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On June 12, the tenth ever Iranian presidential elections were held in Iran and two days later, the publicized outcome catalyzed an explosive reaction.
Sitting President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had won the election over his main competitor, Mir-Hossein Mousavi. Several analysts and journalists from the U.S. and U.K. expressed doubts about the authenticity of the results. So, it seems, did many of Mousavi's backers - who have been fighting what they called a "deeply flawed" election through protest demonstrations. Aka lots and lots of rioting.
So what does this have to do with China? As always, the curiosity of democracy evoked a strong reaction within the Chinese netizen community, especially when it seems to have failed. And after scouring the web for what was being said, it looks like a pretty huge proportion are in agreement that not only is Iran flawed, democracy is as well.
Is it a case of 50 cent armies jumping on the chance to influence public debate, or really the thoughts of the bulk of the Chinese net-surfing peoples? You decide:
Severall from iFeng.com criticized the Iranian government for letting something that seemed like a sham election - and its fallout - happen in the first place:
看到宋先生博客里面“民主”人士的嘴脸更让我坚定了这个信念：中国人是需要管的." "After reading Mr. Song's Blog about 'Democratic political people,' I am more sure than ever, Chinese people should be supervised and controlled.""胡扯霸道 现在他们就在抗议游行这次大选不公."
"Nonsense (that Iran is democratic). They (Iranian citizens) are protesting because of the unfairness of the election."
"现在选举演变成几十年所未有的对抗和骚乱，不知道自由派做何感想？ ——————用军队干呀！敢对抗，杀死他几十万人算个球！反正伊朗人多！军队的枪是干什么的？真是傻瓜。"
"The Iranian presidential election evolved after decades but now is triggering so many protests and riots; I am not sure how the liberal wings of the party would think? Use the army. Whoever fights against the government should be killed. There are so many people in Iran so killing several hundreds of thousands is not a big deal. What does the army do? Foolish (Iranian government).""请问，中国的自由派呢应该何去何从呢？ ---- 丧家之犬，无去无从."
"May I ask, where should Chinese liberal wing of the party go? -- An outcast with no whither." (This might be a proverb, meaning something along the lines of: a dog without a leash has no idea where to go)"国家利益高于一切"
"National interest overrides everything else."
Others took the opportunity to rail against Western media and Americans (you know, the champions of this whole voting thing):
"美国是打着“民主旗号”反民主，因为他们搞的是假民主，玩的是“总统独.裁制”，也要求别人也搞假民主，从而扼杀真民主！" "America is always opposed to the other countries' democracy because American politics is a fake democracy; it is really the 'presidential dictatorship.' However, America asks other countries to be 'fake democracies' -- killing the real democracy!"
“支持内贾德。他是世界上仅有的三个敢于对美国说不的国家领导人之一。他是有骨气有勇气的领导人。”
“I support Ahmadinejad. He is one of the only three leaders of the countries who say no to America. He is a brave and dignified country leader.""戈尔输给小步什的时候，小步什也是作弊的，但戈尔比较理性，能以国家安定为重，宣布失败。穆萨维他们有美国支持，但没有大多数伊朗人的支持，输了还不心甘。 "
"When Bush was elected as the American president, he cheated too. But Al Gore was rational and admitted that he lost because of national stabilization. Mousavi has America as his biggest backer but not many Iranian supporters. He should admitted that he lost."
According to China.com, Mousavi pledged to cancel the result of presidential election right after it was released and now the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has ordered an investigation into voter fraud. The whole world will be watching the results closely, no doubt, but it'll be especially interesting to see how the events are interpreted by curious Chinese on the web.
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Nice to see Jackie Chan took some time off from filming the sure to be instant classic Big Soldier to hit the internet and comment on some forums.
I have a sneaking suspicion that if the result had gone the other way it would not be viewed as such a sham. The problem with democracy is that in any election it is possible to have up to 49% of the population unhappy with the result. If there are electoral colleges then the percentage of pissed off people can actually exceed 50% a-la-Gore.
That's not the only problem with Democracy.
Of course, you have the Western media blahing blahing about how close the election is beforehand. It was never close. Anyone who knows Iran know Ahmadinejad is a populist who is extremely popular with working class, rural Iranians, just like Thaksin was very popular with the rural Thais. There is no doubt that Ahmedinejad won the election.
There is also no doubt that it can realistically take less than 24 hours to hand count 40 million hand written ballots.
Hey lamb shashlik, even if Mousavi wins, don't assume Iranians will kiss US arse. Afterall, they still remember how the CIA overthrew Moussadegh, after he rightfully demanded to get oil royalties from BP. LOL!!! Of course, US is crying because their "man" didn't win.
lamb shashlik, hand counting is definitely more reliable than chads. LOL!
@BBC1, I'd like to draw your attention to the following quotes:
"The Ahmadinejad-Khamenei Iran - despite the celebrations following the forgeries of the elections - is heading to oblivion and without any direction. It would not be any exaggeration at all to say that the ayatollah's regime has lost its legitimacy among the Iranian people, which opens the way for the possibility of great changes in the near future."
"This is the upheaval of a generation deprived of its simplest legitimate rights in awareness, understanding and political, cultural and economic choices... Has the countdown started to the end of this phase of [the Iranian Islamic] revolution? It seems this needs time, but change is inevitably coming."
Which damnable Western newspaper did I get these quotes from, you ask? The NY Times? The Guardian? Le Monde? Actually the first one was written by Umar al-Ghul in the Palestinian Al-Hayat al-Jadidah and the second is from Rashid Fahd Rashid of Saudi Arabia's Al-Riyadh newspaper. That's right- two of the least-Westernized media outlets in the world.
You can moan all you want about the Western media, meanwhile you're completely missing the point by framing the situation as a loss to U.S. political interests. The big picture is much bigger than Ahmadinejad's next 4-year term, and it is this: the current regime has lost all credibility with millions of Iranians, as these quotes (as well as the daily protests in Tehran and all over the country) have shown. This could very well be the beginning of the end of your precious authoritarianism in Iran.
By the way, I can't figure out why you feel the need to defend Ahmadinejad so much. This is a man who has, on several occasions, called the Holocaust a myth, and who has said Israel should be "wiped off the map". I don't know what you call that kind of person in China, but in the US we call those kinds of people "batsh!t crazy". I know you'll say or do almost anything to show everyone how pro-China you are, and for some reason you think that being anti-US and being pro-China are the same thing, but take a look at Ahmadinejad's record before you jump into bed with him. Otherwise you'll sacrifice what's left of your credibility on this site.
The only thing there is no doubt about is that you know Iran.
Be it the 50-cent Party or the fringe nature of cyber opinions, the quoted comments are hardly representative of the young urban professionals I know.