Iran Chose the Reform

Iran`s President Mohammad Khatami won the election due to the women and the young voters, who supported the reform-open policy of the first term of the Khatami government. The Khatami government seems to go forward with the reform-open policy in a full scale which was opposed by the nation’s conservatives. The major task of the Khatami administration in the second term is to embrace the desire for democracy, which has been intensified for the last 20 years since the revolution in 1976, through the reform policies. The Khatami administration’ economic reform policies, such as the privatization of the state-run-industries, and the reform of the regulations with regard to the clothing and cultural activities were slowly carried out. The biggest protest by the college students in July 1999 since the Islam revolution took place due to the slow reform.

Another task of the Khatami administration is to revive the economy which was in trouble due to the war with Iraq and the economic sanction by the U.S. The trade surplus in the last fiscal year amounted to $ 12 billion and the economic growth rate increased by 5 percent. However, societal dissatisfaction has been growing because the allocation of the growth benefit has not been made fairly along with the 25 percent of the inflation and the 20 percent of unemployment rate.

It is anticipated that President Khatami will visit the U.S. and discuss the release of the economic sanction by the U.S as well as the capital investment based on the success of the diplomatic activities during his first term.

These is a possibility that the conservative party will restrain the Khatami government more strongly during the second term than before. The conservative party still has control over the judiciary, the military and the police. The country`s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the former president Ali Hashemi Rafsanzani are in the center of the conservative power.

However, the conflict between the reformist and the conservative will not lead to the breakdown of the Islamic Republic because the reform of the society will be carried out based on the premise that the reformist party, like the conservative party, acknowledges the Islamic values, as President Khatami emphasized in his election campaign.

Kwon Ki-Tae kkt@donga.com