Speech [Inadequacies and disorder in the country and the ways and means to rebuild the destruction; Regional Councils]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Of the consequences of this uprising and its blessings are that we have come across various groups of the Muslims of Iran and air our grievances together. Needless to say, with whichever group that we meet with Kurds, with the Balouchistanis, with Bakhtiyaris, with Qashqayis and the rest of the tribes that are all over Iran and some of their groups who come to us- we notice that they have more or less the same grievances that you have. The Bakhtiyaris come to us and say that no place is as bad as the Bakhtiyaris province and that they are deprived of all that civilization has to offer. The Balouch come and tell us the same thing that they are deprived and none of the people is deprived like them. You gentlemen also say the same thing. I must say that the matter is exactly as you say it; which is that the whole nation is deprived of all means and facilities. You should take a look at Tehran where all the efforts of the previous governments were directed-and needless to say, other places were ignored or shown little attention- in this very Tehran there are about thirty or more neighborhoods where people are living in tents or in slums, or in straw huts; they are the neighborhoods of shanty houses and slums. They are deprived of all the essentials of civilization; they have no water. They must climb a large number of stairs from the pits that are their homes, and they themselves and their children climb up to fill a cask with water from the taps at the street sides. There is no asphalt, there is no hospital; there is no school; there is no electricity- they have nothing. This is the condition of Tehran, which is the capital and in their opinion must be more developed than all other places.

When you look around Khouzestan, around Fars, we have been told by some people of places where they do not have any water at all and have nothing else either; not even a drop of water. And in winters and springs, when it rains, there are big pits where water collects and women walk one furlong in order to carry water for their children. When I was in Najaf, some of the philanthropists from Kuwait, who were acquainted with me, urged me to do something to help and that they would help in the building of a water reservoir for the rainwater to collect in the reservoir so that these wretched folks would have water whenever they wanted. You should not presume that you are the only ones who were deprived; these destroyers ruined the whole of Iran. All were deprived. Even those sections that on the surface look affluent, in that era they too suffered and their predicament was worse than lack of water. These long prison terms, and these extraordinary sufferings, these crippling tortures of a group of intellectuals, a group of theologians, a group of teachers, of the attorneys of the courts of law; of the judges of the courts and so forth- they were being tortured. And by the Grace of God, and after God willed and gave His blessing, our nation awoke and got together, and under the banner of Islam broke the barrier; this barrier that was an obstacle to the growth and progress of our culture; of our economy; of our military; of our everything was lifted. But behind this barrier, what remained for us? Behind this barrier a whole lot of miseries has remained. The government treasury is empty; from every bank- what we have been told by the government and that is how it is- they borrowed as much as they could. Hundreds of millions of dollars from various banks in Iran they borrowed and fled. Do not presume that they left empty-handed; some of the crown jewels were taken away by the father while some of it was taken away by the son. They emptied our banks and left; they left our nation impoverished and went away; they gave away our oil to the Americans for years without taking money- in other words, they established bases for America, and Americans gave us armaments in exchange for the oil money that they owed to us. Armaments that are only of use to the Americans and not for our use. This was a plot between this man, this evil man, this traitor who gave the oil to the Americans- and in such large quantities- and in exchange, instead of paying us money or weapons that would be of use to us, they sent us such armaments that would be used to make bases for themselves against the Soviet Union. And in order to keep the Soviet Union quiet, they did it in the name of giving us these armaments in return for petrodollars. The armaments were of use only for themselves! In other words, the Iranians were not able to operate these weapons, as they did not have the training. They thus built bases for themselves. Their bases are still present in Iran.

Now that you have smashed this barrier with your own determination and with the blessing of Islam, behind this barrier is a ruin. Not only is Kurdistan a ruin; Lorestan too is a ruin; Khouzestan also is ruined; Balouchistan is also ruined; Khorasan is also ruined; all are ruined. Who must rebuild these destructions? Can the government alone rebuild them? No, the government does not have such a budget: it cannot. Can each section of the nation do? No. But the will of the nation, all together, the society together and all with trust in God and recourse to the glorious Qur'an. We all must arise together. We all should strive together in order to rebuild this ruin. You should not assume that the government is not attentive to the needs of Kurdistan; the government cannot. Now they have left behind so many problems for the government that whichever part of the country you observe, they too have the same problems that you have. The case is not that the government does not want to look into them; the government does want. They are working day and night; they are toiling day and night and want to rebuild this ruin, but the extent of the destruction is such that it needs time, otherwise, it cannot be done.

Regretfully, these traitors will not give this chance, they will not allow. Factories must run so that the county gets moving; gets going. They go and prevent the factories from working. Agriculture must get moving so that this country prospers. The traitors who are remnants of that corrupt regime and are servants of the Americans and non-Americans do not allow agriculture to take off; they even forestall agriculture. Schools must continue with their work; culture should be managed; also, they go and bar the teachers; they shut down even the schools. Any thing that you would like to have any thing that they perceive to be useful for the country and of benefit to the people of this country, these stooges of the Americans- whose remnants are still remaining here- thwart them. Everyday somehow they manage to mobilize the people to demonstrate on the streets and shout slogans for and against this and that because they do not want this country to be at peace. If the country returns to normal, it can manage its affairs, if it can manage its affairs and peace is restored, then their hands will be chopped off. When a country is not in turmoil, their hands are be cut off. Whereas, if the country is in chaos- and they are creating chaos- they will again have the avarice to rule over this country with another face, with another form, and perpetuate the same problems and sufferings of the past.

You, our brothers, should not assume that your plight is not being attended to or that they do not want to attend to your problems, the fact is they cannot set things right so quickly. They are busy planning; they are busy studying them. Problems must be solved gradually, systematically. Yesterday, which was Thursday, Mr. Bazargan came here- and for the plans they had for road construction; they brought along a large number of maps and showed them to us. In addition, said that they all wanted to construct roads throughout the country and now they shall begin with them. I recommended that work should begin in villages and out of the way areas sooner than other places and they agreed. About the workers, they are working on schemes to generate work and get the workers to start working. When they get back to work, it would be both to their benefit as well as the country will get moving, but both you and I need to exercise revolutionary patience. We all have problems but we must have a bit of patience; we must bear a little. Do not be under the impression that we are favoring one section over another section of society. God is aware that Islam and that which we want- and we all are followers of Islam- does not discriminate between any one, and everyone has an equal right. Muslims are all a single entity. Muslims are all brothers. No one group of Muslims has preference over another. The right of all, all Muslims, rather any person who lives in an Islamic country has rights, and Islam ensures that right. These religious minorities, such as Zoroastrians, such as Jews, such as Christians that are numerous in Iran, even for them Islam has respect and wants that they too attain their respective rights. But there should not be any illusions; and I suspect that God forbid, there are invisible hands at work who go to our Kurd brethren and tell them that," Look, the government has become Islamic and nothing has been done"; or who go to our Balouch brothers and tell them the same thing; or go to our Bakhtiyari brothers and tell them the same thing; or go to the Qashqayis and say the same thing in order to create strife and so that our country can be administered in a sensible and just manner. Those who come and say these things do not intend to reform; they intend to make things go wrong. You yourselves know too, that they want to make mischief. Now too you mentioned that those who foment trouble are still present. We must be a little patient, be a little circumspect.

See whether the government has done anything in any other place that it has not done for you? Has it developed any region and ruined your region? Now the problem of housing construction is being resolved for all sections of the people- especially for the poor and homeless- by building new housing.

When roads are to be built, they will be built for the whole country. When they can provide and provide medicine, and doctors, and when they can build universities they will do it for everywhere. These require time. Yes if these wreckers of the country had gone away but had left the treasury of the country intact, then we could tell the government that," Well, you have money and resources, why are you not doing the needful?" But they emptied the treasuries, and took away whatever was there with them. They robbed, they looted them, and their dependents emptied the banks and took away everything leaving us in this miserable condition. But I hope, with God's willpower and His favor with respect to this country, to this Islamic country, and with the determination of all brothers; all sections of the people; these problems will be resolved over a period of time. We must all be patient and give ourselves a chance.

However, the issue is that the task of each person must be performed by himself. Everything should be in its proper place. This is among the programs of Islam and is the basis of our way of doing things. Not only you, every place, in every province, in whichever place it is, just as it was from the beginning of law, the councils must be guardian councils. This is what must be done and will be done, and is in the process. Now, they are busy preparing blueprints whereby you yourself manage your own affairs. The elections will be your own and you will undertake it yourself. Your tasks will be delegated to yourself. Not only your province, but also the same will apply to Khorasan, and similarly for Isfahan and everywhere else too it shall be the same. These councils must be everywhere and in every place, they must be autonomous and self-governing. This will also be for the benefit of the people as well as the government. The government cannot exercise control and supervision in every place. When it hands the job over to the people themselves, the people will show more sympathy for the needs of their own region and have better knowledge of their own needs. These are plans that are in the offing. You should not assume that these plans have been put into action somewhere else and you have been deprived of them; do not get this impression.

I plead with you not to be skeptical of your brothers. Just as we are not skeptical in relation to you, you too should not be cynical in relation to your government and with regard to us that we wish to elevate a certain group.

This was of the taghouti regime to create a class of servants for themselves and form their own groups and ... The whole nation is from us and we too are from the whole nation. And we are all your servants and of the rest of the nation. I assure you that all the problems that you have shall be solved. The issue is that there should be peace and security over there. Of course, we will communicate with the army staff and with the gendarmeries and advice them on these matters. May God willing all of you become happy and prosperous.

May God give His blessings to all of you, and all of us; and you under the banner of Islam and for the cause of God and for the Qur'an, all join and safeguard this movement and carry it to where we see the commandments of Islam in place exactly as it should be. Those teachings that give no person superiority over another except in respect of his piety; except in respect of his proximity to God.