Speech [The importance of orderliness; the difference between Iranian and foreign political parties]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

I may not be able to individually address the various groups that are present here today- among which there are also some war-disabled members- owing to my weak condition and shall therefore limit myself to a few general words.

A very important matter that our workers in factories and mines as well as our government employees should pay serious attention to is the observance of orderliness in every area of their lives. If the mine and factory workers or the employees of a government office choose to function in a disorderly manner, their disorderliness will prevent them from delivering their Islamic and national duties. It, thus, becomes inevitable for all our workers and government employees to observe serious orderliness and to abide by the instructions of their superiors so that, God willing, they achieve success.

You are well aware that in the past fifty years, all our factories and mines were not at the service of the nation. All the pains were taken by our nation whereas our enemy would reap the benefits. You would slog laboriously in the mines like the workers of the petroleum industry while the benefits of your toil would be enjoyed by the enemies of this nation. Now that your country is in your hands today and now that the benefits of your labor are reaped by you, the situation is completely different. It is our duty today to serve this country and to lead it to economic progress so that we are not left dependent upon others. What I am saying is not limited only to a particular group of workers or factories. All the efforts of those who are involved in production work throughout the country are in the interest of their own country and their own nation and they should, thus, work selflessly paying attention to the maintenance of orderliness. If, God forbid, there are any mischief-makers and others who want to create turmoil in the factories do not allow them to succeed and stay wary of all their black propaganda. Any calls for strikes, non-cooperation, and neglect nowadays are treachery to this country and to the Islamic Republic.

These times are unlike the earlier days when you were called upon to go on strike. The strikes in those days impacted the fate of the country. You were asked to go on strikes in order to expel the plunderers from your own country; and with God' grace, you responded positively to those calls and achieved your aims. Today, it is altogether a different story.

Any call for negligence, turmoil, and anti-Islamic actions will be detrimental to you and to your country. Thus, you should remain alert and all the workers and government employees throughout the country should stay alert and refuse to respond positively to any calls for negligence, non-cooperation, strikes, and turmoil and anything that is against law and order. Eliminate those elements that encourage you against working for your nation. This is a general rule applying to one and all.

Another important point that I have repeatedly mentioned earlier and which I once again remind you of today is that we are engaged in a war. We are engaged in a war with the superpowers. And since our enemies intend to enslave our nation and to eliminate our leaders, our nation should get together and exert the same unity that it exhibited in the early days of the Revolution and witnessed its great outcomes. The various groups, parties, and individuals should refrain from creating rifts and disturbances at a time when we are all in need of the unity of expression. Those who intend to eliminate this movement and this revolution and to return our country to the same plight of the days of the taghouti «1» regime are sitting abroad and instigating some internal elements to resort to actions, writings, and words in order to create a split in this revolution and to divide our great nation into various communities, each of them holding the banner of a particular group.

These are the external instigations aimed at individuals or groups, many of whom may even be unaware of their conspiracies.

The evil elements that are sitting abroad and plotting our doom intend to make us cut off our own roots. Bring to mind that following the victory of the nation in the early days of the constitutional revolution various parties were formed and these parties got to each other's throats and ruined the country in the bargain. Do not think that the political groups of the other countries like the parties that were active in the early days of the constitutional revolution in Britain and were busy plotting rifts among us through their group games were acting against their own countries? None of their parties acted against the interests of their own countries. Even if they had differences of opinion in matters of action they were never unreasonable and maintained respectable limits. It was never as if one party would weaken another party to such an extent that it would work against the interest of their country. It is most unfortunate that those same parties that were active in their own countries suggest to us that a country should have various political parties that work against one another and in this way they instigate our various parties to stand in confrontation and to speak and write against each other resulting in loss for our country. The condition of the political parties in other major countries like the Soviet Union- if at all there are any parties there- and Britain, France, and America are different from that of the countries like ours.

You will never find two parties in America, either one of them or both, working against the interests of their own country. You have witnessed how during the recent elections in America, both the parties worked for their own candidate to be elected as the president and yet when one of them won and elected their president the other group did not get busy in demeaning him. Instead they extended their congratulations and busied themselves in serving their country and working toward its progress in unity. However, if countries that lack a powerful political insight form political groups or parties, they do not act the same way when a candidate from the rival party wins on any particular point and neither do they extend their support to him. Instead they stand in opposition and try to undermine him. This nation should open its eyes. These political leaders and statesmen should gain political acumen which is what they lack. They are not sharp enough to gauge what is in the interest of the country. They are instigated by people who are not committed to Islam, from both within and outside of the country, to stand against each other and to work against the interests of their own country.

Let me refrain from quoting a famous proverb. Our behavior is, however, reflective of a condition in which they want to enslave us, our country, and our nation while we are only aiding them in achieving their goal. We are pulling each other down. We are working hard to weaken our own country. As a consequence of our factionalism we weaken the morale of our army, our workers, and our government employees. And this is our gravest error. Even if we have differences of opinion and political differences we should get together peacefully and discuss our issues and resolve them. We should resolve our issues in an atmosphere of understanding instead of undermining each other. We should refrain from standing along with our parties on opposite sides endeavoring to weaken one another and our Islamic country. All this reflects a lack of Islamic commitment and a lack of political insight. If you claim to be Muslims abide by the Islamic decrees. And even if you, God forbid, do not believe in Islamic commitments, you should at least deal with matters with a political insight. What is happening today in the areas of writing, action, and speech is far from a good political approach and totally stem from a non-political and a non-Islamic attitude. I caution the entire country and the entire nation that if you follow those who wish to create rifts between you, no matter who he is, your country will fall into the hands of America.

If the nation finds some individuals or groups that are indulging in factionalism against the interests of the country, one group condemning the other and vice versa, the religious duty of the nation is to avoid them and to reject them.

Check out what is being said or written and see who is ultimately being harmed in the process. Isn't the blow being dealt to the entire nation and the government bodies? You will find that some newspapers have turned into battle grounds and are indulging in non-Islamic means. We have thousands of war-disabled people, some of whom are present here today; we have given thousands of martyrs who have sacrificed their lives and we are sitting in the security of our own homes being sarcastic toward each other, engaged in a battle through our pens and words. Our leaders should take lessons from the old ladies, the youth, and the children of our country. They should know that these people are committed to Islam and they are the ones who support this nation. If you switch on your television you will find that those who are supporting the war as well as those who are war-stricken are none but the weaker sections of the country. They are from the same social classes that you consider as weak and call them the downtrodden. They are the ones who made the Revolution succeed in the first place and made you the leaders of this country. These are the people who are striving to make your country victorious and, whether knowingly or unknowingly, many of you are working toward the destruction of your own country. Stealing the morale of any individual or section of society who are busy serving the country will only work in the favor of the enemies of Islam. The nation should keep its eyes open and should refrain from paying heed to instigation and mud-slinging and should condemn the individuals and groups that are fighting among each other and are weakening each other to the detriment of Islamic interests. The leaders- that is if they have the magnanimity of leaders- must learn from the masses and from these large groups from among us because they are truly devout and are sincerely serving God. Learn from these youth who plead tearfully to me to pray for their martyrdom. Learn from these soldiers who are sincerely sacrificing their lives for Islam and for the Islamic country at the war fronts. You shall all be answerable to God and to mankind tomorrow for the innocent blood of our martyrs. We do not expect anything better from the likes of Saddam. It was quite expected for him to come up with such absurdities at the Ta'if conference. We do not expect anything better from the leaders of the countries that have fallen into the hands of the superpowers; those who supported the Shah and were partners in his crimes and those who are partners in the crimes committed by Saddam today. They can only act upon what their inhuman nature prompts them to do.

Instead of sitting together and discussing ways of supporting Islam, the Muslim countries, the Palestinian cause, and our Islamic movement they are busy plotting on how to create rifts among the various groups of an Islamic country that is striving to introduce the Islamic teachings in all its affairs and wants to abide by the Islamic laws. They are plotting to cause enmity between the Sunni and Shi`ah brothers. We have no expectations from such people. Their evil nature is bound to coerce them into such actions. However, our pain is because of the unexpected behavior of our own friends and the children of this very nation; the ones who have been brought up in this land, and those whose well-being depends upon the welfare of this nation and vice-versa. It is they who hurt us with their most unexpected behavior. We certainly do expect you to honor the blood of these martyrs and to show concern toward these beloved war-wounded people, the war refugees, and to work toward the progress of Islam instead of your selfish heedlessness.

You must keep in mind that the weakening of any stratum of the society, any individual who is serving the country, or any government body that is busy in service to the nation leads to the weakening of the entire nation. It is just like suicide. All these newspapers that are at war with each other and are in search of new ways and means of criticizing the country, criticizing the Islamic Republic, and criticizing different individuals or groups are evil and their pens are also ignorantly at the service of the satanic force. The newspapers and the press should be serving the interests of this nation and Islam. They should share brotherly relations and even if they have differences they should settle them amicably. The newspapers and the press should stand in unity and their pens should not be caustic. Their tongues should not sting like scorpions. You should know that if the human tongue starts stinging like a scorpion, that person will take the form of a scorpion in the other world. The tongues of those who undermine others and gossip about them shall become so long on the Day of Resurrection that it will fall under the feet of the others. This is exactly what is happening today and people are busy stinging each other like snakes and scorpions, either unknowingly or out of spite. I sincerely hope that their behavior is not deliberate and that they are not damaging this country knowingly. I hope I am not compelled to take any severe action. I advise such people to maintain peace and to stop lashing out at each other. I advise them to stop attacking each other. Work jointly toward the progress of this country and resolve your differences in an amicable way. Do not force me to take any strong action in which case I will dismiss you all of the responsibilities I had earlier handed over to you.

I pray to Allah Almighty for the health of all the brothers and sisters of this country and all those who are at the service of this country. And I request Allah to shower His attention and His mercy upon us and to resolve these differences for us.

May God's peace, mercy and blessings be upon you.