Statements in Meeting with Members of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution

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

First, I must welcome all the esteemed gentlemen and dear brothers for this meeting, which has been familiar to me for several years, and now there has been a gap. I am pleased to meet you today. I must also express my appreciation and respect for this important institution, namely the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, which our late Imam Khomeini (may his soul be sanctified) established—both in the form of the Cultural Revolution Headquarters and in its evolved form as the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, which, thanks be to God, exists now.

I have believed and still believe that this Supreme Council can have many efficiencies for advancing the culture of the country and can provide great assistance to the ministries responsible for executing cultural work. Thanks be to God, everyone is a member and partner in this assembly, and I am very pleased and satisfied with this composition and situation. Mr. Hashemi stated that the council has declined; I do not believe this at all. I believe that the council, thanks be to God, is now in a much better and more active state with your presence, especially considering Mr. Hashemi's continuous presence.

At that time, I held the same belief. The sessions in which he participated were effective and productive, and noticeable progress was made in them. Of course, thanks be to God, he now participates in all sessions without trouble or concern; but sometimes I remember the time when, especially due to his engagements in the matter of war, we were less successful in seeing him in this council. I am pleased that, thanks be to God, he is present, and the composition is very good, and the assembly is complete.

A point that seems very important to me is that we should not limit Islamic culture and the culture of the country—which the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution pursues goals for—to educational, academic, and classroom culture; rather, part of this culture is public culture, which the presence of the Ministry of Guidance in this assembly and the familiarity and awareness that the members of this session have with various cultural issues themselves testify to the fact that great attention has been paid to this body and this part.

We and all those involved in culture in the country must believe that today we are the target of cultural attacks by our enemies; both in the form of mixing our revolutionary culture with things that detract from its purity and efficiency and in the form of creating obstacles in the way of training competent and specialized individuals who can manage all the affairs of the country. There is no doubt that the enemy has planned to attract, abduct, and steal the brilliant minds and talents from among us.

We also know that this planning has been done for all third-world countries, including our country. Considering the Islamic Revolution and the dangers it poses to global arrogance, they have specially planned for our country to prevent the growth or retention of competent and brilliant minds and outstanding talents here. They have plans and spend money, and they even have organizations to identify the brilliant talents of various countries to abduct them—whether in childhood, adolescence, and youth or in the period of fruition and efficiency.

Thus, we are facing fundamental and cultural enmity and hostility from our enemies in the world, who do not allow us to achieve our goals in the field of public culture, mentalities, and cultural actions of the people, as well as in the field of academic work and human resource training. We must plan in proportion to the enmity and hostility of the enemy. In the matter of public culture, when we observe that in our society—for example, in the twists and turns of government offices and agencies, especially in some organizations that are heavily complained about—people's work is not done smoothly, and it is postponed, and there is no compassionate and sympathetic approach to people's work, it is due to a cultural defect and disease. Or if we observe that our competent intellectuals in universities, workshops, and research centers are less inclined to innovations that do not bring bread, water, or fame to a researcher but require a lot of effort, and they surrender to easier and simpler tasks, it is a cultural disease.

These great researches that have been done in the world of science have been carried out by whom? Mostly by those who were not famous people during the research period and started a work with effort out of love for research and science and the product of their research work, and they endured its hardship. The result of this work has become something great for a nation. Of course, policies have also maliciously misused their scientific and research products, which we cannot attribute to the essence of research and its motivation.

If we lack these, it is due to a cultural disease in us. We must cure this. This has nothing to do with school and university work and the like; rather, it requires another organized cultural perspective, activity, and effort, and we must carry it out. Truly, one of the important tasks of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution is to look at public culture and find and identify the cultural diseases of our country today and find a cure for these diseases with a specialized, of course, compassionate and revolutionary view, and recommend them to various agencies. This is an important part of the work, and it is good for the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution to address this issue.

In fact, the major and more immediate part is related to classroom, educational, specialized culture, and human-building—in the sense of training competent people and human resources. The production of competent human resources for managing the revolution starts from elementary schools and even to some extent before elementary schools and reaches universities, research centers, and higher centers. You gentlemen are responsible for ensuring, managing, and improving this issue.

I am somewhat aware of the deficiencies that exist. You gentlemen know better than I do. Our elementary and high schools have problems and deficiencies. Our universities have quality weaknesses and problems. Although in recent years, some attention has been paid to quantity—perhaps there was no other choice—but the low quality in universities is something that all those involved are aware of and acknowledge. The problems of research centers and the depression of our researchers, who do not have the necessary enthusiasm for research work, is one of the issues that currently exists.

Teachers and professors—whether in universities or schools—face many problems. The enthusiasm and motivation that draws a person to teaching depend on various things, some of which are honestly lacking. Material issues and also spiritual respects have an impact. Respecting the teacher—this very thing that is so important in Islam, that the student must respect the teacher—to what extent does it exist? All these have created deficiencies; in addition to the fact that in terms of quantity, we also have a shortage of professors, and the number we have may be slightly more than half of what we need. According to statistics I have seen, we may have a forty percent shortage of professors in universities. The state of educational spaces in schools and universities is also of this kind. These deficiencies exist.

Of course, deficiencies cannot be attributed to individuals or managers and planners. Many of these are due to our situation; everyone knows this. In the past few years, we have been caught in war, shortages, blockades, and various economic pressures from the enemy and the like. Naturally, most of these deficiencies are due to these; but what can be considered today is that the country's cultural apparatus should strive to eliminate these deficiencies one by one.

In cultural work, the issue of money and budget should not be considered a major problem. In the sense that cultural problems and deficiencies should not be placed at the end of the budgetary needs list; rather, they should be placed at the top of the list—if not in the first row. If we think correctly, this is also economically beneficial for the country. That is, by directing more budget and resources to cultural work—especially educational culture—the country will not suffer; because this itself creates resources for the country's future.

For a country, human resources are everything. If we do not have human resources, we have nothing. A few years ago, I was studying some countries that had revolutions years before us and had also achieved successes in economic, industrial, technical, and similar fields. I saw that in the early days of the revolution, they placed the greatest emphasis and planning on training human resources; so much so that some of these countries are now exporting competent and skilled human resources. That is, not that their country has overflowed with such human resources and become self-sufficient; no, their country is not ready to accept all these specialists for other reasons, and their economic situation is not such that it can consume all these specialists; so they export them to other countries. It is this human resource that has brought them to good levels despite not having large revenues like oil and the like—which, thanks be to God, we have.

I raised this issue to say that if we direct the currency and rial budget to cultural work today, we must pay attention that although this budget may not be useful for the economic affairs and economic circulation of our country in the short term, its benefits will return to us shortly after the short term—not too long in the long term; like the issue of publications and paper, where we must be able to have scientific books and journals and the like. Paper must be provided to cultural agencies so they can carry out this important work. This is an issue that in looking at the cultural arena of the country, we must pay attention to training human resources.

Another issue relates to universities. Of course, schools are also involved; but universities are especially more important. We must pay great attention to the mentality of students and youth and their Islamic and revolutionary beliefs and spirit. Truly, young people are the engine and driver of great movements—both positive and negative—in society. If we can direct this cultured young group gathered at a point called the university towards a revolutionary and Islamic spirit, I believe that the country and the revolution will gain the greatest benefit from this.

In the past, the university was a point where Islamic culture was more absent than in other places or was among the worst places. This was something that the regime and the cultural apparatus of the past pursued and ensured that this work was done in universities. There were political purposes behind this issue. In my opinion, today it should be such that entering the university is like entering the seminary. Just as in the seminary, one learns knowledge, religion, and devotion, someone who enters the university, even if they are distant from Islamic and revolutionary principles, the university should familiarize and devote them to Islamic and revolutionary principles during this period.

For this reason, attention must be paid to the religious education and enthusiastic revolutionary spirit of young people in the university. It cannot be done only with words. This work requires preliminaries. The elements employed in universities, those who are influential, those who are in sensitive centers, must truly be from those who wholeheartedly accept this revolution. Of course, we do not want to say that every professor or specialist who researches or teaches in universities must be a top revolutionary. No, this individual may be completely acceptable and have abundant knowledge, and the revolution can benefit from their knowledge. We do not want anything more than their knowledge. However, even in this case, there should not be an anti-revolutionary motivation in them; because if this motivation exists, their knowledge will not be available to the revolution.

Therefore, in sensitive centers and the heads of university affairs—whether administration in its official sense or the administration of intellectual affairs, teaching, and the like—those who are responsible and hold important positions must truly be revolutionary elements. Others should not have an anti-revolutionary motivation. If someone truly has a motivation to oppose the revolution, their presence in the university—at any level—is harmful; it is also harmful for education. I have observed this reality in some fields where I could judge. A professor who has the ability to train students in that field, but due to indifference or opposition to the revolution, does not even spend time training students in that field, in fact, for them, training revolutionary students and the university of the revolution is not a motivation; rather, they have an anti-motivation towards this issue.

Of course, students are the future builders of this country and must be invested in from all aspects—whether intellectual, scientific, academic, and consequently materially and in terms of welfare—which I know, thanks be to God, the government is engaged in and has good programs for this issue. We hope, God willing, these programs will come to fruition.

I am pleased to see the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution active, lively, and present in the cultural construction scene of the country. I hope God, God willing, grants success to the gentlemen and helps Mr. Hashemi and our government agencies so that they can achieve these lofty, constructive, and truly sacred goals that are proposed today by the country's executive agencies—in service of the revolution and in the direction of Islam—and bring the revolution to its final destination and make it proud and honored in the world.

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings