Nation's voice lost due to Majlis pragmatism - Iran paper

Text of report by Ja'far Golabi, entitled "parliament's lessening motive", published in E'temad newspaper on 6 August

Finally, after all those opposing voices against the president's proposed ministers the Majlis gave its vote of confidence to all three. First interaction of the Eighth Majlis with the government has showed us that if the Eighth Majlis is not as cooperative as the previous one, but this Majlis has no significant opposition [against the government] either.

When the proposed ministers' introduction was postponed, it was suggested that Majlis did not have the best of atmospheres in order to give ministers vote of confidence. However, at the end, the Ninth Government again received the unprecedented support of the leading pillars. So, in the future, the expectations from this government will also be more than from the previous ones. Putting aside the discussions in the Majlis about proposed ministers, it seems that Majlis did not care a lot in approving ministers that will be in duty just for one year.

The Majlis passed all responsibilities to the government, so the government can decide what to do during its final year in the office and lead the country to wherever it wants.

Eighth Majlis MPs who were criticizing the government policies during their elections campaigns have now showed a more passive approach to that of the Seventh Majlis in the face of government's decisions. They remained silent about the fact that three major ministries were left without ministers for several months. Later on, they squandered their supervising tools when it came to approving new ministers. Thus, they have chosen the responsibility of following the Ninth government in its actions.

If the Majlis was more interested in its supervising and decision-making responsibilities, then it could use its harmony with the government in order to participate in organizing and solving problems. However, now it has decided not to use this important potential. Therefore the executive officials, who already have the support of high places, have no worries about being supervised.

The concern is that as a result of such convergences, pragmatism and unwritten coalitions the weight of the Majlis in the major policy and decision makings will decrease. In general, the symbolic voice of the nation in the state structure [Majlis] will become weaker.

Source: E'temad website, Tehran, in Persian 6 Aug 08