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A bolder Mohamed Khatami defends his presidency, indicating his intention to run again. Azadeh Moaveni reviews his historic address to parliament
In a yearbook of Iranian presidents, Mohamed Khatami would be described as "least inclined to give a state of the union address." But in the first big speech evaluating his four year presidency, Khatami did exactly that, thereby inaugurating a new tradition for Iranian leaders and a new approach for himself -- softer and smarter in combat.
The nearly two-hour speech to parliament, the longest of Khatami's presidency, was interrupted by applause only once, and there was no laughter. Coming so late in his term, just three months before the presidential election, it was destined to be a state of the union address. No one knew what to expect. "I came, did little, endured much," sarcastically predicted a Tehran analyst. As the day approached, however, there was frenzied expectation that Khatami would announce his intention to seek re-election.
In the end, he did what those close to him predicted he would, refusing to commit himself either way. But it certainly sounded like a campaign speech, what with the powerful -- and detailed -- defence of his presidency. Much more than a summation, the speech was a new overture to the Iranian people, who had elected him by a landslide, showered him with affection and finally withdrew from him as he silently bore the hard-line backlash against his reforms.
"I admit that I have not revealed all my worries to society," he said apologetically. "But I have always been close to the problems and suffering of the Iranian nation, and I too have suffered from them."
Though he didn't say so directly, Khatami signalled his intention to run again: "No pressure will turn me away from my beliefs, and until the day that I feel a step forward cannot be taken, I'm at the people's service. When I feel that is no longer possible, then I will prefer to serve them, and the revolution, elsewhere."
Not surprisingly, given the nearly two hours he took in Tehran's ageing and poorly-ventilated parliament building, Khatami managed to cover all the issues. For Iranians frustrated with his turn-the-other-cheek approach, he addressed his opponents directly: "Before I was elected, there were those that said if I came to power, Islam and security would be lost. I have no need or desire to name names, as they are known." In response to critics who question his accomplishments, he pointedly corrected them: "What we should be asking is, 'What have we all done?'"
The president displayed his usual themes. He pleaded for moderation, indirectly equating extremist clerics with secularists, the twin dangers to the Islamic system, and warned against overly high expectations, which "clear the way for extremism." Khatami defended freedoms made possible during his tenure by saying, "Just as a supporter cannot say or do whatever he wants, the mouth of any opponent should not be shut."
For a brief moment, it seemed as if he would make an impassioned support for press freedom. "I do not accept the closing of any newspaper," he began, earning the speech's single burst of applause, "or of any publication for insulting the president." The reference was to a conservative weekly recently banned on charges of defaming the president. The example was not accidental; as he himself had been insulted, Khatami could criticise the judiciary more harshly than would have been otherwise possible. "I know of no law that calls for this, but I have no intention or right of interference, which would be both illegal and inappropriate, into the affairs of another institution," Khatami declared.
He listed his accomplishments with vigour. "Today nobody dares call the law a decoration," he said of his commitment to law-abidance. Of his foreign policy, which has delivered Iran from isolation, he proclaimed: "We are now a model in the Islamic world." Most importantly, he cited a new being that came to life during his tenure, the new Iranian citizen, "who is today knowledgeable, inquisitive, curious, values his vote, and participates."
Khatami also went over what remains to be done: developing political parties, enhancing the executive's ability to uphold the constitution and encouraging the practice of open trials before juries.
Ultimately, Khatami's oblique message to his opponents was: you need me. The reform movement, he said, expresses the people's demands. "If we ignore such a need for change, we will steer society towards a path with a regrettable end." If Iran needs its reformers, and the movement has no alternative candidate, then Iran needs Khatami.
The speech was a success. If not full of new ideas, its re-phrasing of old ones was calculated to rekindle his supporters' sympathies. Most importantly, it allowed for intimacy -- listeners had a glimpse of the president's mood; they could sense his priorities and feel, for perhaps the first time, that they were getting the explanation they had long deserved. State television, however, still under the control of his hard-line opponents, declined to broadcast the speech live. The evening news began with another topic, and of the 15 minutes it allotted to his address, a mere 30 seconds featured the president's own voice.
Pro-reform MPs were nonetheless encouraged. "My interpretation is that he will definitely run again," said reformist MP Majid Ansari. "The likelihood is high," agreed MP Jamileh Kadivar. The largest reform bloc in parliament had already nominated Khatami as its candidate and was looking for validation of its choice. "We saw signs today that made us happy," said Mohamed Reza Khatami, the leader of the reformers and the president's younger brother.
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Message to Khatami 8 - 14 March 2001
Reform in a time of disillusionment 17 - 23 February 2000
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