Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei received and addressed a meeting of government officials including President Rouhani on Wednesday in the occasion of National Week of the Government, commemorated August 22-29. He lavished praise upon the government as a body working through thick and thin and difficult situations during three years of the incumbency and recommended that the government exhaust every opportunity to serve the nation in the remaining year of the administration; “the week provides government to present the nation with their record of service,” he asserted.
He turned then to the critical issue of the presidential elections of May 2017, suggesting that the government should not be unduly engaged in electoral boiling pot; “for government, in its last days in the office, the best option is avoiding electoral propaganda and instead, focusing on action to serve the nation; this is the best alternative for the cabinet to promote itself in the eyes of the public,” Ayatollah Khamenei told the meeting.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution bunderlined that any plan to implement Resistance Economy entailed mobilization of all resources in all sectors including agriculture and industry and elicit their participation; “discourse-building is a prerequisite in putative plan to which officials should attend with utmost attention and loyalty so that its objectives be met; in the past 12 years, country’s unswerving movement forward in aerospace, nanotechnology, nuclear and biotechnologies has been the outcome of such dominant discourse which promoted greater movement in software and technology; such a discourse would be a boon for Resistance Economy as well,” he added.
Ayatollah Khamenei then provided some of actions that would serve implementation of Resistance Economy; “devolving authority and decision-making to peripheries and provinces, channeling liquidity and bank resources to production, timely payment of farmers to improve their lots in agriculture, and bringing a strong focus to rural areas and small industries; on the other hand, some other issues would provide merely impediments: bureaucracy and unnecessary paperwork and overregulation, which at best discourage entrepreneurs and businesses; an important requirement comes also from supporting nascent hi-tech companies,” he detailed.
On foreign policy, Ayatollah Khamenei told the meeting that he had been supporting diplomacy, however recommending that diplomatic resources should be distributed evenly to all regions in international community; “Asia, Africa, and Latin America should receive due quotas from country’s foreign policy; with the US, JCPOA well indicated that she should not be trusted anymore due to her sheer misconduct and failure in restoring our confidence on the US; major part of my criticism addressed this lack of commitment by some members of 5+1 and our negotiators did a good job through 2 years of hectic negotiations which I appreciate their good offices,” he told the meeting.
Leader however criticized slowing pace of the scientific growth in recent years; “we lag behind the world in this issue and no other way would serve our purpose unless we accelerate this pace through a scientific discourse promoted among the elites,” he briefly said.
He believed that ‘religious and Revolutionary sentiments’ provide the country with strong shield against threats; “in no circumstances would this shield be allowed to be weakened and or broken under pressures; this said, however, I do not advocate dogmatism and cultural despotism, but I have a genuine belief on free thinking; however, this would not be translated as excessive tolerance in grave matters and allowing enemies to infiltrate and sabotage,” the Leader emphasized.
Ayatollah Khamenei recommended the government on cyberspace; “nowadays, cyberspace is a highly growing domain, with bewildering speed, and would not be stopped or curbed; it however provides great opportunities and great threats; the general policy should be making much of this growing ground and warding off its threats; to this objective the Supreme Council of Cyberspace has attended, and in line with this, National Data Network should be established soon,” he recommended.
He closed his address touching upon highly debated issue of inordinate salary bills of some government officials popularly dubbed ‘astronomical salaries’ case; “the issue should not be easily glossed over; public trust has been hugely damaged; people compare their earnings with huge sums wondering why they they have been paid in such a manner, and which would not be justified by any legal or conventional criteria; the Judiciary should intervene if the situation demand to try to expiate at least part of the damage to public’s trust to the Establishment.”
SH/3751091
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