Portrait of Sistan and Baluchestan

Bahman Niroomand, a Marxist student opposed to the Shah, wrote a book in German to prove that the Shah’s development approach was unbalanced. He wrote that the people of Sistan eat something like straw due to lack of food! During the Shah’s visit to Berlin, Niroomand persuaded German leftist students to protest against the Shah. The city was filled with anti-Shah slogans; there was severe conflict, and the trip turned sour for the Shah. After the revolution, Bahman came to Iran for a short time, but when he disliked the situation, he left! He was eager for a revolution he was unwilling to live in. Niroomand, the Marxist, returned to capitalist Germany and stayed there! So, what happened to the tears shed for Sistan and Baluchestan?

Does anyone even know what the solution to the poverty of Sistan and Baluchestan is? Oil? No! If Iran were to export two million barrels of $80 oil daily and distribute its revenue—after deducting 20% production costs—among the people, each Iranian, including Baluchis and Sistani, would receive 40,000 tomans a day (with the dollar at 34 tomans). This would buy a milk and a biscuit. No! Our solution isn’t just oil! Of course, oil is important, and those who brought the oil industry to this dark state have squandered the people’s wealth. But the solution for Sistan isn’t just oil.

So what is the solution? The solution is "freedom": "economic freedom." Two groups have betrayed Iran’s development: those who spent half a century telling people that there is a conflict between the interests of the middle class and the working class, and with this slogan, they set out to destroy the middle class. And the other group that, with the slogan "Iran is a wealthy country," isolated Iran and deprived it of free trade!

The economic problems of both the Sistani and the Tehrani have the same solution: wealth creation. Iran must, as soon as possible, employ the best method for wealth creation, which is "economic freedom." Politics, in various forms, has ensnared Iran’s economy. Ideological slogans, nuclear issues, and anti-Americanism have driven Iran’s economy to begging. The solution to the economic problem from Tajrish in Tehran to Shirabad in Zahedan (Khodaknowar’s neighborhood) is "maximum wealth creation," and the path is "freedom." The foundation of all freedoms is "economic freedom," and the primary meaning of "freedom" is "economic freedom"—although some insist that freedom means being naked!