Administration Supporters are not Worthy of Being MPs

Roozonline -- A Principlist site declares pro-administration members of parliament to be unworthy of being in the Majlis and charged them of engaging in “lobbying” and “half-dreaming.” This description resulted in a verbal brawl between representatives that support Ahmadinejad’s administration and other Principlist delegates (Principlists are representatives that proclaim adherence to the original ideals of the 1979 Islamic revolution and have split up between those that support Ahmadinejad’s government and those that oppose it and are staunch supporters of the supreme leader).

Jahan News website close to conservative MP Ali-Reza Zakani posted statistics to present the performance of the eight Majlis (2008 – 2012) and wrote, “Some representatives act as if they have no questions for any cabinet ministers and naturally have not objected to any of the executive problems in the country, opting instead to focus on other issues.”

The site accuses unnamed Majlis representatives of “being interested to just be physically present in the Majlis to engage in lobbying with their circle of friends or to be day-dreaming. Others have not defined any other role for themselves than to “shout” (in defense of their party and group interests) in the Majlis”

According to the figures posted by Jahan News, Roohollah Hosseinian, Hamid Rasai, Ali-Asqar Zarei, Mehdi Koochakzadeh and Morteza Agha Tehrani are some of the pro-administration representatives in the Majlis who are also on the list of Jebhe Paydari (Resistance Front) grouping.

In addition to the verbal exchanges caused by the Jahan News story, Roohollah Hosseinian’s warnings to Ahmad Tavakoli and Ali-Reza Zakani also were the cause of another verbal showdown. In his talk, Hosseinian criticized Ahmad Tavakoli and his website Alef for inviting US Department of State spokesman Alan Eyre for an interview. This pro-administration representative also complained of Zakani’s absences in the Majlis and wrote, “Mr. Zakani has seldom appeared in the Majlis since it conveyed this year and every time we asked for him we were told his is busy with his PhD efforts. I realize that running Fakher and Majles online newspapers requires money and time which require greater efforts outside the Majlis, but we have a commitment to the public as well.” These remarks brought a harsh response from some MPs and principlist media. One MP responded by saying, “If these warning were to satisfy God, then they are welcome but if they are election campaigning and about the problems of the Resistance Front then I am sorry to hear them.”

In the meantime, a news story in another website close to Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf addressed Moosavian and wrote, “The uproar that cleric Hosseinian caused today in the Majlis by attacking respected and revolution-committed individuals is rooted in the questions that “young revolutionaries” have asked of him in various publications and sites.”

In another related development, just a few days after the announcement of the launching of an internet TV site by the Resistance Front, principlist media embarked on criticizing the channel. A website close to the United Front of Principlists wrote that a rough estimate of the costs of operating Internet TV sites such as Raja News, Bibak, Hamandishi, etc indicated where the khoms of 450 millions belonging to Sadegh Mahsooli were spent and who was in fact making such large expenditures and for what political purposes.