This is the regime’s true “morality” – mass murder of unarmed citizens and children to preserve power for itself.
Protesters set fire to the old family home of the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and longtime supreme leader,the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Demonstrators demanded the downfall of the current supreme leader,chanting:“Death to Khamenei!”
There are rumours in Tehran,denied by the authorities,that death already is stalking the supreme leader,83,who is said to be gravely ill and was last seen in public in a state-owned TV broadcast on November 24. And on the weekendthe regime appeared to suspend or disband the morality police,the “Gasht-e Ershad”,or Islamic guidance patrol. Their white vans,striped dark green,had been missing from the streets for weeks.
Asked whether they’d been disbanded,Attorney-General Montazeri said:“The guidance patrol had nothing to do with the judiciary and have been shut down from where they were set up,” according to state-run media.
Were they abolished or merely suspended? Are the relaxations lasting or temporary? Iranians awaited clarification.
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At the same time,popular protest in China last week has succeeded in winning near-instant concessions from another authoritarian regime. Two separate events galvanised a week of mass unrest.Thousands of workers at a huge Foxconn factory,where Apple phones are manufactured,smashed free of their COVID lock-ins and did hand-to-hand combat with police,ultimately winning concessions from their employer.
At the same time,afire in Xinjiang’s capital,Urumqi,killed 10 people,reported trapped by a COVID lock-in in an apartment block. Spontaneous protests of many thousands of people erupted across dozens of major Chinese cities. Some were anti-lockdown breakouts from barricaded apartment blocks,seizing freedom and demanding food.
Others were student rallies demanding free speech,free movement and the removal of Xi Jinping. The A4 Army sprang up,protesters holding sheets of blank paper across their faces to signify their voicelessness. In Chengdu they chanted:“We don’t want lifelong rulers. We don’t want emperors.” In Jinan and Korla:“Lift the lockdown!”
The official response was twofold. The protests were repressed on the streets,while COVID constraints were eased across many cities. In private conversation with EU officials,Xi Jinping acknowledged the protests. He blamed “frustrated” students.
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Liberty has been in decline across the world since 2007,dubbed a “democratic recession”. The annual Democracy Report from Gothenburg University this year finds that:“The level of democracy enjoyed by the average global citizen in 2021 is down to 1989 levels. The last 30 years of democratic advances are now eradicated. Dictatorships are on the rise and harbour 70 per cent of the world population – 5.4 billion people.”
TheEconomist Intelligence Unit measures a mere 21 countries,out of nearly 200,as being full democracies. And yet.Ken Roth writes in Human Rights Watch’s annual report for 2022:“The superficial appeal of the rise-of-autocracy thesis belies a more complex reality – and a bleaker future for autocrats.
“As people see that unaccountable rulers inevitably prioritise their own interests over the public’s,the popular demand for rights-respecting democracy often remains strong. In country after country,large numbers of people have recently taken to the streets,even at the risk of being arrested or shot. There are few rallies for autocratic rule.”
And he wrote that before the protest movements erupted in Iran and China,two of the world’s more durable and repressive dictatorships. In both countries,regime concessions appear to have worked;the protests have ebbed. The regimes have succeeded. Yet the people have found their voices and felt their power.
Have the protests ended,or merely paused? One thing is certain. As Winston Churchill said,dictators ride tigers they dare not dismount. Holding onto power,living in fear of their people,is the only thing the dictators will be able to think about.
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