In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
First of all, I would like to welcome the dear friends and the brothers and sisters. I am happy that this meeting was finally arranged and we found one more opportunity to exchange views. I will divide my statements into two parts. In one part, I will express my gratitude to the friends and in the other part, I will discuss my expectations of the brothers and sisters [who work for the Council of the Cultural Revolution].
Dr. Mokhber had previously presented a written report and I read that report. Of course, oral presentation of a report is naturally more interesting and more enjoyable. It is enjoyable to hear that there is dynamism among outstanding figures of the Islamic Republic regarding the most important issue of our country - namely the issue of culture.
Very good measures have been adopted. Some of these measures have been adopted directly by the Council of the Cultural Revolution and some other measures have been taken with the support of the secretariat of the council - such as the comprehensive scientific plan, which is of course great and important work. It was also announced in the meeting that efforts are being made in the country in order to implement the comprehensive plan and coordinate the plan with the realities of our educational system. By Allah's favor, this work should be continued. If we fail to coordinate the plan with the realities of our educational system, it would be analogous to spending a huge amount of money to build a dam but failing to build the irrigation channels that are supposed to direct water to the farms around the dam. Unfortunately, regarding dam construction projects, we have these problems and Mr. President said that he will follow up the issue. Sometimes he would complain to me about these issues. It is necessary to start building these irrigation channels as soon as possible and these channels are part of the executive measures that are required to implement the comprehensive scientific plan. Mr. Mokhber also referred to other measures that are under way, measures that are truly valuable. And I would like to express my gratitude to each and every esteemed member of the council as well as those who are working for the secretariat of the council - namely the groups and task forces that are working for the secretariat. May God make all of you successful.
As for my expectations, I would say that naturally there are higher expectations in the area of cultural matters. We are suffering from backwardness in many cases. We are suffering from many shortcomings. There are many weak points and it is necessary to have a center that constantly makes efforts to introduce reforms and to eliminate the shortcomings and problems. In the structure of the Islamic Republic, it is the Council of the Cultural Revolution that is tasked with this responsibility.
There is no need for me to explain the importance of culture in this meeting. All of you are active in the cultural arena and you are among our cultural figures. You are well aware of how important the issue of culture is in a society. I have made certain statements in this regard on many occasions. In summary, one can say the culture of a nation and a country is in fact the spiritual structure of that nation. That is to say, if we consider the economic and political system of a country as the physical body of that country, the soul of that country is its culture. In fact, it is culture that specifies the spiritual identity and structure of a nation. Naturally, a culture has certain manifestations. Manifestations of a culture consist of beliefs, ethical principles, rituals, social and individual behaviors, and national characteristics. These are the manifestations of the spiritual identity of a nation. It is possible to use these manifestations to determine the identity of a nation and its spiritual structure. Even if a nation suffers from certain problems in its political or economic structure, that nation can be potentially powerful only if it is rich and deep-rooted in terms of its culture. This is why we attach a lot of importance to cultural heritage.
Cultural heritage is the valuable things and traditions that have been preserved in a society. It is possible for the structure of a society to collapse while its cultural heritage remains intact. When the cultural heritage of a society stays intact, it is possible to rebuild the political and economic structure. That is to say, the destruction of the outward and superficial structure of a society does not equal total annihilation of that society. It is the destruction of the culture of a society that causes total annihilation. If a country is in a bad situation in terms of its culture - namely, in terms of its knowledge, beliefs, ethics, behaviors and social characteristics - the people of that country are bankrupt even though they might have an acceptable outward structure: the inner structure of such a society has been destroyed and a single event might devastate it in a way that it cannot be rebuilt, as opposed to when it has an inner structure in the form of cultural heritage. This shows the importance of culture.
There are significant elements in every society who can preserve this structure and eliminate the flaws and shortcomings: intellectuals, opinion-makers, religious scholars, political activists and most importantly, government officials. These elements can undermine or strengthen the culture of a society. They can improve or harm the culture of a society. This is a fact. In the long term, it is possible to change the culture of a country, even the areas that are related to geographic characteristics. This is because part of the culture of a country originates from its climate and its geographic and geopolitical conditions. It is these significant elements - namely religious scholars, opinion-makers and rulers - who can drive the culture of a society towards negative or positive things and this is the meaning of the narration, "The people follow the religion of their rulers." There is a lot of historical evidence to support this and there are examples in the history of our country as well.
Well, this truth places a great responsibility on our shoulders. We should take a look at the situation of our country, the situation of our society. Is the culture of our society the kind of culture that was intended by the great Islamic Revolution or not? Is it the kind of culture that is favorable to the great Islamic Revolution? In case there is a flaw, in case there is a problem, in case there is a shortcoming, we should eliminate them. Who should do this? Naturally, this is primarily our responsibility: it is a responsibility that lies on the shoulders of government officials like you and I. You outstanding figures are a pillar of the Islamic system. That is to say, the Council of the Cultural Revolution is part of the Islamic system and it has particular legal powers to prevent certain things and take certain actions. Therefore, this is a heavy responsibility. All I am trying to do is remind you of the importance of the work.
Today when we take an impartial look at the reality on the ground, we see that there are certain flaws. Of course, I would tell you that I truly believe in our young generation. I have announced this publicly on many occasions and it is one of my deep-rooted beliefs. I believe that the religious and ideological performances of our young generation are far more profound, far more interesting and far more significant than the past in spite of all these aggravating factors. These days are for itikaf ceremonies. Our young generation enter the arena of helping the Islamic system to confront the hostile international organizations in different ways - during the month of Ramadan in one way and during the days of tawassul in another way. Therefore, my belief in our people and youth has not been shaken at all and by Allah's favor, it will not be shaken in the future either. However, it is necessary to see and acknowledge the realities on the ground. Our capacities are far more than this. Our capabilities are more than this. We should promote Islamic ethics in society. We speak about the "Islamic" Revolution and part of Islam is Islamic ethics. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out the ethical mission of the Islamic Revolution in society.
The other part is related to beliefs. It is necessary to instill these beliefs into the souls of our people. It is our beliefs that force us to step into the arena and stay there. These beliefs should affect our actions. Our society must not be full of sins. It is necessary to reduce sins in our society on a daily basis. Sins take away our steadfastness against our big enemy - namely the devils from among men and jinn. "Those of you who turned back on the day when the two hosts met, Satan alone it was who caused them to backslide, because of some of that which they have done." [The Holy Quran, 3: 155] In another ayah, God says, "Then evil was the consequence to those who dealt in evil, because they denied the revelations of Allah and made a mock of them." [The Holy Quran, 30: 10] Bad deeds undermine our resistance in the arena. Bad deeds change beliefs. "They denied the revelations of Allah."
It is surprising to see how the belief system of individuals is transformed. I am not really referring to ordinary people in society. Sometimes when you take a careful look at certain outstanding personalities of our society, you see that their situation is exactly the same as what is described in this holy ayah: "Satan alone it was who caused them to backslide, because of some of that which they have done." When there is a cavity in a particular tooth and we fail to take care of it, after a while the tooth suddenly breaks when chewing on something hard. We realize that the tooth had been hollow in spite of its good outward appearance. Sometimes such problems can be spotted in a society as well. Well, all of these problems are related to our culture. You dear friends are in charge of this great responsibility. This heavy duty lies on your shoulders. That is to say, you are at the headquarters and you provide tactical support for a great battle. Part of this responsibility is related to scientific issues - which was rightly pointed out in the meeting: for example, the comprehensive scientific plan and what has happened in the case of our universities.
Education is an important part of this great work, but it is not everything: there is the part that is related to education, there is the part that is related to the family, there is the part that is related to men and women, there is the part that is related to different ethical issues, there is the part that is related to social relationships, there is the part that is related to social cooperation, there is the part that is related to mutual trust as opposed to mutual distrust, there is the part that is related to malevolence towards one another as opposed to benevolence. These are issues that exist in our social life. Another example is the issue of general laziness in society, which was pointed out in the meeting. Once I stressed this issue: the general sense of responsibility in society. If there are any shortcomings in these areas, it is all related to cultural problems and it is necessary to eliminate them. Who should do this? The organizations in charge of executive work. Who should do the policy-making? Who should provide tactical support? Who should provide guidance? You. This shows how important this headquarters is.
The next point is to guarantee the regulations that are passed. The Council of the Cultural Revolution is among the permanent organizations of the Islamic system. Before this council had been established, there was the Cultural Revolution Headquarters and Imam Khomeini (r.a.) had assigned certain people to take care of the issue of universities. At that time, I was President and as a government official, I was involved in the issue. Later on, we reached the conclusion that the headquarters was not enough and that it was necessary to expand the scope of its authority. We consulted the heads of the three branches of government and put forth the idea of establishing the Council of the Cultural Revolution to Imam Khomeini (r.a.), which he approved. This council has been working for years and it has grown on a daily basis. Compared to that time, the council is better, more powerful and more experienced. Besides, the work that is being done in this council is a lot wider in scope. At that time, we were mostly focused on universities and part of our focus was on the schooling system and other areas. Today the scope of the responsibility of the council is a lot wider.
I believe that it is necessary to take this role seriously. The heads of the three branches of government are present in the council. And the system of our country consists of three branches: the executive branch, the legislative branch and the judiciary. Therefore, the regulations that are passed by the council should be easily implemented in our governmental organizations. That is to say, there must be no obstacles. In fact, the structure of the council provides the guarantees that are required for the implementation of the regulations.
As was pointed out by some of the friends, there is a need for written documents in different areas, documents that will be the source of regulations. In different areas, there is a need for such documents: the issue of the family, the issue of women, the issue of education, the issue of knowledge, the comprehensive scientific plan and the broad issue of cultural engineering which I discussed previously.
We need to have a plan for cultural engineering. We should delineate the favorable cultural conditions and the factors that make these conditions possible, and then we should decide which areas should be prioritized and which areas require more attention. We should pay attention to the areas that have been ignored in the past. In certain areas, we need more investments and we should pay attention to those areas. This is cultural engineering, which is of course difficult. It is even more difficult than the comprehensive scientific plan. It is for this reason that we have had little progress in this regard. Cultural engineering has been discussed in the Council of the Cultural Revolution for several years and Mr. Mokhber reported that the issue is still being discussed. It is necessary to pay attention to this issue. It is an important matter.
The issue of transforming the educational system of the country also requires a high-level document. Of course, transformation has a particular meaning. In certain cases, transformation means dramatic change and not reforms. In certain cases, it is not just enough to add or remove certain things and there is a pressing need for genuine transformation. This is because the current educational system has been imported from abroad. Of course, the system has been localized, but the structure is still from abroad. This is not to say that we should reject whatever that has been imported from abroad. No, we import many things and we make use of them. And this is good. What is bad is imitation. Imitation is bad, but adaptation to particular purposes is good. Nothing is wrong with adaptation. Currently we are using technological advances of the west. Of course, in many cases they are not happy that we are doing so, but we will continue using their advances the way we want. We will make increasing use of their advances. Therefore, nothing is wrong with using what has been imported from abroad, but imitation is bad. Imitation is unfavorable. Many ayahs of the Holy Quran say that imitation results in deviation. "And if you obey most of those in the earth, they will lead you astray from Allah's way." [The Holy Quran, 6: 116] We must not imitate. We must look at what they have and choose whatever that is good. We adopted our current educational system from the west. That is to say, they were using this system and we borrowed it from them. Later on, they introduced many changes into their educational system. Some of the changes were in line with what we traditionally had in our local context, but we stuck with the old system that we had borrowed from them and this became an established tradition in our country. Therefore, there is a need for transformation. Of course, as was pointed out, transformation requires familiarity with the philosophy of education, the conditions of the country and our future needs. On the basis of these things, experts and intellectuals - or those who are known as "cultural strategists" - should sit down together and figure out the essential solutions.
May God bestow success on you. I would like to thank you again. I know that your work is heavy and that you are shouldering a big responsibility. I am truly grateful to the friends who accepted my invitation to work for the Council of the Cultural Revolution and tolerated the heavy workload. I hope Allah the Exalted will bestow increasing blessings on all of us and on the entire country.
Greetings be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings