Brain Drain Ministry?
Of all the countries in the world, Iran is number one in the rate of brain drain. Intellectuals, scientists, and young university graduates are leaving the country in droves. Something must be done about this soon. This will lead to a national catastrophe.
The Majlis majority faction Tuesday refused to ratify Reza Faraji-Dana as the country's new science minister. He was nominated for the position nine days ago by President Mohammad Khatami. Of the 220 MPs present, 127 voted to reject Faraji Dana's nomination, 86 approved it, and seven abstained. Khatami nominated Faraji Dana for the position of minister of science, research and technology after Mostafa Moin resigned in protest against a bill to reform his ministry. Khatami accepted his resignation on August 23. Dana holds masters and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Waterloo University in Canada.
In his resignation letter, Moin said he could no longer tolerate the "poisonous political atmosphere" created by the conflict between rival factions. Speaking in the Majlis on Tuesday in defense of his nominee for science minister, Khatami said that students today feel humiliated, warning that humiliating students and university lecturers is detrimental to the Islamic Republic. "Those opposed to politicizing universities want a dead university and a cold and lifeless society," he said. "Let me be blunt -- the students have many concerns, and they possibly feel humiliated. And humiliating students and lecturers deals a blow to the Islamic Republic."
Khatami said universities are political in their very nature, adding that students are clever enough to avoid being swayed by outside institutions or power camps. Elsewhere in his remarks, the president recalled the role of universities and students in the triumph of the 1979 Islamic Revolution and in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, stressing that university students had always been the vanguard in the defense of Iran's territorial integrity and national sovereignty.
However, Ahmad Pournejati, an MP of the Majlis majority faction, said a person with no political background cannot take the helm of the higher education ministry. Pournejati said the MPs should vote for a person who has been politically active during his academic career, adding that the reformist Parliament cannot accept a neutral and apolitical person, which could lead to political zeal subsiding (at universities). While noting that the Majlis should not act based on government orders, he told parliamentarians, "Choose a person who has had an active political record during his academic career. The minister should be a sophisticated and political person." The chairman of the Majlis Cultural Commission said, “I have no objection to his scientific knowledge, but I consider his political and managerial record to be insufficient.” Majlis Speaker Mahdi Karrubi expressed regret about the Majlis rejection of the proposed minister.
After Tuesday's open session of the Majlis, Karrubi told reporters that he briefed MPs on President Khatami's message which said that Faraji-Dana was the best choice for the post. MP Gholam-Ali Haddad Adel said that the Majlis should have shown respect to Khatami by approving his nominee, stressing that this showed that there is a rift between the ideals of the Majlis and Khatami. Haddad Adel told the Mehr News Agency that the rejection of the nominee was a test for the Majlis, so the people should begin to realize the nature of its performance. The least that the Majlis was expected to do was to vote for Khatami's choice because he had carefully investigated the issue beforehand, he said. "The Majlis vote showed that the viewpoint of the Majlis is different from the president's," he added. Haddad Adel, who chairs the Majlis minority faction, said his camp had taken no position on rejecting or approving Faraji-Dana. Political Desk