President Seyed Mohammad Khatami last week complained that his hands were tied, and that he lacked the necessary powers to uphold the law.

However, it is not clear why the president is making such complaints after some three and a half years in office, since complaints of this nature are usually made at the beginning of the office.

Another important point is that the previous administrations that took office after the victory of the Islamic Republic never made any objections to the Constitution of the Islamic Republic. In other words, former presidents like Mohammad-Ali Rajaei, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani never complained that their hands were tied under the Constitution. Thus, it is not clear what is really behind the call for changing the Constitution under the present administration. Khatami was elected in 1997 on certain promises, and the people have been waiting all this while for those promises to be fulfilled by the president. But now, after some three and a half years, the people are informed by the president that he does not have enough powers to fulfill those promises!

Following the president's complaints, some Majlis deputies including the president's brother Mohammadreza Khatami suggested that the Constitution should be changed in order to give more powers to the president. But another Majlis deputy Mohammad Qomi reminded the MPs that the Majlis has no authority to change the Constitution.

The majority faction deputies who called for the change to the Constitution belong to the political alliance known as 2nd Khordad Front, which also controls the Executive. The call for changing the Constitution was also heard under the former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, when some of his close aides suggested that the Constitution be changed so that he could run a third time for the presidency. The suggestion was made by Ataollah Mohajerani.

The practice of changing the law to serve some factional interests is indeed an ugly phenomenon that may deal a strong blow to social and political structure of the country and set a harmful precedent for the next administrations.

Those Majlis deputies who waste their time and energy discussing trivial issues in Parliament should instead try to find solutions to some serious problems facing the nation like soaring inflation, rising unemployment, rampant corruption and widening social gap in society.