TEHRAN (Dispatches) – Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on Wednesday urged officials to benefit from the ideas and recommendations of academics in order to improve the country’s affairs.
"The intellectual elite should be benefitted from in planning the matters of the country. Some outstanding talents enjoy both a great capability of thinking and management skills, which must be made use of,” he said.
The Leader met a group of academics, including CEOs of knowledge-based enterprises, top ranking participants of Olympiads, cross-country contests and scientific festivals, as well as outstanding academic researchers from different universities and exceptionally talented students and students ranking top in the 2018 cross-country university entrance exams.
Ayatollah Khamenei mentioned that Iran should safeguard its existence via scientific development. "If we do not advance in science, our enemies' threats will last permanently.”
The Leader said human science today faces limits and Iranian academic elites should participate in pushing those limits.
"We have lagged behind the global scientific movement for 200 years. This is because of the Iranian talent and academic elite have been neglected.”
"Why should our country lag behind the rest of the world at a time when science has advanced at a great pace around the world?” Ayatollah Khamenei asked.
The Leader said Iran is currently contributing more than its share to the global production of science at a rate of about 1.9 percent. "This is great, but we are not satisfied and it should increase.”
Ayatollah Khamenei also said Iran only had 150,000 university students before the Islamic Revolution in 1979, but there are currently more than 4 million university students in the country.
The Leader said the state must collaborate with the academics and intellectuals for further development of the nation.
"There should be a mutual exchange between the elite and the administration. The government must provide services for the elite, not letting them be left without use.”
The Leader said, "Today, it has been proved that nothing is more influential in the country’s development than the human force. Human resources are a great capital and the enemies seek to take this wealth away from the country.
"The enemy wants science exclusively for itself so no other nation can gain power-producing and wealth-producing knowledge. Hence, they murder scientists of other countries.
"This does not only happen to us. During U.S. occupation of Iraq, tens of Iraqi scientists were identified and killed, so that Iraq could not progress after Saddam.”
Ayatollah Khamenei said that "if we advance scientifically, the threats of our enemies will not last forever, and will perish”.
The Leader cited "physical elimination of the academic elite” as a method used by the hegemonic system to destroy the great assets of the world nations.
"In addition to physical elimination, cultural deviation of the elite and preoccupying them with peripheral issues is another method used by the hegemonic system,” he said, urging officials and the elite to be vigilant.
Ayatollah Khamenei also touched on the existing economic problems.
"There exist some problems regarding people’s livelihood, partly due to currency fluctuations. Yet, overall, the true image of the country is the opposite of what the hegemonic foreigners seek to illustrate about the beloved Iran.”
The Leader said portraying a false, negative and disappointing image of the situation in Iran is the most important agenda of the enemy these days.