from vosizneias.com
Tehran, Iran – Iran’s opposition on Sunday renewed its call for a rally in support of protesters in Tunisia and Egypt despite a government warning of repercussions if demonstrations take place, a reformist website reported.
In a statement published on Kaleme.com, the opposition urged its supporters to rally on Monday in central Tehran and accused the government of hypocrisy by voicing support for the Egyptian and Tunisian uprisings while refusing to allow Iranian political activists to stage a peaceful demonstration.
Wary of a reinvigorated opposition at home, Iranian authorities have detained several activists and journalists in recent weeks and opposition leader Mahdi Karroubi was put under house arrest, apparently in connection with the request to stage the rally.
The statement said further restrictions on Karroubi and fellow opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi were a sign of the “increasing weakness and fear of the government about the most peaceful civil and political rights” of Iranians.
In another report, Kaleme said many university students as well as a reformist cleric group have promised to attend the rally. But it was not clear whether the rally would actually take place. Many opposition calls for demonstrations in the past months have gone unheeded.
So let me get this straight. The Iranian government supports the Egyptian and Tunisian uprisings, but won’t let its own citizens demonstrate their support of the Egyptian and Tunisian uprisings. That looks a whole lot like a regime afraid of its citizens. Probably not a whole lot of “consent of the governed” going on in Iran.
Mubarak didn’t have any right to be dictator of Egypt, period. The Iranian mullahs don’t have any right to be dictators of Iran, either. Nobody has a right, and nobody has ever had any right, to be dictators. If you’re a dictator you’re illegitimate, period.
Now, with the advent of irrespressible mass communications — brought to you by the engineers behind digital technology and the entrepreneurs who form social networking internet sites — it’s time for the whole world to rise up and say so. Dictators are illegitimate! And dictators, wherever they exist, have to go!
The popular revolutions sweeping the Arab world may not be a good thing for selfish U.S. policy interests, but they’re a damned good thing for the long-suppressed masses of those countries.
Next up: Myanmar’s military junta. That bunch is way past their shelf life. It’s time for them to go, too.