Iranian MP Says There Is No Need For Transparency
In defense of Iran's secretive government, a fundamentalist member of Iranian parliament said transparency is not necessary and petty.
In defense of Iran's secretive government, a fundamentalist member of Iranian parliament said transparency is not necessary and petty.
Mehrdad Veis-Karami said in a video published on social networks that "God, the Prophet, and the Qur'an were not after transparency, because people do not have the capacity."
The professor of Islamic studies said: “Many MPs entered the parliament with the promise of transparency, and now they have regretted their promises."
His statements come as the majority of government institutions have refused to publicly announce vital figures of the country's economy over recent years, including the state of debts and budget deficit, the amount of consumption of polluting fuels such as diesel fuel, oil export revenues, the details of long-term strategic partnership with China and the fate of embezzlement of billions of dollars.
In its annual report published in February last year, Transparency International said Iran ranks 147th among 180 countries in terms of the extent of financial corruption.
Lack of transparency is not only limited to economic and financial issues in Iran. A wide range of issues from the downing of the Ukrainian airliner by IRGC missiles to arbitrary arrests, and the number of victims in mass killings of popular protests were not announced transparently.
