In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
The lofty objective, establishment of an Islamic government
May you are successful, God willing. When I was outside the country, in France, these ladies would come there and I would talk to them, or they would be part of the gathering and would discuss among themselves. Our subject is the same subject that I would mention abroad. If you had come there at that time, you would know that our subject from the beginning is a single subject matter. Whatever subject we spoke about its introduction was a single subject and that was the execution of the commandments of God and establishment of a government of Islamic- humanitarian justice. If we wanted then to go; if we wished that the regime should fall from power; if we wanted the hands of outsiders to be cut off, it was all in order to remove these obstacles from our path; obstacles that were preventing the realization of an Islamic government; obstacles by means of which they wanted to make the nation go against its beliefs and against its wishes.
The obstacles that we wanted to remove were not because this was our very objective that Muhammad Rida should go, and that the aim was to severe the hands of America and after that whatever wanted to happen should happen; any rule of law be enforced; that any immoral behavior in Iran be tolerated. Not at all! This was not the issue. The basis, our lofty objective, our main aim was the objective which the Sublime and Exalted God has commanded us to attain and that is the government must be a divine government, it should be Islamic, it should be a government that the people want. When the government becomes a just government, when the government is at the service of the nation, the protective umbrella of this government wins over the hearts of the people and such a government will be able to govern.
Joy of the people at the collapse of the Pahlavi regime
Those whose foundations of governance are not based on the hearts of the people were like the former regimes that as soon as they left, the people poured on to the streets and showered flowers and candies and those things that all who were present saw and those who were not present heard of it. I reminded the former Shah, of this very fact and told him not to do something whereby when you leave everybody will rejoice like people did for your father; I cautioned him to be with the masses and be with Islam; that the route should be the way of the nation; that there should be no treason at work; that governments must be at the service of the people. But, this man did not listen to these words; consequently, the same thing happened that was said to him and we had guessed would happen. We saw that in the era of Rida Khan when he left, people celebrated; and they saw in this era that when Muhammad-Rida Shah left, everybody poured onto the streets and rejoiced more.
When governments are not of the people; when the foundation of a government does not lean on the shoulder and heart of a nation, they cannot be a government. Generally, governments must be at the service of the people and not that the people be afraid of the government.
Signs of a popular government
A government must be such that when its president comes to visit the people, they should surround him and chat with him; not that if they hear his voice they take to their heels! Or, if its Prime Minister comes in the midst of the people; they should gather around him and cheer him; not a prime minister who if he arrives, people express their disgust and run away from him. The army must also be such; the police must also be in this manner; the gendarmerie forces must also be so; and not like the army, police and gendarmerie of the era of the taghouti regime that were opposed to the people; and people did not want them and regarded them as their enemy. They too regarded the people as their enemy. Such a country, whose security forces regard the nation as their enemies and whose people regard the security forces as their enemies, cannot have a government that can survive. The government remains in power when the people like it; when it is of the people; when the people have elected it, and I hope that it will be so from now onward, that the security forces be at the service of the people; that the government be at the service of the people, and that Islamic social justice finds meaning. And, you who have come from abroad will stay in a country in which there is welfare; in a country in which there is freedom in the true sense of the term; in a country which belongs to yourself and you serve for your own country. May God grant all of you success, health and happiness.