STATESMANSHIP QUALITIES AND AHMADINEJAD
The
practices, plans and the language used by the Iranian
President, Ahmadinejad, do not recall us of a statesman, but
rather indicate a passer-by who came to the office of
Iranian Presidency by chance.
Many
statesmen across the world may also have come to office by
chance just in the way happened to Ahmadinejad. But such
personalities swiftly pulled themselves together and took
steps serving to the interests of the country thanks to the
work of counselors who have significant rolls in the
training of statesmen. The fact that he has been the
President during the years when the oil prices have reached
the ceiling level and Iran enjoys the maximum revenues of
its history is, in fact, regarded a great opportunity to
reach the so-called goals it has determined. But
unfortunately, instead of taking initiatives to serve the
national interests, such as ‘preparing an infrastructure for
Iran’, ‘fighting the unemployment’, ‘renovating the old oil
industry’, he pursues populist policies that do not befit a
President, behaving just like his friend Hugo Chaves.
Nobody in
the country today can ask Ahmadinejad ‘on what the enormous
income obtained from the oil sales in the last two years has
been spent’, because anybody who questions this is
resembled to a ‘baby goat’ by him as observed in a slang
language he used recently. Ahmadinejad’s comparing the
intellectual opponents to a ‘baby goat’ means ‘the grab of
such a valuable post by such a person, who is ever-seen
unqualified in this regard in Iranian state tradition’.
Ahmadinejad, whose words are not taken seriously inside,
just contrary to what it is like abroad, is still not aware
of how much the opposition important for the progress of a
country.
The fact
that a lack and incapability of “Statesmen” is mentioned in
our country and that the government and party cadres are
mostly formed depending on personal relations and none of
the governments, which have undertook the office in the last
twenty years, have failed to bring the programs to train
“Statesmen” to the contemporary level is not at all a
merciless criticism. As a matter of fact, Iran is seen to be
suffering from serious losses in political, economic, social
and technological fields because of the lack of statesmen. A
statesman has to stay within the limits of national and
international laws and act in a way to protect the country,
of which he is a citizen, produce policies in favor of his
people’s prosperity and riches, preserve his nation’s
historical and socio-cultural values and inherit these to
the coming generations. Just for this reason, it is highly
beneficial for statesmen to make a career in the fields of
geopolitics, geo-strategy, national strategy, using the
national power, national history, global political history,
politics, diplomacy, international law and economy. It is
enough to have a quick look at Iran’s recent political life
in order to understand how much education is necessary. For
example, the fact that both Ahmadinejad himself and his
country were subjected to insults during the events occurred
when he was in Columbia University made its place in
literature as a “Political Harakiri”. Later, Ahmadinejad’s
returning to Tehran after learning that he would pay a visit
to the ‘so-called genocide memorial’ in the first hours of
his 22-hour-official visit to Armenia is nothing but a fault
of strategy planning and goal determining.
Well, what
were the duties of the counselors of our President? Was it
not their most important duty to bring this President, who
by chance came to the office, to reason and inject a state
perspective? Or is something wrong with Ahmadinejad? A
statesman’s superiority in identifying and implementing
strategy has to cover not only a certain field, but also a
broad spectrum including military, political, economic,
technological and socio-cultural fields. Besides, a
statesman should closely follow the developments and changes
in the European and global power balances and make realistic
assessments.
Ahmadinejad
has displayed his sufferance at any moment from inferiority
complex since he came to the office. The situation has
become so grave that none of the political, social or
cultural intellectuals of the country have taken him serious
or supported him. Not any Iranians living inside or outside
Iran or any political platform conveyed support to
Ahmadinejad’s words that smell blood and are full of
violence. Our President knows very well that he is not loved
by these intellectuals and even more, he sometimes uses
expressions to overcome this inferiority complex. But
Ahmadinejad who is dizzy of power should not forget that “he
will never be among those intellectuals”.
In fact
both Ahmadinejad and the circles supporting (his community)
know that this is the last term of his for them and they do
not have any further chance for the Presidency. The public
surveys indicate that his popularity has fallen down to 25%.
Ahmadinejad who came to the power by chance through the
slogans, such as “I will bring oil money to the tables”; “I
shall remove the gap between the rich and the poor”, and “I
will be compassionate towards everybody”, damages the
interests of the Iranian people through what he does and
says in order to counteract the created cold war atmosphere.
Our President who –probably- never listens to his advisors
and has missed numerous chances for the progress of the
country has led Iran to come to the most critical and
dangerous point of its history. Since the red lines
announced by Ahmadinejad and his strategic-level rhetoric
cannot go beyond a statement, Iran has lost prestige in the
international arena and the dignity of the Iranian people is
damaged.
