From Nourbakhsh to Abdolmaleki, Iran on the Brink of Economic Collapse
From Nourbakhsh to Abdolmaleki, Iran on the Brink of Economic Collapse. According to Iran Gate, the thirteenth government taught everyone that relying on the illusory concept of Islamic economics could lead to a full-blown disaster in governance. This disaster has been caused by the academic and theoretical poverty of the government, and unlike previous periods when the government was under this ideological current, there is almost no way back for the country.
These days, the debate about comparing the managers of Ebrahim Raisi’s government with the ministers and managers of past government periods in Iran is very heated. However, the problem is not that managers like Mohsen Nourbakhsh are personally more capable than the managers of the thirteenth government led by Seyed Ebrahim Raisi. Many believe that Ebrahim Raisi’s government is not only facing a shortage of competent managers but is also devoid of content, and this is its biggest problem.
Iran Gate, in a two-part series, has examined the fundamental weaknesses of the thirteenth government. The present report is the second part of this series, which addresses the weakness of Ebrahim Raisi’s government’s economic team.
Before the Astonished Eyes of the People
Not a day goes by without the decisions and statements of the thirteenth government’s managers leaving the public astonished. These statements, which do not even go beyond the conversations in the bakery line and taxi, are presented very simplistically. The more worrying point is that these populist statements are not limited to parliament representatives or high-ranking government managers. Even Ebrahim Raisi’s irrelevant and contentless speeches do not cause as much astonishment and anxiety as the statements of the thirteenth government’s middle managers do.
In any case, this scene is unfolding before the people’s eyes, leaving the public with their jaws dropped and in astonishment. The result of this weak and disastrous display by Raisi’s government is the erosion of people’s trust in the efficiency of the Islamic Republic system. A trust that had suffered severe damages at various times but has been dealt the harshest blow with the arrival of incompetent government managers.
The Helm is in the Hands of Middle Managers
It is a well-known saying that the burden of managing countries and governance structures always falls on middle managers. Managers who are appointed by the president with one intermediary and work at the highest level as deputy ministers. Therefore, it is said that the helm of governments in various governance systems is practically in the hands of middle managers.
The Spread of Incompetence in the Country’s Management Body
As mentioned, the role of the country’s middle managers is very prominent, and in fact, this part of the country’s management body can lead to the success or failure of governments. However, in Iran, it has been customary for the composition of middle managers to undergo extensive changes with the change of government. This is while such an approach does not exist in developed countries, and middle managers undergo the least changes as much as possible.
But with the rise of Ebrahim Raisi’s government in 2021, not only did we witness a repeat of the busload changes in the country’s management body, but we also unprecedentedly witnessed widespread purges among middle and even lower-level government managers. Perhaps the extensive changes in the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Culture can be remembered as the main symbols of this approach in the thirteenth government.
Hojatollah Abdolmaleki, in the early days of his appointment as Minister of Welfare, announced the widespread purge of managers and even employees of this ministry. In the fall of 2021, he announced the dismissal of more than 800 senior and lower-level managers and promised the dismissal of 400 more managers in this field in the coming weeks.
The Ministry of Culture did not undergo changes on the scale of the Ministry of Welfare, but Ebrahim Raisi’s Minister of Culture announced extensive changes among the managers of this ministry. Recently, he also unveiled the recruitment of 400 young, revolutionary, and Hezbollah-affiliated forces, which also faced public reactions on social networks.
If You Sow the Wind, You Will Reap the Whirlwind
It has long been said that whoever sows the wind will reap the whirlwind. The result of Ebrahim Raisi’s destructive approach and his appointed ministers in the field of extensive and unprecedented changes is the current economic situation of the country. On the other hand, political and social gaps in the country have deepened, and many fault lines, such as the issue of hijab, have been activated. But specifically in the field of economics, the government’s management team is so inefficient that they are even unable to solve the smallest livelihood issues of the people.
However, in this part of the discussion, we must refer back to the first part of this series, which pointed out the theoretical poverty of Ebrahim Raisi’s government and emphasized the lack of content in the Islamic economic manifesto. When ministers and the president do not have a powerful discourse in the field of country management, the country will undoubtedly face problems. But things get critical when such a poor government takes action to purge middle and lower-level managers.
Because the quality of appointments below the level of minister and deputy minister gradually declines, and practically, in the final loops of the country’s management chain, we will witness the presence of complete incompetents, a phenomenon that is now clearly observable in Raisi’s government and has taken the future of the country hostage. In other words, it must be said that Ebrahim Raisi sowed the wind in the summer of 2021, but it is not only him and his allies who will reap the whirlwind; it is the people of Iran who must bear the cost of incompetent governance over the country.
From Nourbakhsh to Abdolmaleki, Iran on the Brink of Economic Collapse
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