Corona in Iran: ‘Incapable Government’ and ‘Power Institutions Engaged in Hoarding’
The latest number of coronavirus patients in Iran was announced as 7,161 people and 237 deaths. A representative of the eleventh parliament said the government is incapable of controlling the crisis and affairs should be handed over to “Jihadi” entities. However, the “Jihadi” entities themselves are accused of hoarding and profiteering.
According to Kianosh Jahanpour, spokesperson of the Ministry of Health, official statistics show confirmed cases of 7,161 people infected with COVID-19 (caused by coronavirus) and 237 deaths from those infected. On Monday, March 19 (March 9), he told ISNA news agency that by noon Monday, 595 new confirmed cases of coronavirus had been registered.
According to Jahanpour, in the last 24 hours alone, 43 newly infected COVID-19 patients have lost their lives. The health ministry spokesperson also announced the list of patients in different provinces, which shows that cases of this disease in Tehran, Qom, Isfahan, and in the provinces of Gilan and Mazandaran have been higher than other parts of the country: “In Tehran 1,945 people, in Qom 712 people, Gilan 524 people, Isfahan 601 people, Alborz 307 people, Mazandaran 633 people” is part of the statistics mentioned in the ISNA report.
Government Accused of Disorder and Poor Planning
The Iranian government is accused of creating catastrophic consequences for the country by failing to provide timely and accurate information to people. This allegation is raised that the Iranian government was aware weeks before the official announcement of the spread of coronavirus, of the entry of this virus and the danger of people’s infection, and even took necessary precautions to prevent Supreme Leader Khamenei from being infected, but refrained from telling the truth to people to encourage them to participate in elections.
But now that the disease has expanded and its victims have increased, the level of criticism of Rouhani’s government, Iran’s president, has also increased significantly. Ardeshir Motahari, representative-elect of the eleventh parliament, in a letter asked Rouhani to review controlling the coronavirus disease in the Supreme National Security Council and appoint “a real command,” “efficient and Jihadi” to be able to “stop the advance of the crisis with full authority, otherwise everything will be too late very soon.”
The eleventh parliament representative pointed to numerous examples of the government’s inability to make decisions and poor planning. “Changes to office hours to closures and ultimately basic disorder and poor planning in the matter of travel bans” which he referred to as a serious management mistake.
According to Ardeshir Motahari “it seems there is no unified center for decisive and final decision-making and everything has been left to its own devices” he also criticized the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Trade for being unable to produce and distribute items needed by people.
What Is the Effectiveness of Jihadi Command at the Helm?
The criticism of the next parliament representative to the government is why the government entrusted the command to the Ministry of Health. He advised the president to entrust the command of dealing with the coronavirus crisis to “which requires coordination of several ministries and governors and military and police forces” to a force that “has the courage and decisiveness of centralized and unified decision-making, can coordinate institutions and organizations, shape centralized and unified information dissemination and have continuous, decisive and efficient oversight of decisions.”
But how much do the institutions that hold real power in Iran care about supporting and protecting citizens against this disease?
On Monday, March 19, Mohammad Mirzabeigi, head of Iran’s Nursing Organization, told IRNA: “The shortage of protective equipment against coronavirus such as masks, gloves, gowns and face protective shields in some medical centers continues and nurses and medical staff in these centers perform care and treatment of patients with great difficulties.”.
Where does this shortage come from? Part of the shortage comes from the concern of citizens trying to secure their needed disinfectants by any means. But the more important part of this shortage has another cause.
Last week, news was published in Iranian media about preventing the export of two million hygienic gloves before loading at Bandar Abbas port. The director general of customs at “Shahid Rajaee” revealed the return of this shipment and its delivery to the Ministry of Health.
But what he referred to as a “concerning issue” was “that in these difficult circumstances, some people by hoarding these goods, endanger people’s lives. We expect the judiciary to deal severely with these individuals and impose the most severe punishments in the shortest possible time for these people. Really how much loss of life do we have to suffer among people and medical staff so that these people’s pockets are filled.”
On March 11, Saeid Namaki, the health minister, in a letter to the president, requested that the export and removal of masks be prohibited until further notice. In this letter he wrote: “Unfortunately, despite extensive follow-up, a small amount purchased and the rest of the country’s production went to the black market.”
The health minister wrote elsewhere in this letter: “Unfortunately, after about 10 days only one million masks were delivered and I don’t know where the rest are accumulated, my colleagues due to round-the-clock obligation in different markets and in the role of intermediary and dealer buy from smugglers at exorbitant prices.”
Saeid Namaki had asked: “Where does this unjust opportunistic network get the audacity to stand so boldly in front of people and officials and easily declare that it can supply 200 million masks in 24 hours at such and such a price at such and such a place?”
In this regard, Mohammad Mohajeri, a conservative media activist, in a tweet referring to the health minister’s letter to Mahmoud Alavi, the minister of intelligence, wrote that whoever can deliver 200 million masks in 48 hours “is certainly a brazen person who is confident he won’t be exposed. Should we wait for his details to be revealed?”
AhlOnline also published the intelligence minister’s response to him on March 12, saying: “Of course we do our duty to discover organized smuggling and we follow up on the health minister’s subject, but ask the minister to send you that merchant’s details.”
A week has passed since this tweet and response. It is still unclear who the people are behind the export of two million hygienic gloves or the hoarding of 200 million masks and which institution these “brazen” people are connected to? Institutions that former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad once referred to as “smuggler brothers” and current government head Hassan Rouhani once referred to as a force that holds both money, weapons, media and economy in its hands.
Lack of Public Trust, Part of the Inability to Control the Corona Crisis
Besides hiding the time of coronavirus entry into Iran and hoarding and exporting materials needed by people and hospitals, what has made citizens even more distrustful of government institutions is the revelation of obvious discrimination in providing necessary facilities to “ordinary” citizens compared to government officials.
Afshin Amirsahahi, editor-in-chief of Hamshahri newspaper, has written in this regard: “Controlling the coronavirus requires public opinion to be on board, but currently the public’s trust in officials has reached its lowest point. In other words, even when an official announces that they have corona, people still don’t believe.”
This may be one of the reasons why government orders don’t easily find receptive ears among citizens. Although the government has asked people to stay home and not use school closures for recreational trips, videos of people rushing to northern Iran are circulating on social networks. Videos that at the same time show the lack of awareness of a significant portion of citizens about the danger threatening them.
According to Mohammad Hossein Ghorbani, the health ministry’s representative in Gilan province, more than 200 people have been killed. Although this news was very quickly deleted from the “Young Journalists Club” website, it was engraved in the memory of social networks and many media outlets.
Besides, on Monday, March 19 (March 9), the observer member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly in the national committee to combat coronavirus warned that “according to national surveys, the peak of this disease is in the next two weeks and provinces with more traffic including Khorasan, Isfahan, Fars, Tehran and Khuzestan have a higher risk of disease peak compared to other parts of the country.”
When Did Corona Really Enter Iran?
In answer to this question there are many contradictory reports. Some sources speak of government officials’ knowledge of the entry of this virus into Iran even a month before the elections. Among officials, no one speaks transparently about the correctness or incorrectness of this news. But there are many statements in this regard that reveal part of the truth.
Among which is what Abolfazl Mousavi, representative from Yazd, said on Monday about how to manage the crisis to IRNA: “When corona spread in China, because officials did not think this virus would reach Iran, they did not take preventive measures. While China is one of Iran’s commercial partners. We have students and merchants in China and flights between them caused the transfer of this virus.”
According to him “perhaps another reason this issue was not taken seriously and neglected was the coincidence of this crisis with the elections.” He asked the government to “communicate with people” and to be “transparent in information dissemination, providing services, distribution and coverage of facilities.”
The Yazd representative also mentioned the shortage of masks and gloves and in addition to that the gross economic damage that the current situation has had on the economic situation of people. Yazd is one of the most important tourist attractions in Iran, but these days there is no sign of tourists in it. He quoted the director general of Yazd’s tourism heritage organization to IRNA saying that tourism in Yazd has stopped and the meaning of this stoppage is 1,000 billion tomans of damage to Yazd province. The situation of other Iranian cities that were tourist attractions of this country does not differ significantly from Yazd. Iran’s economy, under the influence of sanctions, institutionalized corruption in the Islamic Republic, and crisis in Iran’s regional and international relations, has made life unbearable for the majority of people.
Hamdeli newspaper devoted its main editorial to these very troubles and mismanagements and concluded at the end: “The coincidence of these troubles with the continuation of sanctions against Iran and the impact of these sanctions and the policy of ‘neither war nor dialogue,’ on making health vulnerable, the national economy and people’s business, all of these have driven people’s minds to search for a different way of life. In other words, everyone realized that Iranian society needs to meet the needs as soon as possible and analyze the internal and external damages of the country.”
Source: DW
