TEHRAN (Iran News) – Mr. Hamid Reza Naghashian, the owner and the CEO of Sokhan Gostar Institute, publisher of two English and Persian dailies of IRAN NEWS and Sobh-e Eghtesad, despite his great role in the early days of the Islamic Revolution is less seen in the media and has decided to stay away from the state jobs and prefers to continue his activities in the cultural sector. There was a chance to encourage him for giving and interview to us and finally on March 2 we could seat with him at the office of Sokhan Gostar Institute for an exclusive warm and interesting interview.

The reporter of Sokhan Gostar Institute (publisher of Iran News English daily and Sobh-e Eghtesad Persian economic daily) talked with Mr. Naghashian in different fields which took four hours and actually its coverage in one issue of the newspaper is impossible and the whole interviews will be published in two issues of Iran News and priceless experiences of his excellency will be presented to our readers as follows:

PART I

Reporter: Mr. Naghashian, first I say hello and thank you for giving us this chance for interview after 28 years of ownership of these two newspapers and as my first question please tell us why you have not had any interview with your newspapers through these years.

Mr. Naghashian: Salamun ‘Alaikum (peace be upon you) for that you persevered in patience! Excellent indeed is the final home!” In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, and in Him we seek help, for He is the best helper and helper. Praise be to Allah for guiding us to this. We would have never been guided if Allah had not guided us. My Lord! Cause me to enter wherever it be, with Truth, and cause me to exit, wherever it be, with Truth, and support me with authority from Yourself.

For my part, I thank endeavors of whom I had with them cultural and press cooperation and also you and all those colleagues who have worked with us and left us due to some reasons. I should say that I can answer to your question from creditable views. First: We established Sokhan Gostar Institute and started publishing its newspapers with the intention of work and endeavor on course to materialize the principles of the Islamic Revolution and since the first day, we have not intended to present ourselves and of course it is still the same. Secondly, in this institute, Iran News English is 10 years older than Sobh-e Eghtesad and of course, its readers both Iranian and non-Iranian needed to know English and it has been tried to reflect and express the views and stands of the Islamic Revolution and Islamic establishment by resorting to the effective and influential statesmen in running the country, and since I had no role in the establishment I have tried to stay on the margin rather than being in the text, although in all of my editorials I have expressed my views for advancing the policy and goals of the revolution which has been the main goal of the institute and the late Imam Khomeini (R) and prudent views of the Supreme Leader has been our policy in dealing with our readers.

Thirdly, in our religious and ethical culture, fame-seeking and self-righteousness is considered a reprobate adjective and behavior, and it has made me talk less about myself and more about others, so I had refrained from interviews with our newspapers. You know that we have no connection to and dependence on any political group, party and fraction but it does not mean that we are not political but we have not acted based on any political current because we did not find them pure and complete. Personal goals and West or East-oriented tendencies lead to stain and the amount of stain and contamination fluctuates from the lowest to the highest degree of mercenary. Political parties’ media in the Third World countries like the parties themselves have not taken shape without any relation with the aliens and sometimes with the foreign intelligence services, and the issue of independence-seeking in the past 120 years since the Persian Constitution Revolution has been very colorless and as long as you like, setting rails for certain goals has been common but we in our newspapers have not moved towards it  and  have not used any rent-seeking and the condition of the institute with tens of billions of tomans of accumulated debts confirms this claim.

Fourthly, in establishing Sokhan Gostar Institute, I have pursued the same path and intention that I had pursued before the Islamic Revolution in the underground structures of publications like Neday-e Eslam (Call of Islam) and Kanoon Nashr-e Nehzat (Center for Movement Publication) and Fajr-e Eslam (Dawn of Islam) and sometimes in monotheism Saf Group, and this institute has been formed 100 percent to serve the Islamic Revolution and I consider the cost for it as the cost for the reappearance of the world savior Hazrat Mahdi (AS). So this “self” is not in the framework of “selfishness”, and in the future May God give lifetime, it will never happen. Inshallah.

Reporter: What a comprehensive explanation. Even we as your colleagues in the institute were less aware of your intention and your view regarding the establishment of Sokhan Gostar Institute. The next question is that in the past you were active in the fields of security, logistic, organizing, formations, construction, information in the state and private sectors. First tell us whether you were spiritually satisfied and happy with working as the government staff or with working in the private sector. Secondly, during your life in your activities, which one of them have you liked more?

Mr. Naghashian: My claim is that I am political, economic and also cultural, and of course in some periods and due to needs, I was active in the security and military activities. In all fields, there has been one element dominating my mind which was managing myself in time and place when I want to make decision, If I were political, how to be political was important for me in time and place and I have decided on how to be, and if I were economic, it was important how to be economic in the time and place and you have heard this hundreds of time from me and people around me that I have never been  after money and wealth and this is the money and wealth which is after me. In the view of behavioral society, I define money and wealth in the form of a stray dog. A stray dog is like this if one runs after the dog, it escapes and one cannot reach it , but if one does not give a damn at the dog, it follows the person and tries to get closer and sniff him, and even it licks the trouser leg of the person and the person should be aware not to be defiled. Yes, wealth has capability of becoming defiled. So I have not done anything below the dignity of my family or against my criteria and it is better to say this way that I have not been ready the wealth and capital either in volume and in reputation to decide for me and the rein of capital has always been in my control in the framework of my beliefs. In the western capital school (capitalism) one turns into the mercenary of the capital unknowingly and it drags you to any side and direction where it benefits and you do not have control over maintaining your belief and even political tendency, and by the way you do not have the dignities, as well. So I have not sought excessive-demand and will not do it. Calculation! Yes but in a direction that does not have any contradiction with my views and religious beliefs and goals. In a short sentence, I can say that to remain principalist even it inflicts materialistic loss has been a principle for me and therefore I have not done any trade or production with anybody. Even if I have made friends with somebody in some certain period of time I have cut my ties with him and left him immediately after realizing his unprincipled behavior and approach. I have learned economy in the bazaar since the time I was working as the carpet-seller errandboy in Saraye Mahmoudieh in Abbas Abad Bazaar of Tehran and in competition with professional carpet sweepers and I got 1.5 rials wage instead of 2.5 rials from my master. Later in school and university, I pursued its documented basics based on the theories. To some extent, I know banking, accounting and professionally I can read balance and I know consumption sources. I feel figures and numbers and it is better to say that numbers are friends of mine. I know the importance of statistics and information. I can distinguish real loss and profit and I have studied the trade law and even I have taught it. I have studied the law of tax and I have taught it. I have gone through the international trade laws and learned some of its secrets. I have had marketing and I should say that how to be economic is defined this way. Some think that since they have gone to the bakery, grocery and have bought bread and yogurt since their childhood know the trade, market, loss, profits and transportation but it is not so. Economy is the most mysterious technique in the world and some consider it as a science and it is wrong. Why it is wrong because there are many reasons and the most important of them is that theories do not work the same in all cases and economy has no certain formula for everywhere. Economy is a technique which is practical and applicable in the framework of a wisdom based on the time and place. Information and statistics in the field of security and above all cultural beliefs of the people in any climate are the wheels of economic locomotive of that region. Wealth production, managing livelihood, marketing, national participation, target evaluation, knowledge-based and monetary management, financial management, comparative advantage and many other small and big levers are the other wagons of this locomotive. I am cultural because for more than 60 years I have been familiar with writing in the social environments. Pen and its text are the contents of the culture. Speech and uttering it are the lessons. When I was 9, my hand was in hands of my uncle and witnessed many 15-Khordad events in Sabzeh Meydan and Shoemakers Bazaar and since then I have been preoccupied with understanding the beliefs of a self-giving and crusader people to the level of being killed  and not fearing bullets. This means it has turned into the “yeast” of my religious culture lessons. So I believe when someone lets his mind to know the beliefs, he is cultural and of course this being cultural can be a culture adorned with religious belief, adorned with revolutionary belief and justice-seeking, adorned with cellology of social behavior from the outputs of beliefs. It is sixty years that I know any behavior as the result of sediment of lesson, and believe that men in their whole life are relatively cultural. We have a word or better to say a lexicon which is peasant as it has today turned into a swear while it is just a definition of simplicity and innocence, a definition of a belief which has not yet been contaminated with involvement in experience in the broaden social relations. The frame of belief of a peasant is those lessons which have been shaped for him in his restricted village but being an urban is different. Beliefs of an urban is sign of lessons which shapes the personal culture and on the whole social culture. I know culturalization to some extent because I know the tools for shaping beliefs in the mass media. Big powers like the U.S., Europe and China in the past and Russia have tried to align men with themselves through teaching lessons in accordance with their requirements. Recent investments in the cyber world bespeaks of this fact that they want to control the mindset of those people who have key role in presenting cultural output. I am more cultural than political and more cultural than being economic and to prove my being culture, I should say that I am a congregation man and since my childhood I have been a member of Saheb-ul Zamani Congregation of Tehran and have had role in running it and I have been, am and will be a press man. I am a book-reader, author, and poet with over 4000 lyrics. Pen plays the role of criticism and revival as it is known today as “informative”. I am a teacher because I have concerns on course to education; I am critic because I have experienced and tested opinion. If I want to have an abrupt answer to your question, I should say that I have been one hundred percent successful in my ten years of presence in the state jobs but in the private job for supporting the revolution and the establishment I have been 1000 percent successful. Most of my interest and enthusiasm has been shaped in the field of publication. I think it took very long but I think after going to the sidelines and margins I could answer to your question.

Reporter: Wonderful. Actually when you talk in the ups and downs of your sentences either when you set up for answers and either when you go straight to the point of the text, one is stupefied by your remarks. Yes. You answered to my question very precisely with broad dimensions. I want to raise this question why you did not stay in your state job and why you did not become a minister or Majlis deputy. You have such a broad vision for any job and you have distinguished capabilities. Was not it a pity not to pursue a heavy job and responsibility in the country?

Naghashian: Many people ask me this question and I have dodged answering them so far but I answer to you on this question. Why? Because I feel I have reached end of my life and I have only small share of seeing sunshine. In those years that I left my state job, I was very afflicted by sorrow. I wanted to yell and speak out my sorrows regarding what is going in the country but each time a hidden call in my soul shouted at me and asked me not to do and even it gave me an ultimatum to wait for a while and be patient. It told me your words would go nowhere and patience will prevail the truth. May God bless my father when he reached such a condition and he was surrounded with disgrace and darkness and there was no trust, he used to recount a story from the public bathroom events and drew conclusion that when everybody has hoof and you do not have, it is better to hide it from those who have hooves. During ten years of my presence in the state jobs and working with the government, I had seen a large number of British infiltrators and stipendiaries. And almost around 30 percent of them have been exposed and thrown out of their jobs and even been arrested and been imprisoned. How could I work with these people? Major part of these people lacked the power of recognizing this issue and I used to tell it to them with meaningful language but their diagnosis was that they know the distortions but what the solution was. (To Be Continued)