BREAKING: Oh, Bijan, why must you disappoint?

It seems like a long-term participant in student politics has decided that selling his integrity is perhaps more important than actually doing what he was elected to do- namely, to represent students’ interests on campus. This strikes me to be particularly unfortunate because Bijan is in position to be re-elected onto the BoG. Unfortunately, it seems like the comments linking me to the site with the information have been removed, but luckily I had saved the url.

““I have been kind of clear that if you endorse me [..] I will have a very solid commitment [..] but if you do not endorse me, then i won’t be emailing people saying this is my project this year. If i get your endorsement, this it is a contract for me, and anything otherwise would be a breach of contract from my perspective, and I know that this may sound like I…I’m not saying I wouldn’t be representing you if I get elected, but it’s that endorsement that says that we have a relationship now and we can build on that relationship.” He then added that he had calculated that he would likely win the election, insinuating that FotF was therefore forced to endorse him.”
~Bijan Ahmadian

I’m sad to find out that a candidate would be willing to sacrifice his credibility, integrity, and his candidacy by making such a remark- particularly when he seems to have a shot at winning the seat for which he’s running, at which point it makes little sense. The link to the website providing the article and the audio is as follows:

http://concern4ubc.wordpress.com/2009/01/25/bijan-ahmadian-if-you-dont-endorse-me/

One thing to keep in mind is that the comment was made by an anonymous person, and there is no way of verifying its veracity, nor the authenticity of the audio clip provided on the site. If, however, the audio clip is genuine, one can only speculate reasons for the remarks. Intimidation tactics are rarely used when one has little to gain, so I would speculate that Bijan must indeed be afraid of losing his position on the BoG to resort to such threats. Which makes sense, given that his rivals, Michael “over 1000 UBC friends” Duncan and Blake “knows his stuff/presidential candidate” Frederick. That, or he’s gotten too big for his breeches after several years in student politics. Hopefully we’ll get a response to the statement, and, hopefully, the link will remain up for some time.

Edit: Here’s a transcript of the audio recording, written up by SeriousSteve of the Devil’s Advocate (just in case the site is taken down).

“On, sorry, the first thing about whether I would do this anyway. I have thought a lot about what my other priorities would be if I weren’t doing this, and the relationship with the RCMP is one that needs to be finished; the housing demand on campus is another thing. I have been kind of clear that, if you endorse me, and if we have that contract between each other, then I will have a very solid commitment. I know that I’m emailing everyone saying that I have made this solid commitment, but if you’re not endorsing me, then I won’t be emailing people saying “this is my project this year.” If I’m getting an endorsement this is a contract for me, and anything otherwise would be a breach of contract from my perspective. I’m not saying that I wouldn’t be representing you if I get elected, but it’s that endorsement that allows me to say, okay, we build a relationship now, and it’s my commitment now to build upon that relationship. I want to also emphasize that, based on my calculations I am very likely to win this election, and I’m basing that calculation based on how many people I’ve been able to get to volunteer, which is about 100, and the size of the facebook group, which is now reaching about 500, and based on our calculations we can increase the group by about 50 per person by the time polls open. With that going on, and I like this project because it acts in my academic interests, and it also helps me just take some of that pressure off . So yes – I want to be candid about it.”