I'll be there when you get there

I finally got round to reading Mohsen Sazegara's Policy Focus, published by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Mr. Sazegara's main point is that Iran is moving towards democracy, inevitably. Well, given that he does not give any time frame, I guess we can all agree with him: it will happen, eventually.

I found the piece more descriptive than analytical, and had hoped for a little more “meat”:

For example, Mr. Sazegara lists the various existing Iranian political groups; but of course, aside from the Islamists, they are all outside Iran. It would have been interesting to know how much support he thinks each of them have inside the country. (To his credit on this, he does not make any difference between the Islamists, so none of that Reformists-versus-Conservatives business. In fact, he writes that despite the liberalist slogans of some, none of them have cooperated with non-Islamist groups and that they have either kept quiet or even joined in when non-Islamists have been suppressed.)

And then he does not speak of the lethargy that has engulfed the country, or rather, he dedicates one sentence to it, and says that it will come to pass. Again, no time frame, and a little too much optimism.

Finally, although he mentions, as he should -- he is one of the persons behind the referendum after all, that no real change can take place within the framework of the actual Constitution, after reading the piece the feeling left was that all he was really saying was: Soroush and more Soroush. And there, I still have to be convinced…