Nepotism Causes Trouble for Raisi
Nepotism Causes Trouble for Raisi: Arrest of the Minister of Roads’ Advisor and the Director General of the Ministry of Agriculture’s Security, both on financial charges. The government, which claimed meritocracy, quickly got entangled in controversies, from nepotistic appointments at the start of its term to news of ministers’ close associates being arrested on financial accusations.
Last week, news broke of the arrest of Ghasem Makarem Shirazi, deputy to Rostam Ghasemi, the Minister of Roads and Urban Development, and even the second wife of Rostam Ghasemi. The situation escalated to rumors of his dismissal. Now, a parliament member reports other incidents in the Ministry of Agriculture, a ministry that recently received a yellow card from the parliament.
From the very beginning, Raisi’s government denied nepotistic appointments within its ranks. It was predictable at the time that these appointments would lead to corruption and controversies that would plague the government. Ironically, Raisi himself admitted in November last year, coinciding with the news of nepotistic appointments in the government, that one of the grounds for corruption is the employment of human resources. Therefore, recruitment should focus solely on efficiency and legal and religious qualifications, and we should emphasize to our colleagues to refrain from employing individuals based solely on familiarity and friendship without considering their qualifications.
He had also said that colleagues should be sensitive to the issue of corruption and its potential hotspots and be meticulous in choosing honest and competent colleagues. In this government, selecting individuals solely based on connections is unacceptable.
The Anti-Revolutionary Design
But just a few months later, he denied any nepotistic appointments in the cabinet and regarding criticisms about nepotistic appointments in the government, he stated, ‘I asked those criticizing some of these familial appointments to name five individuals so I could follow up. They said the media had reported it, and we said, compare our government with previous ones. One of our strengths is that we didn’t have nepotistic appointments. There is much hope, and wherever I look, I feel there are openings.’
He also described it as media fabrication. In places where there is media fabrication regarding appointments, if these fabrications are incorrect, defend your performance. However, be aware that meritocracy in the thirteenth government is not just a slogan but the foundation and basis of work. If criticisms of your performance or appointment are correct, you must quickly correct them. When the media published a chart of nepotistic appointments in the thirteenth government, supporting media denied it and wrote that the chart of nepotistic appointments attributed to Raisi’s government has been published.
Fars News Agency also described the rise of discussions on nepotistic appointments as an anti-revolutionary design. The anti-revolutionaries have crafted a game to solidify a mega-narrative in the minds of the audience. The mega-narrative of the responsible relative means that exactly anyone who is a relative of an official in the Islamic Republic of Iran is inherently burned. This individual, whether in a government job or a private one, is condemned to a familial connection with an official in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and this familial connection, regardless of whether it brings them undue benefits and profits, will be a negative label for them.
They are always accused of either being appointed through familial favoritism or managing to secure a private job through it. This is the main goal, but another goal is to reduce the current government’s social capital to hinder its mobility.
Deviations in the Ministry of Agriculture
Ahmad Safaei Delouei, representative of Gonabad and a member of the Parliament’s Economic Commission, told Rouydad 24 that in 1227, about 174 years ago, the late Amir Kabir emphasized that a country cannot be governed based on recommendations from aunts and uncles. Unfortunately, this is a longstanding tradition in our country where we fall into nepotistic appointments. Unfortunately, Mr. Sadati Nejad appointed his brother-in-law, Mr. Nasiri, as the Director General of Security for the Ministry of Agriculture, despite him not having worked at that level before.
He said, ‘I also told this issue to the Minister of Intelligence. When such an appointment is made, it means any deviation in the system will be covered up. Over the past year, we have witnessed deviations in the activities of the Ministry of Agriculture, including multiple violations such as fictitious cotas in the marketplace system, which were selected without tender and highlighted and amplified in the media, gaining added value.
Recently, news came that some deputies were detained for a while, and one person who intended to expose was dismissed, and someone with a PhD in Geography was sent to UNESCO, which was unrelated to their expertise, meaning they were given a favor to keep silent. Additionally, some time ago, another brother-in-law of the minister was arrested over financial issues.
The Deaf Ear of the Government
Representatives who wrote letters and requested Raisi to run for the presidency never imagined that less than two years later, they would witness such events, to the point where the recent representative said these are the corruptions we did not expect in Mr. Raisi’s people’s government, and we expect Mr. President to address them seriously, without consideration or conservatism, and in a fair and just manner. We hope now that the judiciary has entered these corruptions, it fulfills its mission in this regard.
In November last year, Izadkhah, a Tehran representative who had joined the critics of nepotistic appointments in the government, told Raisi, ‘The argument sometimes heard that a manager is appointed from among relatives and they say it’s due to trust is fundamentally wrong. Two questions arise here: Firstly, how many trustworthy relatives do you have that you can fill all positions in the system with them, and secondly, how do you know your relative is trustworthy and the relatives of another manager are not?’
Here, the issue of kinship is a fundamentally wrong basis, and if anyone in the past has set this basis, it was wrong and should not continue. However, it seems there is no receptive ear in the government, even for its allies and supporters.
