Majlis’ Caucus Race or Rush To Accept Responsibility?
The tenth Majlis’ finalizing line-ups in specialized committees before the elections that decide each committee’s board of governors is the latest of a series of competitions between the country’s two main caucuses: a coalition of reformists with moderates, and a principlist umbrella league.
As representatives of the two coalitions almost equally populate the national security and foreign policy committee, the outcome of yet another tight race for the committee’s chairmanship remains for independent lawmakers to determine.
Elsewhere in one the most controversial competitions, the reformist front-runner will compete with Mohammad-Mehdi Zahedi who has served as Ahmadinejad’s Minister of Science, Research, and Technology. On one side stands Mohammadreza Aref, Khatami’s vice president, expediency council member, and a Stanford doctorate holder after whom Aref networks were named, while his contender, Zahedi, is a mediocre academic and a walking museum of shams. A full professor of math at Kerman University with only fifteen ISI articles, he repeatedly called himself “one of the greatest mathematicians” of the time. His claim to being a member of the New York Academy of Sciences was debunked in an investigation by BBC Persian. When the eighth Majlis convened to give him its vote of confidence, Emadoddin Afrough knocked him off his pedestal over his being named as the Math Genius of the Century. The Cambridge-based International Biographical Centre, an imprint of Melrose Press Ltd. that was behind the coronation, apparently issues such scams in exchange for some ten-dollar notes. Nonetheless, it is still difficult to see whose odds are better. Khabar Online charts 9 principlists, 10 reformists and four independents in the committee. Two of the independents are religious minority representatives who are traditionally believed to be more inclined toward reforms. However, Jahan News, hardliner ex-MP Alireza Zakani’s online organ, recently banned but still working, says Zahedi’s supporters outnumber those of Aref’s. The website also says principlist MPs have been illegally removed from the committees in a bid to raise odds in favor of Aref.
According to Khabar Online, the principlists have maintained their upper hand in the economic as well as the budget and planning committee and their chances are high to take over the chair in the former. The website also reports a relative advantage on the part of the principlists, anticipating the election of Pourmokhtar for another term. The so-called ‘list of hope’, on the other hand, remains hopeful in lesser healthcare, social and industry committees.
The cultural committee, which has sprouted a controversy over the fact that few lawmakers have nominated themselves for the committee, seems to be a dialectical unity of opposites. Speaker Ali Larijani has joined the committee perhaps in a bid to nullify the three members of the Paydari front who will otherwise reign the committee weirdly overlooked by most reformists. Tabnak, a website affiliated with IRGC commander and former presidential candidate Mohsen Rezaei, slams the representatives of the nation for their negligence toward culture despite repeated warnings by the Supreme Leader. According to Tabnak, even those lawmakers with a background in culture declined to join the committee, reinforcing speculations that culture is a “foundling” lawmakers try to avoid.
According to Jahan News, 50 MPs have filed a complaint about what they call a systematic subreption in the election of committee chairmen, the conduct of some branch directors and manipulation by Vice Speaker Massoud Pezeshkian.
In the absence of real parties in Iran, there are instances where one is drawn to think that such competitions resemble a game of musical chairs, as many lawmakers line to enter committees with more personal benefits for them, regardless of their expertise. The bitter rumors of interference in the process of the elections also should ring a bell as the tenth Majlis’ diverse line-up could as much be a polarized battlefield sacrificing national interests over partisan ones.