Law Breakers in Israel are Tried; in Iran They Are Rewarded

Rooz Online

MPs in the Iranian parliament, the Majlis, address the assembly before the body dives into its daily agenda. It is in these speeches that they talk about issues, national or those concerning their constituents, that they believe need to be addressed at the national level.

On Sunday Ahmad Bakhshayesh Ardestani - is a member of the pro-speaker Larijani’s Rahrovan Velayat Majlis faction - talked before the agenda and criticized the Majlis-allocated budgets for cultural organizations. This returned an immediate protest from Haddad Adel, a member of the Iran’s Council on the Cultural Revolution and head of a cultural group, resulting in more verbal barrages between the two.

Bakhshayesh mentioned the acute situation with Iran’s economy and added, “Is the Majlis itself not accountable when it allocates, without any oversight, large budgets to such foundations as Bonyad Saadi, Hafez or Molana, groups that are supported only by the powerful and influential Majlis representatives? The Majlis is not confronting bad developments (in the country) and allows the country to be managed through the incursion of heavy costs on others. The government pursues the same policy and imposes this heavy cost on to the public.”

In what is certainly a departure from the routine, Bakhshayesh then made a cursory comparison between Iran and Israel and said, “When we are told (by the public) that in Israel an official is punished for receiving a bribe whereas in Iran, where we claim to be following the principles and path of just religious leaders, such consequences do not follow. In Iran, financial embezzlers usually receive prizes and are appointed ambassadors so the issue dies out.” He gave some examples: “Just a few days after the mayor of Isfahan was summoned because of various violations he gets confirmed to be the mayor of Ghom because of his political and factional connections. Is this is not mocking the public? Why is it common knowledge today that in the judiciary nothing moves unless you bribe someone or pull some strings? And why is it that while ayatollah Shahrudi, the head of the judiciary, has announced that he inherited a wreck and ayatollah Amoli said that they had inherited devastation the heads of the justice departments have remained in their posts for the last eight years to be accused of inefficiency etc.?”

After these scathing and critical remarks Haddad Adel, himself a former head of the Majlis who also belongs to the hardline camp, took the podium and protested to Bakhshayesh’s remarks and specifically the mention of Bonyad Saadi foundation (Saadi is a 13-century national poet whose philosophic and instructive poems are revered by Iranians who begin reading them in elementary school) which he heads. The foundation was created in 2013 with the mission of spreading the Farsi language outside Iran. The foundation has a line item in the country’s annual budget.

According to Arman newspaper Adel had asked why the foundations were specifically named when everybody knew what they did, to which Bakhshayesh invited a debate on the issue and pointed out that some MPs improperly provided support to these foundations. Bakhshayesh then said that influential members of parliament were behind the inclusion of specific budget lines in the annual budget for these foundations, while the work of these foundations remained above any oversight.

Another MP Kamaledin Pirmozen told ILNA labor news agency, “Mr. Bakhshayesh had apparently promised Adel earlier not to mention the names of the foundations and their finances during his address and Adel had supported the notion of transparency for these foundations.

Khordad website used the exchange between the two representatives to write that “the man of ethics from the Principlist camp has no tolerance for the slightest criticism.” It then wrote perhaps the myth of “ethics” among hardline Principlists should be revisited. “Does Mr. Adel really believe that raising the issue of oversight of a foundation that receives public money is a violation of a religious principle? Does Mr. Adel really see himself to be so honest and faultless that nobody has the right to question what he does with public money?” it wrote.