Speech [Lack of necessity for discussing secondary problems in the present condition]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Although my time is over, as I have also given a speech earlier; however, there are certain warnings that are necessary for me to mention.

This period which we are in right now, is a period of transition. In other words, it is the transfer of that evil power to another power. And our government is an interim government; it is not an established government. We now have the need for a founder's assembly in order to ratify the constitution. And after that, we require a consultative assembly so that it can look into the affairs of the country; as well as an established and permanent government. In this period of transition, we must not expect every task to be performed in this period of transition. At no time has such a thing been ever possible. This is how the period of transition is. Right from the very beginning, we gave Engineer Bazargan the mission to accomplish these three tasks namely, to arrange, and accept the responsibility to hold a referendum, and later the founders' assembly and after that the consultative assembly. When he has completed the tasks, he too will resign. Then the primary tasks must be done, and is not confined to what you have mentioned. We have a lot of confusion; in other words, there should be an overall transformation in all sections. Now, this government- meaning the manner of governing and not the government itself; the type of ministries, the sort of government offices- is again remnants of that same era of the taghouti regime. These need to be transformed; however, transformation will occur only when we have an established government. At present, the government is a government that wants to transfer this power to an established government so that it can get busy with its job. In other words, a government must be formed which the people themselves have established. We have not had such a government that was of the people up to now- it was only in name. There has not been one after the constitutional period. It was only in name- I do not know- that the nation should elect their representatives themselves; to introduce their own legislators but you know quite well that your votes had never been decisive. In that period of history, they themselves would select them. And how I wish they had done it themselves. In one of his speeches, the Shah said- this very second Shah- that the embassies would give them the lists and force them to act on those lists. They who would give a list of the legislators to be appointed by the Shah, and he would do it. However, he wanted to say that now it was not such anymore, although during his reign it was even worse.

Now, the situation has reached the stage where you yourself without anybody pressurizing you- voted in the referendum. You cast your vote yourself. In other words, the people big and small- who at the time of election were eligible to vote- men and women, the sick in hospitals, all of these people voted with zeal and fervor. Nobody, brought pressure on them, and nor it was at the point of a single bayonet- it was the power of faith. They had faith in that an Islamic government is good. This faith carried the people to the polling booths. And, those who could not go on their own were assisted or taken by wheelchairs to cast their vote. And later on, in order to hold the destiny of your country in your own hands you will vote for the founders' assembly if it is agreed that a founders' assembly be formed, or if we do not form it by referendum, you will yourself go and appoint your legislators and no one will bring any pressure on you to appoint so and so legislator. If, for example, we do say a word in favor of anybody, it is because it is good for you and nothing more. We shall say this is good for you, just as we said that it is good to vote in the referendum. I, myself, voted in the referendum. There was no coercion, and each person was allowed and was free to go and cast his vote whatever that vote may have been. Now too, after this, you, yourselves, must appoint your legislator, and later on, the legislators of the consultative assembly will be elected by yourselves. Everything is in your own hands. You must search yourself to find a good legislator so that the destiny of your country is placed in the hands of your parliament.

Many issues are similar to the issues that you are now mentioning. There are many issues. These are for that period when the government is established. Now, we all must follow this issue of those who have fallen out of favor, and who at times go to the factories and create trouble there; or at other times go to the farmers and cause trouble and sometimes go to the schools and make trouble. We must all open our eyes wide and not let them make mischief. If the trouble making of these miscreants ends in their favor, then we shall not see the period of settling down and we shall return to the starting point. Now, it is the duty of all of us- you the respected students and the rest of the classes- to convince whichever individual you have access to, and whichever person who listens to your words to sustain this movement with the same momentum with which it has come to this point so far. In other words, with the same passion that is present; with the same zeal and enthusiasm that caused them to go to the polling booths and cast their votes in favor of an Islamic republic. This should be maintained so that next you cast your votes for the founders' assembly and then for the consultative assembly so that the government is formed. We must now prevent these disturbances from taking place. Now is the time we put a stop to these troubles. After the government has been formed and settled down, then these demands that everyone has- and we have too- of course will be met later. We also are aware that there are many irregularities at present. In other words, they all went away and messed up everything in this country- everything. Now, we do not have a healthy economy. They robbed everything that this country possessed. They borrowed and fled. Now, all the banks are owed money by them. They borrowed in millions and ran away. They took away everything with them. Look also, at what they did to our agriculture such that we have no agriculture remaining. Now the factories; these people have infiltrated the factories and are sabotaging work. From what I have heard, the staff and workers themselves who are employed there either are refusing to work or are engaging in go-slow tactics and such things. These things are happening because they are hindering work. We must now all of us together join hands and not allow this movement which is a divine movement; which was for the cause of God, and was for Islam to be extinguished. We must sustain it until these issues are resolved. Then we shall come to the secondary issues, which are next in importance.

We should be careful not to be negligent even for a moment of these principal issues that are the basis of our government, and we should not divert our attention to who does not own a house or such and such person has not been treated well or for example, they do not teach well in the schools, and how our teachers are. This is not the time for all these things. Now is not the time; in the same manner that if at that time when everybody was busy putting pressure to push back the tanks, a person would appear out of no where and tell you that he does not own a house and you would reply that it was not the time to discuss this issue, as there were more important things to do. Now, this is how it is. In my opinion now is the most sensitive period of our country, and not the time when we were all bringing pressure to demolish this barrier. After this dam was destroyed, the people on the other side of the barrier noticed that this one said he does not have a house; that person said that he was sick and someone else remarked that my school is not a good school and such and such person remarked on how the teachers were; yet someone else mentioned how it was to be in the army; and another mentioned how it was at the office; and consequently the thinking was confused. I am apprehensive that this confusion in thinking will cause us to become neglectful of the main problems that we have; and God forbid, the devils that are closely following these problems, will come suddenly and fan these confusions and we suddenly realize that we have been defeated. And you are aware that, if God forbid, we are faced with defeat, then this nation will not be able to raise its head anymore. If we take this victory to its final destination, we have succeeded in cutting off the hands of these people until the very end- and I hope we will take it, God willing we will take it, and God willing we will take our destination. We will reach God willing. But, we all must endeavor. In other words, you the beloved students, and those workers inside the factories who are beloved as well, and those farmers who are engaged in agricultural activities and they too are beloved; and the whole nation; traders, university students, students, teachers and everybody else must focus our attention on the objective that we have. Pursuant to that, we can raise these issues. We should not be negligent of the main issue, go after the secondary issues, and thereby lose sight of our main objective.

What I understand is this; and what I want from you is that all of you should join hands and carry this burden to its destination. When the established government is formed, the established government must do this job. This issue is an issue for which laws must be formulated. The laws that have existed so far are of all devilish; all of them are destructive. A law is needed for every individual, and this necessitates the formation of a consultative assembly; your own consultative assembly; not the consultative assembly of Aryamehr or for example, of the Americans, your own consultative assembly. You should elect your own legislators. Reliable individuals, patriotic individuals, individuals who would be at your service should be elected by you. And to the extent we can, we will also relay the matter to them; and God willing, the establishment and the period of settling down will take place. When the period of establishment occurs, at that time agricultural plans will be fulfilled, of course the relevant plans must be presented. Schools must be, basically the culture must be transformed. Culture should undergo a transformation. The administration of justice must undergo a transformation. All of these are in need of change. However, each one of us pays attention to that specific position on that we are in. Each person from wherever he comes mentions the very problems of his own region- and they are right about the existing problems. Now, when we are seated here, the people come here from the surrounding areas; the Bakhtiyari tribes come here and remark that no place is worse than their province; they say they have absolutely nothing. They are right. People come from the province of Balouchestan and say the same thing; they come from Khorasan and say the same thing; you also come to discuss your problems, which I consider correct, but the thing is that each of you look at your own regions and your own problems. The whole nation is in trouble. These destructive evildoers in fact destroyed the whole nation. It is not that it is true about one place and untrue about another- all are in a mess. But, it needs time. Sometimes, they come, tell us that there is so much poverty and backwardness in so and so places, and so forth. I ask them whether this poverty has come into being now or it was there from the past. They reply that no it was there from the beginning. Therefore, I tell them now you have suddenly become aggressive. Well, this poverty has been there and that you had it from before.

At that time, you did not dare to raise your voice but now are talking about it and saying," Give us right now. Give us right away." This is not possible. Well, it must be rectified. Agriculture should be reformed; factories should start operations; the economy of the nation should be reformed for which petroleum revenues are needed- whereas now even petroleum revenues have not been received by them. Well, now they have delivered the crude oil, and will later receive the money. The economy must be reformed; and the situation of the country must return to normal and attain stability; there must be a return to law and order- all these problems shall God willing be resolved. And because I am now indisposed.