I sent you an open letter over a year and a half ago in Aug 2001, and suggested that you abdicate the throne, and try to unite the Iranian opposition, and run for the future presidency of Iran. Unfortunately this did not happen.

The result is that those who have interest in reviving the old history, are wasting the time of Iranian people, and at the end, the people will lose interest in all *Iranian* alternatives, and will look to foreign powers to come to the rescue of Iran:

http://www.ghandchi.com/192-apathy.htm

On one side the followers of Mossadegh seek the solution for our future in the past, and on the other side, the followers of the late Shah are trying to revive the past, and the same war of them that continued for 25 years, and resulted in the third force of Islamists to win power in 1979, is continuing, and this time can end up in the foreign invaders taking power in Iran. Solution to a historical error can be sought in research, reevaluation, and apologies, and not in reviving either side of the history.

The reality is that Iranian people overthrew the Shah's monarchy, and are not interested in reviving it, and those who have had the interest in bringing back that system, are wasting the time and energy of Iran and Iranians. Iran is not a monarchy now, that monarchists are trying to moderate it, and make it a constitutional monarchy. That option was finished 25 years ago. If any legitimacy exists for constitutionalizing any existing regime, it is the Islamic Republic, and the IRI reformists who are trying to constitutionalize it, have failed over and over again, and people do not want them either. Also Mossadegh and the solution of his time, was for another time, and another world, and the world has changed, and in today's world, nationalizations are the last thing in anybody's mind as a solution for Iran.

Iranian people want a modern secular republic. Anybody who is a mature thinker inside Iran, will tell you that they do not want IRI, and they do not want monarchy either. This does not mean that they want a Mossadeghist system or a toodehi system, etc. In Iranian people's eyes, all of them, along with IRI and monarchy belong to history.

Iranian people want a clean slate, and not to moderate a past system, and the secular republic is what they have said over and over again, and this is more than clear for any disinterested viewer, and the quarrels for a monarchy have only broken the chance for uniting this opposition to IRI.

I had asked in my CC proposal, for you to take the leadership of calling for a Constitutional Conference, to write a future constitution for Iran, but until you abdicate the throne, and distance yourself from the old Iranian Pahlavi monarchy, you cannot play such a role, which needs someone who can stay above the dichotomies of the past. Let me emphasize that I do not see any problem with monarchists participating in such a conference, but I think the one who calls such a conference, cannot be someone who is trying to revive any of the old systems of Iran, and it will not work.

Here was my proposal, and I still think you are the best individual to lead this effort, if you abdicate the throne, and I am sure with all your support for human rights and democracy in Iran, you can have a role like Nordom Sihanouk to unite the Iranian people:

http://www.ghandchi.com/193-IranConference.htm

I understand it takes a lot of courage to move beyond the attachments of the past and to look to the future. I hope that we achieve this before it is too late. Please abdicate the throne and call for Iranian Constitutional Conference. The only part of your constituency that you will lose, are those shahollAhis who care for keeping the past, and not those who care for Iran, modernism, and the future of Iran; and not having shahollAhis as your constituency, is not a loss.

P.S. April 12, 2003-About Response to My Open Letters to Prince Reza Pahlavi
Some friends on different forums have asked me if I have received an answer to my first or second open letter to Prince Reza Pahlavi, and I have written that if one wants to get a private response, one does not write open letters. Open letters are answered by *open* letters, or by the actions, plans, and press releases of the organization or individual addressed. I have seen the impact of my articles about future platform or about Reza Pahlavi's role among both republicans and monarchists. Not only I see so many manshoors (platforms) coming from so many people and organizations, I also see that impact in the articles and positions of both monarchists and republicans, and in their emphasis on future and futuristic thinking. That is in their papers, press releases, articles, interviews, etc, and I am happy to see that. Of course, my hope is that Reza Pahlavi to abdicate the throne and join the movement for a secular republic, and call the Constitution Conference as noted in this CC Proposal, and that is not something to be done in a private email to me:)) and will have to be done publicly in the press.

My First Open Letter to Prince Reza Pahlavi

Hoping for a Futurist, Federal, Democratic, and Secular Republic in Iran,

Sam Ghandchi, Publisher/Editor
IRANSCOPE
Written: April 11, 2003
Republished: March 30, 2007