I’ll be doing a little segment every week entitled “Asshole of the Week.” And this week’s winner: George Galloway, the fiery and controversial member of the British Parliament.
Since day 1 in the aftermath of the farce Presidential Elections in Iran, George Galloway has stubbornly defended Ahmadinejad’s win and once again blamed the West and the Western media for having the wrong grasp on reality, urging Western governments to recognize Ahmadinejad as the winner of the election:
western media largely did the usual thing – not straying far from their five-star hotels, talking to those who would happily talk to them and especially if they spoke English – it’s clear they mistook the plusher parts of the capital for the country at large. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad commands the loyalty of the poor, the working class and the rural voters whose development he has championed.
He lives like them, looks like them – he’s never worn a suit since becoming president – and there’s more of them than the English speaking more liberal elites now on the streets demonstrating.
It will soon fizzle out.
Well I got some news for Mr. Galloway. More than a month after he wrote this article, the protests have still not “[fizzled] out.” It’s hard to make predictions about the future, never mind about one that involves a situation as fluid and complex as this one, but if the Iranian authorities increase their crackdown on the protesters and turn down the green movement’s simple and most innocent request of having their votes fairly counted, the protests will only increase. The harder you come down on them, the thicker their skin will get. It’s like my friend from Iran told me on the phone the other day: “no one cares anymore if they’re caught drinking at a party or if they are not dressed appropriately.” Problem is, the Iranian authorities are very cunning. True, they’ve been very tough with the protesters, but so far they’ve avoided the outright use of guns and bullets. There has been a few dozen unfortunate deaths, but the regime has learned from 1978-79 and knows that if the # of deaths increase, it’ll only bring them closer to their demise as people gather for the dead’s burial, funeral, then the week memorial and finally, the 40th-day memorial. And as the 40s start to add up, instability starts to become the norm of the day.
But enough of history. Let’s focus on the douche that forced me to write this piece. Before we talk about anything else, let’s get this out of the way: Galloway’s article is titled “You can count on the fact election was fair,” arguing that “there are absolutely no grounds for the cats’ chorus of criticism and allegations now emanating from some quarters after the cookie crumbled the wrong way.” There has been numerous articles and analyses written on the elections results. The fact that none of the candidates even won the votes in their home towns and provinces, that the election results were announced within hours after the polls were close and around 5-10 times faster than the previous election (despite the higher turnout), the incredible consistency in the rate of votes won by the candidates as the votes were being counted (almost unchanged between Mousavi and Ahmadinejad after the first 5% were counted), the closure of Mousavi’s campaign headquarters as soon as the polls had closed, disabling text messages throughout the country, and many more observations strongly question the results of the election and the legitimacy of the government, and only a dimwitted ideologue would have the nerves to make objections against accusations of fraud and illegitimacy.
In one respect Galloway is right though. The protests have not been as widespread as most of us would hope for. Don’t get me wrong, they’ve been huge and people have came out in millions, Perhaps 10 or 15 million Iranians turned out on the biggest day of protest (roughly a few days after the election). No one really knows the exact number though. It could be less, it could be more, but it’s definitely not 50% of the population (around 38 million).
But it’s very clear who’s protesting and how they’re different from the ones crushing their right to voice their opinion. The demonstrators are mostly the younger generation, the 35 years old and under that make up for 70% of the population. You can also see the old, the religious and truly pious in the group as well. But the older generation aside, this is the unison voice of the young who are the future of this country. To shut the door on their demands, to say no to such basic and innocent requests, to beat them up while even the secularists are chanting religious slogans to convey the message that they’re not looking for a revolution that brings down the regime, is to be marked as the forces of injustice standing against the oppressed and the just.
Their numbers might not be the majority for now, even though I believe it will eventually come to this if no political compromise is made at the top, but it’s clear who is right, who is wrong, and whose voice should be heard. And for Mr. Galloway to come out with his usual arrogance and ideological blindness against this innocent voice, even lie about it and make up his own facts in public, is an unfortunate and repeated error that will only help to continue his legacy, a legacy that stands against decency, rationality, and democracy and places him with the likes of Chavez and Ahmadinejad, “fellating dictators ’til the bitter end” as my friend described today so poetically.
Indeed, what an asshole. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against him on every single issue. He does speak the truth when it comes a variety of issues, including the plight of the Palestinians, the status of poverty worldwide, etc. But even when he does that, it’s still through his ideological lens and his eclectic opinions are a mix of truth, lies, and inadequate knowledge. The next time he tries to come to Canada, if the government does not let him in, I won’t be one to voice my opinion against his censorship. If you support a government that denies the rights of its citizens to free speech and being treated as equals under law, it’s a good thing to make you shut up.
