Defending Liberty is the Real Justice: Khatami

(MNA) – Former president Mohammad Khatami has criticized chanting slogans about justice, saying the real justice is to defend freedom of expression and to develop the country’s economy.

“If Justice is our motto, defending freedom and giving people the right to make criticisms is the real justice,” Khatami told a group of scholars and political activists in a meeting on Saturday.

Referring to the performance of his administration, Khatami said despite many unjust criticisms, the reformist government was committed to the Islamic Revolution’s objectives and strived to serve Islam, Iran, and the revolution.

However the reformist movement is unjustifiably accused of undermining Islamic values, Khatami lamented.

“Fighting against global arrogance does not mean increasing the expenses of the country. It means being independent, striving for the country’s development, increasing production, developing the economy, and raising the country’s standing in the world.”

The former president said it is necessary to fight against the hegemonic powers but chanting provocative slogans will give a pretext to the enemy to undermine the system and the country.

During the reformist government, American leaders admitted that they have adopted a wrong policy on Iran over the past 50 years, Khatami stated.

After nationalizing the oil industry in 1953, Iranian prime minister Mohammed Mossadeq was overthrown in a coup orchestrated by the CIA and British intelligence.

The U.S. involvement in the fall of Mossadegh was not publicly acknowledged until March 2000 when the then-secretary of state Madeleine Albright admitted that “the coup was clearly a setback for Iran's political development. And it is easy to see now why many Iranians continue to resent this intervention by America in their internal affairs.”

Albright acknowledged the coup's pivotal role in Iran-U.S. troubled relationship and came closer to apologizing than any American official ever has before.

Khatami said those fundamentalists who question the reformist government’s performance should not rely on false data, because fundamentalism is based on telling the truth to people.

Khatami criticized the government for its failure to properly supply electricity to citizens.

“During the reformist government, Iran suffered severe droughts but we planned everything and important actions were taken to preserve our self-sufficienc from wheat imports.”

The Ahmadinejad administration blames the drought for daily power outage in Iran which has become an order of the day. The administration has defined an electricity rationing program, imposing a two-hour daily blackout in rural and urban areas.

Some regions are also suffering daily cuts in water supply.

Referring to the 2009 presidential vote, Khatami said, “Instead of saying who should run for president and who should not, we need to focus on the plan of the one who will contest in the elections. We need to determine what plans he should implement and how he should implement them.”

The former president said the reformist faction should certainly contest in the next presidential vote. “We need to make sure that the government, which belongs to people, is not controlled by only a particular faction,” he stated.

Khatami said the reformist movement is not limited to reformist groups. “With all due respect to all groups and parties…I do not want to be regarded as the representative of a particular group.”

“I am proud that I have made every effort to pave the ground for the activities of various political groups during the reformist period.”

Referring to calls for him to contest in the upcoming presidential vote, Khatami said, “If I decide to run for president I will try to respond to the demands of various levels of society and if I decide to stay aside, I will explain my reasons to people.

“My decision is almost clear but I will announce it in the right time.”