Speech [Taking decisive action to deal with mischief and conspiracies]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

With every passing day of this revolution, I realize more and more that our people acted earnestly [as was appropriate] but we did not. We are either at fault, or are powerless. But in any case, we must answer to the nation. The people threw out that" embodiment of corruption" [i. e. the toppled Shah of Iran] and achieved partial victory. When it came to our turn, none of us acted in a revolutionary manner. If we had the experience of revolutions- that is, if we had been defeated in a revolution, and then had staged another one- we would have not acted in such a way. The people carried out the revolution correctly, but we failed to carry out the crucial measures back then; and that is why we face so many problems today and we will have more ahead unless we make up for our faults in a revolutionary (drastic) manner. You see that for a long time, we have been repeatedly announcing national mourning and we keep on attending funerals or participate in demonstrations for condemning the various assassinations or hold commemorative services. Our pasdars are being massacred like this (so easily), and that is because we did not conduct the revolution as we should have. If we had, we would not be facing so many problems. For example, at that time that they wanted to go to negotiate with the rebels in Kurdistan, I had told them to negotiate from a position of strength. I told them that the army, the pasdars and such forces must first surround the area and the rebels, and then they must negotiate with them. Now how many of the pasdars have been martyred in the past several days? Our faults are the result of our [the heads of the Islamic Republic] being of two backgrounds. Some of us were just out of [theological] school, and some others had just returned to the country. Neither were we experienced in revolution, nor did they possess the revolutionary spirit. Neglect occurred and resulted in those prolonged troubles arising for us and causing so much damage. We made a big mistake in appointing the temporary government, which I thought necessary at the time. We should have set up a young and decisive government from the beginning that would have been able to administer the country, not a government that is unable to do so. The problem back then was that we did not have enough competent individuals; we were not acquainted with them (enough) so that we select them. Thus the temporary government was appointed. It was a big mistake. And now that the [new] government is supposed to be approved by the Majlis, the latter should make sure that an earnest, religious and one hundred percent Islamic government be approved. If there is one individual in the proposed cabinet similar to the present cabinet members, they should not approve of the cabinet. The ministers' (backgrounds) must be reviewed one by one. We need decisive, religious and one hundred percent Islamic ministers. If the new government turns out like the previous [provisional] government, with the background and outlook, we should say farewell to this movement; and there would be no chance of succeeding. We must, therefore, make up for the past mistakes.[Another mistake was freeing members of the SAVAK]. We should not have forgiven them. They [i. e. some of the liberals] insisted that those agents of SAVAK who had not killed anyone should be pardoned. But that was a mistake. Now those of the people whom were freed are scattered all over the country, and are busy hatching plots. We mistakenly let that group go and also [another mistake] we did not arrest others that we should have.

If we had acted from the beginning like the other revolutions carried out all over the world; that is if we had shut all the country's doors and had blocked the movements in and out of the country and had crushed the opponent groups and had been harsh with them, we would not be experiencing so many problems. We would not have been holding mourning ceremonies nor having so many (people) martyred every day. That is past [and we cannot do anything about it]. We ask for God's forgiveness.

Those mistakes should not be repeated. The government and the Majlis must act decisively. If there are still individuals in the Majlis that play the same tune and hold the same opinions [as the liberals in the temporary government], others must not pay heed to them. The Majlis must act determinedly. And if the government wants to take a wrong step, they [representatives in the Majlis] must determinedly ask the government to correct itself, and must block that wrong action. From the beginning, the Majlis must make sure that all the ministers and all the members of the cabinet understand what has taken place in our country. They must understand the situation we are in right now. They must understand how Islam ought to be implemented in this country. Lots of these individuals do not even care about such issues. None of the present ministries are sound ones. Almost every day we have reports from other countries that Iran's embassy in that country is not functioning appropriately. We receive reports that Iran's possessions in the embassies are being destroyed. Iran has millions of dollars worth of possessions which are going to waist, and many houses of value that have been built are falling into ruin. And there is no one to follow up on them. We have nobody to look into these matters. There is much talk. They [i. e. the authorities in the temporary government] keep coming and saying that everything is going fine! But it is not true. The Majlis should assemble a committee of competent figures to go over to those countries where we have embassies and reform them. They should get rid of the corrupt personnel and these" Savakis" so that we could have proper embassies. All the embassies that we have right now are corrupt. They [i. e. the personnel of the embassies] having nothing to do but gluttony, having fun and fornication. They must be put right. This is not right; we claim that we have had an Islamic republic for the past two years, but nothing actually has been Islamic. Wherever you look, you can see that nothing is right. The ministries are the same. This situation cannot persist for long. We cannot stand the fact that these men [i. e. the liberal figures in the temporary government] want to arrange things according to their own way of thinking which has been developed in Europe. We want to implement Islam. One of these liberals had come to me crying as to why some of these individuals [left over from the Shah's regime] were being executed! Not these recent ones, but those that Aqa Khalkhali «1» had (ordered to be) executed. They [i. e. the pro-West liberals] do not realize that while Islam is education (in itself) it is also the religion of education. Those who do not improve through should be dealt with (drastically). An example is the execution of seven hundred Jews of the Bani Quraydah in the presence of the Holy Prophet and under his command after he saw that they could not be persuaded to desist from their wrong doings. They [i. e. the pro-West liberals] are uttering the same Western thoughts that we must just educate [the criminals and not take any harsh measures in punishing them]; that we must first educate everyone and then carry out punishments. It is strange that if someone consumes alcoholic beverages [which is prohibited according to Islamic law] right now, we should not punish him/ her; we have to first correct his mind! This is nonsense. The penalties must be implemented. The ministries must be put set right.

The Majlis is officially starting its work today. With the formalization of the Majlis, it must carry out reforms in all spheres. This means that it must put into use its utmost power to approve a resolute and one hundred percent Islamic government possessing the necessary powers. It should examine the government activities: what is going on in the ministries and in the provincial governments. The Majlis must ask the government for explanation regarding its activities. If the government does wrong, the Majlis must utilize its impeachment power to put things right. If our army had acted appropriately we would not be struggling with the Balouchistan and Kurdistan problems. They [i. e. the authorities in charge] are not fulfilling their duties as they should. Of course there are some who are working hard; I do not intend to ignore their endeavors [and be ungrateful], but [over all] they are neglecting their duties. They do not follow up their tasks. They ought to be impeached for the death of fourteen persons there, and the brutal manner in which they were murdered. Why should this happen? Why has not any appropriate action been taken against the rebels who have camped in the mountains? Why are not they being exterminated? All these are because of the heads of our army not being revolutionary in their outlook. And the same applies to the ministries, and the government. None of us are revolutionary. And because of this we will be hurt, and have already been hurt. When will all this mourning cease? Until when should we have these mourning ceremonies? Until when should our innocent youth be kept on getting murdered and their efforts unappreciated? Till when should they be belittled? They keep on getting killed and even humiliated. They keep on getting killed and keep on getting contradicted. Until when must we bear all this? These affairs must be set right.

The judiciary must also be reformed. The Islamic judicial system must not remain in the hands of these people (liberals); the ones that are there at present. Which one of them is an Islamic judge. Which one? Which one of them could you point to who could judge according to Islamic law? Of course, we must totally put aside the issue of having judges who are" fully qualified jurisprudents"! «2» There are not enough of such individuals; we do not have enough of them to cover our needs in the judiciary. What I want are judges who are familiar with Islamic law- even if it be by adopting the practices of the religious reference authorities- and who realize what judging [according to Islam] is and how it should be performed. If we do not take earnest action to put the judiciary right, and are neglectful in purging it, our troubles will persist for ever. Our judiciary has problems, and so does our army as well as all our departments. We must not henceforth conduct our affairs in the way we have been doing. We must make up for our faults. We must endeavor to fulfill our duties with all our strength. We do not have any special ties with anyone. We obey Islam and want to implement Islamic law. If Islam is not going to be implemented in a ministry, we will shut it down. A ministry which is harmful to Islam and to the Islamic Republic is worthless. The Majlis authorizes the budget but the concerned minister, for example, does not provide the necessary funds; and thus problems develop. Everything gets upset. Some individuals in the government are not revolutionary in their outlook. They believe that we must be indulgent, regarding this and that, at present.

These individuals not sympathetic with the Revolution must not be appointed as ministers. And Mr. Bani Sadr «3» must not propose such people for approval to the Majlis, and if he does, the Majlis must reject them and must not pay any heed (to the criticism of others), except if that person is capable of holding that position. The individuals approved must adhere to Islam. They must not be negligent. They must be supportive of the Revolution so that we could preserve our country. If the government continues in the same way, we must be ready to mourn the demise of the Islamic Republic, and of everything [pertaining to Islam]. You see how they [i. e. the secular liberals] are begging to permit the nationalistic trend persist for some time suggesting that we must wait a while to see how it works! How much harm has the nationalistic movement caused us? I do not want to go into details regarding the damage that was done to us back at that time when the" nationalistic" movement was dominant, and what harm that person «4» whom they (the nationalists) praise so much, did to us! I do not want to talk about our students of the Madrasah Faydiyyah being machine-gunned at that time, just as the clergymen were machine-gunned during the time of Pahlavi. Mr. Ha'iri and I went to the Faydiyyah School[ the site of the slaughter ]to help the wounded. The doctors did not dare certify that they were wounded [fearing SAVAK persecution]. They [i. e. the secular nationalist liberals] must withdraw from the scene! They must go and get lost! They must be disbanded. We cannot tolerate the various desires of the different groups [of the liberals]. Some want a democracy. Some others desire secular nationalism to rule. And others favor an Islamic nationalistic state. All these trends have been harmful to us. We just want Islam and nothing but Islam. The Majlis must be Islamic. The thoughts circulating in the Majlis must be Islamic so that we can accomplish our tasks. I cannot stand to witness the killing of our youths as the result of our negligence. We must put aside negligence. And now that the Majlis has been established and has started its work officially, it must oversee all the affairs of the country in accordance with its own procedures. It must carry out its duty firmly and without any shirking and must impeach any offending deputy. And if he/she is really proven guilty, the Majlis must hand him/her over to the courts to stand trial. And this is why all the Islamic Revolutionary Committees, all headquarters of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps and all the Revolutionary Courts must continue their service with utmost strength. The courts must have the same power as before. Of course it is your [i. e. the Supreme Judicial Council] duty to replace the corrupt and incompetent judges. But these bodies which were formed as the result of the Islamic Revolution must remain without any alteration so that the affairs are conducted according to the needs of the post-revolutionary state. We cannot let these affairs be conducted in the way- as in the pre-revolutionary period- the judiciary, for example, wants. We have been through a revolution and thus the affairs cannot be managed normally. We have been making mistakes [for the past two years]. We have to admit that we have been wrong in conducting our work in that manner. Such mistakes must not continue any longer; we must seriously get to work. We must act forcefully and firmly. This is what I have to say, and I am sure that you gentlemen agree. You have held the same opinion from the beginning and so from now onwards, we must act in the same way.