Statements to the Members of the Administrative Council of Bushehr Province

In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

At the outset, it is necessary to express my sincere appreciation to all of you dear brothers and those responsible for serving the devout, noble, and genuine people of this region, who truly strive and perform group work in this remote area with difficult climatic conditions. I sincerely thank you for your efforts.

Every task you perform for the people, in any position or capacity, is a good deed; and in addition to benefiting the people, if it is a lasting and genuine work, it is a continuous charity. In the great divine system—where the connections between actions and their outcomes are very complex and extensive, and our limited intellect cannot comprehend and analyze these relationships—your actions will remain and yield their good effects, and you will see their fruits both in this world and in the hereafter, on the day when every person is in need of the good deeds and charity they have sent forth.

If what you do is accompanied by the necessary elements, namely strength, durability, sincerity, and precision—as the Noble Prophet said: 'May God have mercy on the person who performs a task and perfects it'—and if there is no shoddy work, short-sightedness, or negligence, then the description and expression of someone like this humble servant cannot convey its value. God willing, all of you will be included in these matters, and with each passing day, you will add a line and a page to your work record in the divine register, which is more precise than human registers.

It is also necessary to sincerely thank our honorable minister, the staff of the water organization in this region and the Fars region—which apparently is one—and our active, sincere, and good-spirited governor, and each of you who have contributed to this work and other tasks in some way.

Your province, despite having much deprivation and bitterness, fortunately also has much sweetness and beauty. Let me mention some of the sweetness of your presence in this province:

The first sweetness of this work is the cohesion that the governor mentioned; this is a very valuable thing. Where hearts are not united and hands and tongues work against each other, it is hell for someone who can live with love and affection. Here, thanks be to God, it is paradise; 'Paradise is where there is no harm'; there is no harm towards each other here; rather, there is cooperation. This should be attributed primarily to the good-heartedness, nobility, wisdom, honesty, and sound action of these two dear officials of the province: Mr. Fazel Ferdowsi, the good, enlightened, active, and sincere Friday prayer leader here, and our dear governor, whose biography you know and was mentioned. Thanks be to God, this meaning prevails at various levels; preserve and maintain it, as it is the sweet foundation of your work.

The second sweetness of this work is that you serve people here who are naturally and artificially deprived. They are naturally deprived because in corrupt and false systems, any point far from the center—whether political or human center—becomes deprived due to the flawed geometry of that system. In corrupt and false systems, anyone or any institution closer to the center of power is more privileged, and any institution farther from the center of power is naturally more deprived, unless it can somehow sustain itself by force! This is a flawed geometry that has always existed in false systems, and it existed in the monarchical Iran as well. Something that no one in the center thought about was alleviating deprivation in deprived areas. If you ever observed that during that era, some work was done that somehow served the deprived—which was rare and scarce—it was not inherently for alleviating deprivation; it was not out of compassion for the deprived; it was for another purpose. Suppose they built a road for a certain base to facilitate the Americans' connection to the sea area by land; or they built a road to connect the member countries of the CENTO pact; of course, four cities and villages would also use this road. To prevent a region from raising its voice, they were sometimes forced to do something for that region; but if they were not afraid of a region and did not find their own goal fulfilled there, that region would remain in absolute isolation!

After the revolution, we saw places in this vast and large country that, despite having a large population, had not smelled of prosperity; deprivation had become a secondary nature of some areas—mainly remote areas; especially those areas that did not have a strategic aspect for that regime and there was no goal or work there, there was neither a railway nor a proper asphalt road, nor were the people informed about water and electricity, nor were the people informed about communications, nor were there any factories there; this was the nature of that regime!

Fifty years of damage is necessary for a land and region to become accustomed to deprivation as a nature! Fifty years passed in this regard! May God not forgive the leaders of these two vile and cursed regimes—the Qajar regime and the Pahlavi regime—that ruled this country for about two hundred years and left bad memories in the corners of this country; they left bad signs of division, discrimination, inhumanity, and neglect of the people.

Before the revolution, I spent periods in the Baluchistan region. Until 1979, when I was there, perhaps you know, perhaps you do not know that they still called the Persians 'Gujar'—meaning Qajar! Of course, thanks be to God, after the revolution, this perception has changed. The Qajar regime had done something there and left a mark that the word Qajar—and in their local dialect 'Gujar'—meant savage, ruthless, heartless, and untrustworthy! Perhaps our and your Bushehr region was one of the places where that vile regime with its inhuman and anti-human policy insisted on keeping it deprived because of the history of this people's struggles with the British. After all, if people showed that they had valor, they were unyielding to foreigners, they were enemy-fighting, these people had to be somehow suppressed; there is no doubt!

This Bushehr region and Laristan and some other areas of Fars, because they had a history of anti-British sentiment—which some of them are recorded in history, most people know; many of them perhaps even you do not know and these are unfortunately not yet recorded in official history—naturally, the temperament of that regime leaned towards indifference to this region; in addition to what I said, the nature of their system was that any place far from the center had to be deprived; like a garden with incorrect leveling; when you pour water, it will not reach every part of this garden. A leveled garden is one where if you pour water from one side, the channels distribute the water equally to the base of each plant. When the leveling is incorrect, water does not reach certain points at all. Therefore, the leveling of an anti-human system is incorrect.

As I mentioned, artificial deprivation was also imposed. Because they had animosity and enmity and hatred towards this place, the usual temperament and nature of that regime was not compatible with such places. In fact, this place was an exile, Ganaveh was an exile, Borazjan was an exile, Deylam was an exile, Deyr was an exile. An ordinary person who was not subject to wrath should not be brought to live here; the wrathful people should be brought here. A place where a regime sends its wrathful people, what should be the nature of that regime towards that place? It is clear; it should be a nature of barrenness and lack of grace. In such places, they had set the foundation on this.

The Islamic Republic does not have that flawed geometry; on the contrary, there is a kind of centrifugal and decentralizing nature in the Islamic Republic. It may be forcibly deviated from this nature in some cases; but the nature of the system and the planning of the system is the same. Not even two months had passed since the victory of the revolution when Imam Khomeini (may his soul be sanctified) gave me a mission and sent me to Baluchistan and said since you have a background in Baluchistan issues, go there and address the deprivation of that region; this was the first sign of a movement; while Imam had not gone to Baluchistan! This is a state that springs from the nature of the system.

You should go to deprived places. Now there is an office for deprived areas in the presidency, which our dear Mr. Basharti is responsible for, and I have a great affection for him because of this issue. The budget of this office is separate from the natural budgets and planning of the country. Yes:

Do not despise the poor and needy man

When you see a handleless jug, lift it with both hands

A deprived region naturally escapes from under the hand and is not noticed; therefore, the Islamic Republic government has created an office for such areas; this is the nature of the Islamic Republic system.

Of course, we must admit that we have not yet reached the amount that is needed and the right of these areas; but it must also be accepted fairly that this has not been due to negligence; because a country that has had eight years of war, part of its construction capabilities has been spent on war. Countries that have one year of war collect the remnants of war for ten years! We had eight years of war; and such a war. Alongside the war, we were economically besieged; malice was done to us; there were also infrastructural shortages from the past. It must be said that now construction work is being done extraordinarily. I am a witness and I see what our dear and active president and ministers are doing; they are constantly striving to bring the work to fruition.

What directly relates and connects to you dear brothers is that you consider serving the deprived people of this region as one of the sweetnesses of work here. We should not neglect any work we can do for these deprived people. This is the place where if a person, after finishing their administrative work, sees that there is work to be done, they should know that God Almighty and the angels and the noble scribes will count those extra moments of work as multiplied good deeds. Work as much as you can. This work is not for getting overtime pay; overtime pay is less than to be compared with such work. This work should be done for the writing and recording of the noble scribes—the best and most generous and noble writers.

Sometimes a person is tired, thinks it would be good to rest a bit; then sees that there is a remaining task; says if I do this task, a knot—albeit small—will be untied. How beautiful and virtuous it is for a person to do that task at that moment.

Another point that can also be considered among the beauties and eloquences of your work is that these people are very good, understanding, intelligent, noble, and honest people. In the trips we make to some areas of the country—in the presidency period it was the same—people come and give their letters to our 'public relations' brothers. Sometimes a large sack of people's letters is collected, which of course not a single one is left unread; they read and sort them. Naturally, some individuals present at the speech have letters, which they give. The letters collected yesterday afternoon were brought to me today sorted. The impression of our 'public relations office' members—who are responsible for this task—was that these people have more modesty, dignity, and self-sufficiency. If we did not know that these people are deprived, we would say they probably do not have deprivation and trouble; but we know well that this is not the case; we know they have deprivation; we know they have a lot of needs. So, the factor is something else; it is modesty.

While it is easy to write a letter and there are dozens of hands ready to take people's letters, and wherever I go for my trips, all those who are with me are tasked with taking people's letters and directing them to a specific center; that is, it is easy to give the letter, but they did not give a letter! Those who gave letters, those who wrote, wrote with modesty! You see, this is a very important and valuable trait; this is very human.

Today until noon, several thousand people came in front of me and greeted and shook hands with me and left. Among these several thousand people—certainly hundreds of families of martyrs, freedmen, and veterans were also there—those who told me we are the father of a martyr, or the son of a martyr, or a veteran, or a freedman, or our son is a freedman, or our husband is a freedman, were not even ten! This is the same dignity and modesty. For popular groups, these are very strange and valuable traits. One's heart desires to work for these people; because they are so good and worthy.

Today, the Islamic Republic system has proven to the most skeptical analysts in the world that it is a lasting system. We do not want to make predictions—my intention is not to predict—although predictions can also be made. The nature of this system is not a nature of decay. Some systems come to power by force; like a dead person who has a few sticks under their arms and is propped up there; many systems are like this. You see, until two years ago—or perhaps until a year ago—the Soviet Union was still a superpower; chests were broad, stature tall, standing, with its long arms overshadowing Eastern Europe, part of Africa, part of Asia, and thus extending to the communist parties of the world. If a system truly has stability and strength and its four main pillars are healthy, can it be crushed and fragmented in a year like this?! So, that system you see standing like that was also baseless and without foundation; as the Quran says, 'uprooted from above the earth, it has no stability'; it was like a tree without roots.

We saw in those years of the tyrant's rule that when the Shah came to Mashhad, no one went to welcome him; and because they wanted to give a face to the route he passed through, which had no trees or landscaping, I had seen that the incompetent mayors and the corrupt governors of those years brought green trees and planted them on the surrounding soils of that street which was his route! If they were unlucky and his arrival was delayed by four days, all the trees would have dried up!

The Quran says: 'And the parable of a bad word is like a bad tree, uprooted from the surface of the earth, having no stability'; a bad word is like a bad tree that grows on the earth and has no roots; but 'the parable of a good word is like a good tree, its root is firm and its branches are in the sky. It gives its fruit every season by the permission of its Lord.' A good tree always bears fruit; it does not recognize spring, summer, autumn, or winter; these leaves and branches are constantly blossoming and bearing fruit. When we see that the system is a rooted system and is bearing fruit, then it is a good word; it is not perishable. But if we ourselves bring a calamity upon the tree; suppose like some animals, we gnaw the leaves of the tree; or strike the trunk of the tree with an axe and saw—not that it cannot be destroyed—the tree will dry up. The sinful hand of man can also dry up this good tree. If we act poorly, this good tree and this divine work and divine structure and divine provision can be ruined. The destructive power of man is beyond these words. Just as the constructive power of man is limitless, his destructive power is also limitless.

This tree is naturally standing; today the world has understood this. The Islamic Republic system is not a system that we should wait for a certain event to happen, so its leaves wither. One day they said maybe we can destroy this system with war, one day they said maybe we can change the shape of the system with the passing of Imam Khomeini (may his soul be sanctified), one day they said maybe we can destroy the system by creating internal conflicts; but they realized that nothing can be done; this system must be accepted as a reality; of course, they also have long-term conspiracies. So, this issue is settled in the world; that is, it has been made understood that this system is a reality. Those who are our enemies, the more intelligent and realistic among them must tolerate and accept this; whether they want to or not; their eyes should be four, their teeth should be soft, they must accept it; they have no choice. Those who are indifferent, no; those who are friends, are happy.

What responsibility do we have internally to prevent that limitless destruction I mentioned from emanating from us? Each of us has a responsibility. Brothers working in executive bodies—I do not mean only the executive branch; bodies that have execution; that is, the executive branch, the judiciary, the armed forces, and generally those who have the execution of a task—must be awake and alert and have a sense of responsibility at their post. I am not only talking about yourselves; 'Protect yourselves and your families'; both yourselves and your subordinates. Keep yourselves and your subordinates.

Inspection is an important issue. You must constantly be engaged in observation and your eyes should see inside the organization; a good manager is this. A good manager is not one who is bent under the weight of files. The late martyr Rajaei said that during the premiership, I entered a minister's office and saw that many files were piled up like a mountain on the minister's desk and that person was not visible at all! In those days, the cunning ones who had remained in the organizations from the past knew how to ground the revolutionary ministers. They kept bringing files and putting irrelevant nonsense tasks in front of them; and since he was inexperienced, he would drown in these files and put all his energy into such tasks!

A good manager is someone who is in their office, whether they are there or not. Not being there means that they are constantly circulating and revolving in the organization. The higher we go in the ranks of heads and directors-general and ministers, the more important and sensitive this meaning becomes. You must constantly be vigilant and see what your people are doing.

In administrative work, 'presumption of correctness' does not exist; for example, you say they must be doing their job; no. Of course, all brothers are good; but good does not mean infallible. They are good, meaning they do not betray; but do they not make mistakes? Do they not procrastinate? Does laziness not sometimes seize them? When I look at myself, I see that I am a weak and lazy person and in places, these human feelings seize me. If I do not rebuke, if I am not alert, if I do not take care of myself, I will drown in laziness. I am like this, you are like this too; we are ultimately alike.

We must be vigilant about ourselves and our subordinates. We must ensure that firstly, work is done; secondly, it is done correctly; that is, it is not done wrongly and badly; it is done firmly. Sometimes it happens that two hammers must be struck on the nail to make it firm; if you strike one, this is shoddy work. So, firstly, it is the principle of getting things done; secondly, it is about being in the right direction and being correct; thirdly, it is about firmness; fourthly, it is about speed of action. Then you gentlemen who have public referrals, you have a fifth, and that is cheerfulness in work; 'If you do not untie a knot, do not become a knot yourself.' It is possible that someone comes to you, but you cannot untie a knot in their work. If you cannot untie their knot, at least do not add a knot to their work with your own knot-adding.

If you cannot untie a knot, do not become a knot yourself

Be cheerful, even if your hand is not open

If you cannot do something for them, at least be cheerful and interact with them with a smile and kindness and explanation. If their problem is not solved, at least explain the reason to them. Have someone for this task. You may say I cannot reach it myself; but you must have someone to explain and clarify for the visitor.

Today when these people came to me, although it is also an audacity to you, but one of the things they told me was to reach these offices and tell them to answer us. You must answer the people. In any case, the people must be returned satisfied. If this is the case, know that by God, the sharpest arrows will not penetrate the body of this ship; its body is firm, its compass is precise, its goal is clear, and incidentally, it also has a favorable wind; that is, divine traditions are in the direction of correct movement. This requires a detailed discussion and I do not want to give you an Islamic and religious discussion now.

If you in the car you are sitting behind the wheel, do the right thing; that is, you open the switch properly, press the gas pedal to the extent; when you lift your foot from the clutch to the extent, this car will move in the direction you want. The laws used in making this car are laws that if you do as I said, correctly, this car will move; it will go in the direction you want. This steering wheel is made in such a way that it turns wherever you want; the important thing is that you know where to turn the steering wheel and when to turn it. If you do not understand when to turn the steering wheel, you turn it too late or too early, it hits the rock and falls into the valley, this is your fault. The law governing this car is a law that if you act correctly, it will take you comfortably and quickly to your destination; the nature of human life is like this.

The laws used in making me and you and in making this nature we live in—water, soil, wind, earth, industry, mine, sea, animals, and other matters—are laws that if you act according to the instructions of the Sharia and the instructions of Islam, these laws are at your service; like what I said if you steer the ship correctly, incidentally, the favorable wind is also in your direction. When you move with Islam, you are not moving against the natural flow; you progress quickly; it does not take long before you see the country is prosperous, the economy is booming, the desert areas are developed, the deprived areas are developed, factories are running for the benefit of the people, and the tree of people's lives will be full of prosperity and life.

God willing, may God grant all of you success and help you to work more for the people.

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings