The government knew that there was a plan from the protest movement to hold demonstrations in Tehran on the anniversary of the Islamic revolution, so they spent money to bring in about 200,000 Basij from cities all across Iran on the night before the anniversary celebration. The Basij – these are the masses of men and women you see attending the pro-government protests – were paid $250 each to show up at the demonstrations, which is a lot of money in Iran, when you consider the bad state of the economy. They spent all night covering Freedom Square with the Basij. The government also spent a lot of money on propaganda. They printed posters of Ayatollah Khameini; they even gave the Basij frozen chicken after the demonstration was over.
But that didn’t stop the opposition protestors from showing up. If the government can get 200,000 people out of the 70 million in Iran, that means nothing. Across Iran, I believe there were some 2 million people who showed up to protest the government. And the protestors will come back stronger and stronger. The reason is this: The Basij fight for their salary; the people fight for their freedom. That’s why, on Tuesday, when Ahmadinejad gave his big speech, you could hear chants of “Death to the Dictator!” coming from a distance.
0 comments:
Post a Comment