“A brief study shows that there is no theory in any of the world’s five continents that creates different kinds of mess like economic, social, management, and other disarray as big as our country, which use as topic for writing articles and press notes,” wrote Iran’s state-run SMT News daily on March 7.
The author portrayed current dilemmas, crises, and disorders in Iran as an ocean. However, he only shed light on the approaches, remarks, positions, and performances of the Health Minister Saeed Namaki and his aides in the National Covid-19 Task Force.
Nonetheless, as he mentioned, it is possible to estimate numerous impacts on people’s lives and psyches through the eyes of a Tehran resident observing daily traffic. This is merely a drop of citizens’ ocean of problems, and officials do nothing except rubbing salt on people’s wounds.
The horrible situation in bus stations and metros has left no way to obey health protocols and social distancing in such places. This status quo is the outcome of harrowing inconsistency in policymaking and planning for containing the coronavirus outbreak and decreasing the toll between health and administrative officials.
Such circumstances have become regular in Iran while President Hassan Rouhani looks at citizens from inside his vehicle, describing people as happy and satisfied. However, the people realize that even municipal officials in Tehran do not implement anti-coronavirus decisions made by the President and his aides.
Hollow Predictions
Today, many former officials explicitly admit they ignored research and inquiry of dilemmas since the beginning of the Islamic Republic regime when rooting society’s grave crises and catastrophes.
“No one of our slogans was about improvement. Instead, we chanted many ideological slogans. However, it is impossible to pursue ideological slogans when the people are hungry,” SMT News added.
They surprisingly declare their regret about forgetting science, saying that scientific works have become worthless. They bluntly say, “Most university theses are either fabricated, purchased, or copied of others’ works.” In reality, unscientific methods and decisions have brought enormous dilemmas to the people, breaking society’s back.
For instance, people have to struggle hard to achieve one bottle or package of edible oil, which is among essential needs. While health professionals warn about the fourth wave of the coronavirus outbreak, impoverished people should spend a lot of time in crowded queues for edible oil while its price has increased by 100 percent compared to the past year.
“Experts say that [the government’s] refusal to allocate adequate foreign exchange currency during recent months and an increase in smuggling of goods are the most important reasons for the shortage of goods and high prices. The approved price of one package of edible oil is 610,000 rials [$2.44]. However, the people have to purchase each package for more than 1,200,000 rials [$4.80],” wrote Bazar website on March 7.
This is while no day goes by without people’s protests against rampant poverty and miserable conditions. In response, officials conceal this horrific situation with fabricated statistics. However, some media and officials have leaked parts of the truth during political rivalries.
“According to latest reviews, Iranian workers are among the poorest annuitants in Mideast countries. Countries whose workers were already working in Iran have better conditions. In a country like Iran, many people suffer from livelihood dilemmas, and the middle class is shrinking every day,” wrote Ebtekar daily on March 8.
What is the Solution for Iran’s Confused Economy?
Last week, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ordered officials to resolve high prices. He said that the solution is in experts’ methods. However, he seemed to intentionally show himself unaware of what is going in the country. In recent months, all experts had frequently provided details and statistics about the root of economic dilemmas, which all end up pointing to the Supreme Leader’s Office and his imprudent officials.
“Since 2018, economic challenges had drawn out the country’s economy to a stormy sea. With a glance at the market and public services, we realize a confusion in economic decision-making and confronting the situation,” wrote Akhbar-e Sanat daily on March 8.
However, Ali Shamkhani, the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) secretary, implicitly mentioned the country’s critical situation. “Imprudence is the greatest problem of the Islamic Republic of Iran… Until now, the government covered up or balanced out this problem with oil revenues,” said Shamkhani in an interview with Radio France Internationale on March 8.
Such dilemmas are merely parts of the government’s disarray and hyper challenges. However, each one is likely to ignite a major crisis for officials, which goes to public distrust and hatred toward the entire ruling system. In the past four decades, the government resorted to violence to silence society’s cries and demands. However, it just fueled public ire and placed more nationwide protests on the horizon.
