Trust cinema Javad Deliri wrote in Etamed newspaper:
A friend asked if Seyyed Abbas Salehi is the right choice for the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. Before answering, it should be emphasized that the Minister of Culture is the beauty of the cabinet, he is supposed to guide and build culture, a beautiful character and good morals should be the characteristics of the Islamic Minister of Culture. In addition to the principles of the constitution and religious values, the minister of culture should believe in the three characteristics of creativity and cultural innovation, untangling and action, courage to make decisions and adhere to individual and social freedoms. Give priority to strengthening honesty and skill in the media, and most importantly, the minister of culture should be a cultural strategist, not a mere cultural executive. But my answer to that dear friend was that; Some pin people to a field, but some come from the heart of that field. Seyyed Abbas Salehi is like this; Born from culture and the righteous child of culture.
Seyyed Abbas Salehi’s records show that his life was spent more in the field of culture than politics. His address is accurate, appropriate and clear, he is a person of culture. I believe that Seyyed Abbas Salehi’s election to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance is important in several ways and a new opportunity and maybe the last deadline. Salehi’s election has the message that Massoud Bizikian is not a quarrelsome person in the field of culture, not that he is anywhere else, but he is not going to create new concerns in the field of culture and give saws and take axes. He seeks to heal the wounds of culture. The policy of doctors in this direction is interaction and dialogue as the missing link in the field of culture. Today’s medical practitioners are faced with emerging cultural and social issues and problems left over from years of procrastination and inefficiency, and in order to solve them and not deny them, they need the presence of politicians, not politicians and new thinkers based on traditional jurisprudence, nor those who avoid expediency, wisdom and religion. Today, he needs a circle that implements dynamism and comprehensiveness in facing new cultural issues. Seyyed Abbas Salehi is one of them. His proposed minister is not a fussy eater. He has a calm nature and does not like to make noise and advertisements. He has a birth certificate in the culture of principles, bases and standards and moves with his ideals and beliefs.
Salehi can promote the governance role of the Ministry of Guidance and break the cultural deadlock through interaction and reconcile the people of culture and art with the rulers and restore the trust of the society and the culturalists.
The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance is not a political center, although culture has become politicized, but removing politics from the face of culture is the need of today. The Ministry of Culture needs a person whose behavior is not politicized. Today’s culture needs peace and politicians’ greed for culture should become unattainable. This is not supposed to be a launching pad to another and higher position. The Ministry of Culture needs a face for national and non-political convergence. Salehi’s completely non-criminal origin is suitable for this position. It was not a mistake that after his ministry period and the death of the man of media ethics and politics (the late Dua’i, may God bless him and grant him peace), the leadership of the revolution appointed him to the management of the Gransang Information Institute, and in fact ordered the continuation of pluralism, tolerance and tolerance in the information institution. Installing Salehi in this responsibility had a special message. According to political definitions, Salehi is neither a reformist nor a fundamentalist. He has never been known as a professional political activist (not that he is bad, but he was wary of his culture and art), although he has an analysis of the political atmosphere of the country, but he has avoided those accelerated political atmospheres. He is a politician, but he is not a politician, and on the other hand, his intellectual field and cognitive origin are fully defined in the Jirga of the clergy and the seminary.
Therefore, the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance during Salehi’s era can completely remove politics from culture, and make many of the bases of disagreements that have not been resolved with a politicized view and that remain without a political view more solvable. It can also play a role in the field of regulation along with other governing bodies active in the field of culture and art. Salehi can help solve this problem by relying on his personal capital and trust building, and turn the cultural concerns of the revolutionary leadership into cultural promise and strength.
The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance is not the ministry of the elderly, although the issues and challenges of the Ministry of Guidance are as old as the age of a person who has passed middle age, but this ministry deals with diverse and modern issues from lifestyle and hijab to controversial areas such as filtering, gaming and enhancement. Independent media and the return of media authority to the country, from traditional issues and rough problems in the field of cinema and theater, and auditing of films, music, books, visuals, etc., along with the issues of the young generation. The audience of this ministry is from teenagers to the elderly, so a minister should be present in this field who can carry out transformative programs by combining experience and innovation and using experienced and motivated young people. Seyyed Abbas Salehi is the consensus of his predecessor ministers. He has many years of management and deputy and ministry experience in different eras, and now he has been selected in a committee for the Ministry of Guidance, where people with different orientations and of course young people were candidates for the ministry. He can do by bringing these people together in the field of policy-making culture and policy-making according to the current and innovative conditions. Salehi has shown that he recognizes the people of Farhang and seriously uses their consultations in making decisions. He, who comes from culture, although he has a long familiarity with various branches of art, especially cinema and theater, but he considers the field of culture to be a complete, orderly and at the same time interwoven system of all branches. It is quite predictable that he can promote comprehensiveness in the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, both in programs and approaches, and in the composition of administrators.
During the period when I was in charge of the editorship of Daulat newspaper during Seyyed Abbas Salehi’s ministry, and (of course in 1378 and 1979 when he was my manager and editor in Pegah Hozha magazine and I was a journalist) I saw that he was concerned about cultural issues, not politics. From the same year to the contemporary era, when political issues and disputes had the same flavor but different forms, he was looking for dialogue and solving problems, his concern was to untie the knots instead of tying them. Iran has characteristics that cannot be managed by a single party and a single voice. Iran is a rainbow that cannot be spoken with one voice. The diversity of ethnicities requires the necessity of polyphonic, but convergent. Rastakhiz party and a media taste cannot rule Iran. No matter how much we single out the official media, we give officiality to the unofficial media. While unofficial media are the center of hypocrisy and create a tsunami. I am not saying this, it is the belief and words of Abbas Salehi and the Ministry of Guidance needs to strengthen this view. Iran’s society is not polar but spectrum; Therefore, it is not possible to rule with a spectrum. Seyyed Abbas Salehi knows this and can restore cultural authority without focusing on one side and spectrum and without paying attention to the margins and marginalizations.