Presidency of Iran from 1997-2005 Mohammad Khatami is an Iranian scholar, theologian, and a politician. Above all, he was the fifth president of Iran. He became the president of Iran for the first time in 1997 (Moin 194). He has won the presidential election again in 2001 and continued in the president’s office until 2005. Before becoming the President of Iran, he served as Minister of culture in Iran in the 1980s and 90s. Unlike former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Khatami kept a liberal attitude in all political, economic and cultural matters. He never tried to challenge United States unnecessarily. Practical wisdom can be observed in every activities of Mohammad Khatami as Iranian President. He was responsible for laying foundations for economic reforms and liberalizations in Iran. While Ahmadinejad tried to make Iran as a military power, Khatami was keen in the economic development of Iran. He has contested two elections and won both. In fact, he has secured more than 70% of the total votes poled in his first election. During his president ship, Khatami tried to respect all types of human rights such as freedom of expression and tolerance to other religions. Moreover, he worked hard to strengthen Iran’s diplomatic relations with other states including United States, Asia and European Union. He did everything possible to enhance the free market concept and also for the enhancement of foreign direct investments in Iran. In short, Khatami’s president ship helped Iran immensely in political, economic and cultural circles. This paper critically analyses Khatami’s political life in general and his economic reformation policies in particular. How Khatami came to power? Iran was a constitutional monarchy (Afkhami 171), until the 1979 revolution. Until 1979, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was in power. Even though Shah allowed parliamentary democracy in Iran, he was not ready to leave the legal and executive powers. Even though Shah initially enjoyed a ceremonial position, he had slowly increased his executive power and started to implement autocracy in Iran. But, Iranian people under the Supreme Leadership of Ruhollah Khomeini captured power in 1979. Since then, parliamentary democracy was implemented in Iran. Even though democracy was established in Iran in 1979, religious leaders started to control Iranian politics since 1979. They were keen in promoting their factional interests than trying to make room for all groups and perspectives (Mirsepassi 99). As a result of that Iranian people started to lose faith in the abilities of religious leaders. They were keen in avoiding religious fundamentalism from politics. In Mohammad Khatami, Iranian people started to see a leader they were looking for. Until the 1997 parliament elections, Khatami assumed many critical ministerial posts in Iran. While working as a minister of Iran, Khatami revealed his liberal attitudes many times. It should be noted that Khatami has resigned in 1997 from the post of Minister of Islamic guidance in support for freedom of press and freedom of art and culture (Mirsepassi 120). Even though majority of the Iranian politicians worked for the betterment of the community which they belong, Khatami was different. He worked hard to protect the interests of all Iranians rather than the community he represents. Khatami’s base of support cut across regional and class lines with its core consisting of the modern middle class, college students, women and urban workers. His campaign was based in theory on the rule of law, democracy and the inclusion of all Iranian in the political decision making process (Mirsepassi 113). In Mohammad Khatami, Iranian people found a true democratic leader. Khatami began as a Khomeinist (Keddie 267). However, later he shaped his own visions about the future of Iran. He advocated greater freedom to women, Sunnis and other minorities and emphasized the importance of civil society during his tenure as the president of Iran. His call for greater freedom, civil rights, rule of law and strengthening of civil society increased and foreign policies got more acceptances among women, Sunnis, students, Middle class and minorities (Keddie 270). All these factors helped Khatami very much and he won the 1997 elections with a 70% majority. Success and failures of Khatami’s economic reformation policies Khatami’s first term as president of Iran has yielded mixed results. During his first term in the president’s office, he gave more importance for solving political problems rather than economic problems. He was successful in improving Iran’s relations with West and with Arab countries, particularly those in the Gulf who had conflicts with Iran. However, he failed to solve economic problems in Iran during this period (Keddie 271). It should be noted that Iran has plenty of conflicts with neighbouring countries such as Iraq, Egypt, UAE etc. Khatami gave preference to settle Iran’s disputes with neighbouring countries especially with the countries in the Arabian Gulf. He was aware of the importance of cooperation among Arab countries to resist the challenges facing by the Arab countries from Western countries and Israel. Abroad, Rafsanjani, the predecessor of Khatami, improved relations with Europe and the Arab world, but faced an increasingly hostile United States between 1992 and1997 (Keddie 267). Khatami was not reluctant in working for the strengthening Iran’s relations with America even though the Muslim fundamental groups in Iran were against this idea. In 1999 January, he has given an interview to CNN in which he called for a “dialogue of civilizations” (Keddie 272). This interview is widely regarded as a friendly gesture towards United States. Following the 9/11 terrorist attack on America in 2001, the Iranian leadership or Khatami extended Iran’s support to America for the war on terror in Afghanistan. Moreover, Khatami supported America’s opinion that Iraq should obey UN resolutions (Panah 138). In short, Khatami did everything possible to strengthen Iran’s relationship with America. Moreover, he tried to improve Iran’s relationship with the Europe also. Khatami was the first Iranian president who visited several foreign countries such as Italy, France and other European countries. In September 1999, he affirmed that Iran would no longer target Salman Rushdie despite of the protests from the fundamental groups. Britain accepted this offer and re-established diplomatic relations with Iran (Keddie 272). It should be noted that Salman Rushdie was a controversial figure in Iran because of his controversial remarks against Muslim religion in his book “The Satanic Verses”. Iran’s supreme religious leader had issued a fatwa to kill Rushdie. Since Salman Rushdie was a British citizen, Britain had cut their diplomatic relation with Iran because of this fatwa. But, Khatami’s decision to forgive Rushdie helped Iran to re-establish diplomatic relations with Britain. The relationship between Turkey and Iran was a strained one until the Khatami era. Turkey believed that Iran was trying to cause political problems in Turkey by providing shelters to the separatist terrorist groups. They argued that Iran was trying to export the revolution to Turkey’s soil. Moreover, Turkish people suspected Iran’s hand in all suspected murders of prominent people of Turkey. For example, majority of the Turkish people believed that the assassination of Ugur Mumcu (a Turkish investigative journalist) was done by Iran. However, Mumcu’s solicitor brother revealed later that US took decision to murder Mumcu in 1992 and Iran has nothing to do with this assassination (Elik 63). In short, America was catching fish in the muddy water in between Turkey and Iran. It should be noted that Turkey is a secular democratic country even though more than 99% of the population are Muslims. Majority of the former Iranian presidents and political leaders tried to cause problems in Turkey because of Turkey’s strict adherence to secularism and democracy. Turkey is currently trying to become a permanent member in European Union. Turkey’s efforts to join a Christian dominated EU were unacceptable to the former Iranian politicians. Being a Eurasian and Muslim dominated country, Turkey should join Arab Union instead of EU, according to the beliefs in Iran. Therefore, Iran’s former leaders tried to weaken Turkey’s relations with European countries as much as possible. However, Khatami has adopted a different foreign policy towards Turkey. He has adopted a moderate and pragmatist policy towards Turkey to strengthen Iran’s relations with Turkey (Elik 61). Khatami was able to convince Turkey that Iran does not want to create problems in Turkey. In short, Khatami’s initial effort was to strengthen Iran’s political relations with neighbouring countries. Because of the over importance given for the settlement of political problems, Khatami was unable to give enough attention to Iran’s economic problems during his first tenure in president’s office. Over dependence of oil income, growing unemployment rates, structural and legal obstacles which prevent economic growth were the major economic problems Khatami failed to address during this period. Even though Khatami was successful in improving Iran’s relations with West, America, UAE, Egypt and Saudi Arabia during his initial tenure in the President’s office, he failed to improve Iran’s relations with Iraq, Turkey and Afghanistan during this period (Keddie 271). During his second tenure in the office, Khatami tried to solve Iran’s economic problems more than political problems. He has introduced a five year plan in 2000 to boost the economic growth (Keddie 273). He tried to reduce Iran’s increased reliance on oil revenue and explored other possibilities which would enhance Iran’s economic growth. He was aware of the fact that oil resources are exhausting rapidly and Iran is no more in a position to banks on oil resources for economic growth. Under Khatami’s leadership Iran did many things to boost the foreign direct investments. Khatami realised that in a heavily globalized world, strengthening of trade relations with the west is important for boosting the economic progress in Iran. So, he did everything possible to boost Iran’s economic ties with West even though the fundamentalists in Iran were against this policy. During the first year and half of Khatami’s president ship, plenty of writers and activists were murdered, disappeared or died under suspicious circumstances and many others were attacked or arrested (Keddie 273). Even though the authorities tried to put the blame of this unfortunate incidents upon the Muslim fundamentalists groups, later it was clear that some rogue elements in the Khatami ministry were responsible for these incidents. These incidents caused immense harm to the reformist or liberal image of Khatami. Nobody anticipated such unfortunate incidents in Iran under the leadership of Khatami. Many people believed that these incidents were happened with the knowledge and support from Khatami. In fact, some rogue elements in Khatami administration were tried to exploit the weakness of Khatami. It should be noted that Khatami had given ample freedom to his associates and they misused such freedom for silencing the enemies. These incidents clearly indicated that Khatami had little control on his cabinet and Bureaucracy. In other words, Khatami travelled in one direction while the cabinet and bureaucracy travelled in the opposite direction. Khatami never tried to dictate ministers or bureaucracy. He gave enough freedom to all these entities which ultimately resulted in causing damage to the image of Khatami. Khatami adopted a conciliatory policy towards Iran’s and named a widely respected Kurdish academic as one of his advisors on Sunni affairs(Amanat and Vejdani 194). At the same time, he failed to convince the Kurds that he is not against them. “Many Kurds started to tell that in Iraq a Kurd can become the president whereas in Iran Kurds cannot even become a provincial governor” (Amanat and Vejdani 194). In other words, Kurds never trusted Khatami and they watched all the moves of Khatami suspiciously. The failure to capture trust from Kurds, has caused immense damage to Khatami’s liberal image. “Khatami has been resisting well defined organizational representation. He views himself much like earlier nationalist leader Mossadegh, as beyond being party politics. But this position is fraught with danger and eventually weakens the process of institutionalization of democracy in Iran”(Mirsepassi 100). It should be noted that judiciary, parliament and executive are the three major pillars of democracy. These three pillars should co-operate each other to strengthen democracy in a country. Khatami failed to increase the co-operation among these pillars of democracy. To conclude, Khatami can be rightly labelled as a true democratic leader in Iran. He has immense faith in most of the principles of democracy. He has respect towards other religions and political parties and was ready to work for all Iranians rather than for a particular community. During his initial tenure in president’s office, Khatami tried to solve Iran’s political problems with West, America and countries in the Arabian Gulf. He has started some negotiations even with America. At the same time, he failed to implement policies suitable for economic growth during his initial period as president of Iran. At the same time, Khatami did try to solve Iran’s economic problems during his second tenure in the president’s office. He had implemented a five year plan as a measure to improve economic progress in Iran. Moreover, he did many things to attract foreign direct investments in Iran during his second term as president of Iran. Even though Khatami was a true secular leader, he failed to capture the trust of Kurds. In fact, many of his policies were misrepresented among Kurds and they did believe that Khatami working for the interests of Sunnis alone. Khatami did many things to solve Iran’s disputes with Turkey and UAE. However, people in these countries were not ready to trust Khatami. He did many things to improve the human rights in Iran. He worked for the wellbeing of women community and argued that Iranian women should get more freedom and liberties. His policies were acceptable among the student and teenage community also. In short, Khatami was the most liberal president in the history of Iran in recent times. Works Cited Amanat, Abbas and Vejdani, Farzin. “Iran Facing Others. Identity Boundaries in a Historic Perspective”. Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (February 28, 2012). Print Afkhami, Gholam Reza. “The Life and Times of the Shah”. Publisher: University of California Press (16 December 2008). Print Elik, Suleyman. “Iran- Turkey Relations, 1979-2011”. Routledge – 2011. Print Keddie, Nikki R. “Modern Iran, Roots and Results of Revolution”. Publisher: Yale University Press; Updated edition (August 1, 2006). Print Mirsepassi, Ali. “Democracy in Modern Iran. Islam, Culture, and Political Change”. Publisher: NYU Press (May 24, 2010). Print Moin, Baqer. “Khomeini, Life of Ayatollah”. Publisher: I.B.Tauris; Reprint edition (30 January 2009). Print Panah, Maryam. “The Islamic Republic and the World”. Publisher: Pluto Press (September 20, 2007). Print Read More