We Fell Four Years Behind
Written by admin on February 9, 2009 – 11:03 PM -Hashemi: Leader Requested Tolerating the Administration
In an interview with the Principalist “Jomhouri Eslami” daily, former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani harshly blasted the Ahmadinejad Administration.
The head of the powerful Expediency Council emphasized that, for the past three years, the Council has “tolerated the administration” to comply with the Supreme Leader’s request. This is the second time that Hashemi speaks about the Supreme Leader’s request to tolerate the administration. Hashemi said, “The Supreme Leader asked us to tolerate the administration. The Supreme Leader’s reasoning was that this administration was not involved in devising development plans and is not familiar with the policies; or that this administration has made promises that it would want to implement. We have to give the administration time to demonstrate its capability.”
In another part of his speech dealing with the dissolution of the Management and Planning Organization of Iran (an organization dating back to pre-revolution era, in charge of devising long-term policy) by Ahmadinejad, Hashemi noted, “The Expediency Council and the Majlis do not acknowledge the organization’s dissolution.” Hashemi concluded, “We must be serious about oversight. When the laws of the Majlis are violated lawmakers must protest. Or when the country’s laws are violated the judiciary must respond.”
Implicitly referring to Ahmadinejad’s criticisms against the Fourth Development Plan - calling it a “liberalist and humanist” plan suitable for “crushing into dough” - Hashemi said, “Not only the Fourth Development Plan was not implemented, but it was attacked. They even said it is suitable to be crushed into dough. It was labeled liberalist and humanist. We are talking about laws passed by the administration and approved by the Guardian Council, Expediency Council and the Supreme Leader. But nothing was done to respond to the attacks. What guarantee is there that the Fifth Development Plan would not end up with the same fate? Why have the regime’s top leadership layers remained silence against such attacks?”
Commenting on the administrations performance since 2005, Hashemi said, “Some have questioned all of our previous achievements. They even questioned our managers, and thought they can stage a revolution within a revolution. You know the results.”
The head of the Expediency Council also spoke about the regime’s decision during previous eras to decrease the size of the government, noting that the size of the government has expanded in the past four years. Hashemi added, “Even if changes start taking place now we are four years behind. If the Fifth Development Plan begins we would be five years behind.”
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