AND, THIS TIME...:

An old has-been to the rescue?: Might a reform-minded former president displace the current one? (The Economist, 12/04/08)

A rumble of entreaty among a few supporters has become a boisterous campaign to persuade him to run against the incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in next June’s poll. According to one ally, Mr Khatami is besieged by supplicants from the provinces. Last month Leyla Hatami, an admired film actress, reduced an audience to tears when she begged him to stand “for the sake of our children and of people who do not want to leave the country.”

Why would Mr Khatami think of giving up his charitable foundations and leisurely hobnobs with the world’s great for a job that earlier caused him nothing but grief? Elected in 1997 on a pledge to reconcile democracy and Islam, he instead became a byword for thwarted hopes, as the country’s unelected conservative establishment, bitterly opposed to any dilution of the Islamic Republic’s theocratic character, jailed his supporters and blocked reformist legislation. Many of those Iranians now buttering up Mr Khatami boycotted the presidential election of 2005, when Mr Ahmadinejad beat several reformists.

Mr Khatami’s change of heart stems from his anger at what followed. Elected on a platform of social justice, Mr Ahmadinejad has squandered Iran’s huge oil revenues on inflationary handouts, cares little for human rights and embarrassed many of his compatriots with his undiplomatic pronouncements, among them his suggestion that Israel should not exist. Many Iranians now remember Mr Khatami’s tenure, when the authorities relaxed their grip, just a little, on the ordinary Iranian and the president won plaudits for his charm and moderation, as a golden age.

...Ayatollah Khamenei needs the Reform to work in order to save the Republic.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 5, 2008 12:16 PM