It is common in any relatively closed, hierarchical system with an emphasis on respectful and unquestionable obedience to the leader, on whom no sufficient checks and balances is placed, that nothing can make the leader accountable to the followers and to the outside world. For sure you will be cynical when you read a leader in guiding other people’s evolution claims his readiness to be accountable for his misdeeds. You may even become more suspicious especially when you hear Massoud Rajavi, believing in the necessity of deceiving unenlightened to rule over them and to advance his cult-like ambitions, is making the claim. In his message of January 20, he calls a set of imaginary audiences and declares his readiness to be accountable for the charges imposed on him during the last three decades from inside and outside the organization:
… for the time being I suffice to mention a point on Mojahedin, NLA, council of resistance and heavy charges made against us on the part of the regime as well as its agents and supporters. I am committed to account for all accusations and to clarify them for the Iranian people.
The reason why Rajavi has seemingly retreated his egocentric position of unaccountability to the inferiors is not clear; however, his statements imply that he still deems all these accusations related to the Iranian regime and its agents. As a result, he never trouble himself to answer these questions and doubts and also accuses his critics as infiltrators and agents of the Iranian regime. However, since his desired audience is outside the cultic circle of his organization and unfamiliar with his past history, Rajavi’s democratic and self-righteous gesture may justify it that coming to answer the questions posed on him is his absolute right. In this regard, we are to take a brief look at the concept of accountability in MKO’s organizational and ideological system and ideological revolution as well as the past history of Rajavi and his companions in defining this concept. Although these discussions are not novel or significant for those who have experienced the relations of Rajavi, they may be of a high interest for those having a superficial familiarity with the organization. The statements made by Mehdi Abrishamchi, the ex-husband of Rajavi’s present wife (Maryam Azdanlu), on the position of MKO leader may clarify the demagogic and fallacious claims of Rajavi. Referring to the concept of monotheism, Abrishamchi writes:
Theoretically, we know that God is one, yes there is one God and that is the main principle of our ideology yet the significant point is knowing the effects of this principle on the life of individuals.
Furthermore, he materializes the social effect and function of the monotheism:
In a summary, when an individual knows the leadership of the revolution and put him in his own position and notices not to be entangled with those issues whose solution lays in the hands of the leader, his intervention in ideological issues will be equal to his general echelon of qualifications in the organization and a balance is achieved. This individual never takes any position upper than that of the leadership in ideological recognition, if so, he may be claiming the position of the leader who is to be followed.
In a nutshell, inside the ideological, political, and organizational framework of Rajavi and also the larger echelon of the organization, any doubt and question on leadership and his actions, purposes and objectives is equal to an attempt of usurping and claiming the leadership status; from the viewpoint of Abrishamchi and Rajavi it is absolute polytheism and heresy whose punishment is organizational and ideological apostasy. According to Abrishamchi:
As mentioned already, inferiors to the ideological leader and his deputy are all accountable to them and their own upper-rankings. Yet, who is Massoud accountable to? Just to revolution. Ideologically, he is accountable to nobody except God. All members have rankings to whom they are accountable yet Masoud is not accountable to anyone except God.
He openly states that anyone coming to doubt the leadership and to question him has intentionally or unintentionally put himself in the position of God. In other words, as God is not accountable to anybody, MKO’s leadership is not accountable to the inferiors as well. In fact “Leadership can not bear any accountability to the inferiors”.
Now the question is that what is the destiny of someone who failed to recognize the defined position of the leadership in the organization and wanted to deal with it like the ordinary relations of the society? Abrishamchi takes the same position as that of Rajavi in this statement and puts the critic in the position of a convict to be charged with any accusation like being a detached member, betrayer and infiltrator:
As soon as we sit to judge Massoud and make accusations against him, and since his past history of competence looms in our mind, we immediately notice we can be a judge of this court just when we are not charged and accused ourselves since we have to first ponder our own charges to be able to speak about the accused one (Massoud).
It has to be pointed out that if the statements of Abrishamchi are not confirmed by Rajavi or he deems them to be distorted or changed he is welcomed to deny them completely. In this way, it may be reasonable to confirm Rajavi’s honesty in his recent statement. Of course, these are some instances of Rajavi’s failure in bearing criticism and accountability. He has always promised to answer ambiguities and questions arisen yet breaks his promise to kill time. We can also refer to the destiny of a number of the critics of Rajavi inside organization who had a tragic ending like fabricated suicide, accident, drowning, self-immolation, escape, heart attack, etc and have been buried somewhere in camp Ashraf or even outside the martyred cemetery of Mojahedin mainly because Rajavi calls them fetid bodies. Others were slaughtered in forced military operations like Eternal Light and thus, Rajavi not only succeeded to get rid of them all but also benefitted a propaganda blitz on their death as martyrs.
*All references are quoted from two speeches made by Mehdi Abrishamchi titled “on the ideological revolution inside MKO”.