The plan

 Last night I messaged a number of people I knew who would be expected to have words to say about the current situation of uprisings in Iran and candidacy of Pahlavi to help the transition.

In all honesty, my first impression after hearing words like he is not seeking power turned me off and made me put an offensive front. This helped to extract thoughts from others also. My question from them was what do you think are the right changes to be done? Is this going to be a patch the same way their grandfather did for Iran which was functional but not a solution for coexistence but to implement a forceful system that the bottom of the skirt in the shape of power does not align well with the cultural textile, making it grow but not rooted in the culture. And the same way a transplant might be rejected by the body, their way of government did not satisfy the culture and people became open to replace the government with another government which was only culturally similar to what they wanted.

I heard different voices, those who were willing to even go to Iran to help the new government and people after many years of residence abroad, those who didn’t see the leading character in Pahlavi and looked for someone better or another way, those who were worried and their heart were doing the work, and those who had some ideas and changes in mind.

Today I received a link to the webpage of the new movement and I read their reports and plans. 

It covered some important topics for today’s situation such as banking system and economy and actionable items for the transition, some less important factors for today’s time such as change in medical system and pensions, and I saw the lack of very important questions such as the plan for human rights and culture.

The financial plan relies on good intentions from the US and outside world to release the blocked finances of Iran and let its market be a part of the global stream of economy, connecting the financial institutions to the outside world and attracting investors. It had some short term actionable items to stabilize the economy through applying limitations on transactions and trades for a while. There were some very important plans for dissolving very powerful entities in Iran which hold a great power and play important financial roles without being a controlled part of the system. The suggestion for short term was to introduce trusted accountants to monitor the transactions and assets of government entities and identify and reduce corruption. 

The medical part and pension part to me were written in a short sighted way to fill up the missing dimensions of the plan and the time estimates and analysis were premature. One of the ways of enforcing power is immediate changes but for a large system such as a country, this shouldn’t be taken as a power lever since the underlying foundation needs to be stabilized first. 

To me a few items were missing:

1- diplomatic plans: what is the roadmap for diplomatic engagement with the powerful entities in the west and the east? The current world seems to be polarized enough and there must be a plan to consider what the future relations should look like with different players. This also paints a sketch for how trades and investments are going to look like.

2- even though there were very long term plans listed in the report such as plans for 2050, the report did not seem to be covering anything from the technological stand point of the current times. This includes plans for electronic government, use of AI in processing the large scale information, electronic democracy through involvement of different individuals through forums and portals to submit their opinions and requests, Crypto currency and the role of it for the economy, and the role of Iran in the current map of technology in the world such as semiconductor technologies, electrical power, and the plans for integration of many domestic platforms which have a mirror in the global picture.

3- Climate management is a minor problem in Iran. Water access and pollution can lead big cities to be not functional anymore. In the hierarchy of needs, economy and systems can only find importance if people can live and work in cities without worrying about their primal needs of drinking water and breathing. Lessons from the neighbouring countries in fighting harsh climates can be used as an example of what needs to be done. Decentralizing bigger cities such can be a step towards less traffic and pollution.

4- Human rights: in the roadmap, the stand point of government to evolve the current enforcement of culture into an open culture was not mentioned. One of the reasons for the fall of the previous government was the elite were disconnect from the cultural roots of the people. And one can only learn from history. The new world problems such as LGBT rights, women rights, and standards for child care were not mentioned. These play an important role so we can be clear about the inclusivity of people’s regardless of their gender, colour, religion, nationality, and sexual identity.

I see people in the government as servants to people. Government must be transparent and self adjusting, inclusive to not only echos of what is said but also to the constructive criticism and oppositions.