Speech [Destruction and ruins of Pahlavi era-The Way of Reform in the Country]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

We are confronting two issues at present. One of these is that every group is better aware of the destruction in its own place than the others are. You the gentlemen who work in the banks, in the bank, know better what the former regime did with the banks and what the banks did to you. The people in the factories understand this point very well with respect to those places. The farmers saw exactly what they had done to them. Those in the universities also know what they did to the universities. Those in the bazaar are also aware about their own place. In short, we generally know that this country went to rack and ruin in the course of these fifty-odd years. They almost destroyed the country in the name of the" great civilization". But what every segment happens to be in its own sphere of activity. We now face various groups that come to see me from all over Iran. Each group tells me that there is no place worse off than where its people live no place is more ruined than theirs. For instance, people come from the Bakhtiyari region, saying that there is no region worse than that of the Bakhtiyaris and that they have nothing. They say that the oppression to which they had been subjected during these fifty years had not been done against anybody else. They come from Balouchistan, uttering exactly the same words: there is no place worse than that place. People come from Kurdistan and say much the same thing;(they come) from everywhere. I find that all of them are right about this matter. They are aware of the ruination in their own place, but say that no other place is worse than their own. The reason is that they have seen, and heard about, the damage done to their own place. One who has been in the Bakhtiyari region has seen what happened there and what it is like at present. But these people have only heard of the oppression in the other places; not seen it. Because of this, they consider their own region as the worst of all. And they are all right in saying so as there is devastation everywhere.

Actually, the plan was to cause destruction, ruin the agriculture totally in the name of" land reform" and create a market for America that has wheat in abundance. As it has to dump this in the sea or burn it, it is better (for America) that the agriculture of Iran, and the other countries under its influence, be ruined so as to put them in need of wheat and other grains such that we are now in need of all our commodities to come from abroad. They destroyed the animal husbandry so that the meat has to be imported, and similarly, everything else. Under extremely deceitful and misleading names, they destroyed the country over the last fifty years and left it in ruins. And now the second point that I want to mention is that all of us know of the devastation; however, you are better aware of it in the bank than the farmers, and they know more than you about the ruination of the agriculture. Each and every segment has experienced the destruction in its own sphere of work and is better aware of it.

But what is to be done now? If we are to sit down and just keep on talking about the generalities of what is to be done, we will not get anywhere. You in the bank, and as employees of the bank, should get busy with sorting out the affairs of the banks. Those who are in the agricultural sector know what is happening there. Of course, it is good to mention it, to talk about it and to exhort (the people). But it is not for you to talk about all the problems of the country. I, too, know that everything is in a mess; but what is to be done? What ought to be done is that you who see that the Central Bank- whose employees you are- is in a disorganized state, in a ruined state, should make efforts to set it right. When you reorganize this place, the others who see that such-and-such a place is in disorder, will also take steps to reform it. A short while ago, the mayor of Tehran was here with some members of his staff. Well, they, too, have the same complaint. They must also become busy with the reorganization of the municipality and the city services. We should not just sit down talking about generalities and our problems and entreat God to solve them! No, we should all work. Fortunately, when they used to stage passion plays, they would say that a good actor in such plays was the one who acted out Shimr's «1» role nicely when cast as Shimr, and who acted out Imam Husayn's role nicely when cast as Imam Husayn. If (the one acting as) Shimr were to act like (he were) Imam Husayn, and Imam Husayn like Shimr, it would not make proper passion play.

We are now afflicted with the disorder that they created in the country, ruining it and destroying everything of ours. Worse than everything else was the destruction of our workforce. What was more than all the treacheries they committed against this country was their having destroyed the workforce by various means: setting up centers of prostitution- of which I was not aware, but now I hear that many such centers had been set up by them between Tehran and Karaj, and Shemiran, following which they encouraged the people (to visit these places)- and turning our cinemas, that are supposed to be educative, into another form while encouraging everybody to frequent them. How many centers of narcotics, such as opium, heroin and the like, they set up and how much of these they imported!! According to what the people used to say, they (ex-regime) themselves were instrumental in bringing these( drugs )into the country. And to what a great extent they encouraged the use of these! They ruined the human resources of the country and left. The economy can be repaired within a year or two, or four years, but a person whom they have corrupted and a section of the people, thirty or forty years old, who have become corrupt, will require a lifetime to be changed back into decent human beings; to a state where they ought to develop. This is the hardest blow they have dealt us; it is the very thing that counts for them. They wanted to destroy us and take away everything of ours, with nobody to say anything about it. They were after destroying all our human resources. They wanted to strip us of our strength, either by their widespread propaganda or by exerting pressure and suchlike things. Now that we have taken over (the country's affairs) and wish to set matter right, we gradually have to train the children and the youngsters from now on until that stage is reached. They so changed the elders that very little can be done to reform them.

Those of you working in the bank should not say that the municipality is in a mess and what ought to be done about it. You have to see what is happening in the bank and what ought to be done. Take actions; see what the shortcomings were, where the difficulties lay and how the bank could be organized so as to be useful to our country. Consider the harmful things and the contrary policies. All of you should come to an understanding among yourselves and solve the bank's problems. This is your duty. I, a seminarian, should see what the problems concerning the seminary and the seminarians were, for instance, and busy myself in this matter. The one who is the mayor should find out the problems faced by the municipality and solve them. If done in this manner, if the cooperation is such that each one, in whatever place he works, keeps that place in mind and resolves to correct the problems there, then, after sometime, we will see, God willing, that our municipality, our banks and our agriculture have been set right. All of us together, but in this sense that each one in his own place should set that place right. Just sitting by and expecting the agriculturists to do their job and put the whole country right is pointless; the country cannot be reformed through agriculture alone. And if the agriculturists sit by, expecting the bankers to undertake this task, they, too, will not be able to do so. If all of them want the clergy to handle the matter the clergy also will not be able to do it. If all of us do nothing and want the government to carry out the job, the government, too, will not succeed. But when all of them, in their respective places, cleanse and reform that particular place, the task will become easier and can be carried out.

I hope that God will give you success. The issues that you mentioned are still uppermost in our minds; it is hoped that they will be fulfilled. May God assist all of you. «2» In an Islamic country in which everything is a blessing, we want things to be such that when you enter a bank, it seems as if you have entered a mosque, it should be like that. When we enter a ministry (building) we should feel that we are entering a mosque, a place of worship. Every place should have an Islamic atmosphere in which we are like friends and brothers, helping and supporting one another. If such a state could be realized, God willing, and I am hopeful that it would, every matter would then be rectified. May God assist all of you. I have no further time at present.