Amir-Abbas Hoveyda - Rise To Power

Rise To Power

Hoveida's rise to power involved many years of service within the Ministry of foreign affairs, but this path took on a whole new approach once he joined the Board of Directors of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) in 1958 at the behest of his patron Abdullah Entezam, who had by then assumed a high ranking position at the company. As managing director and special assistant to Entezam, Hoveida used his experiences in the West to transform management-worker relations. As an example, he introduced innovative methods by which workers filed grievances in regard to any aspect of the working environment they deemed unsatisfactory, and helped to figuratively enmesh the roles of management and the labourers into a collective entity. One way he went about doing this was by eating many of his meals alongside wage labourers in the cafeteria. Although he advocated the emulation of Western models to improve overall productivity and worker relations, Hoveida was very outspoken in favour of expelling foreign technicians and attracting indigenous sources of labour. It was during his tenure in which the NIOC's periodical, Kavosh (Exploration), was first published. What is unique about this magazine is that it was, initially, virtually void of any semblance of the growing cult which surrounded Mohammad Reza Shah.

Continuing his duties as managing director at the NIOC, Hoveida also helped Hassan Ali Mansour in establishing a semi-independent group of highly trained, Western educated, and young technocrats. The organization's main goal was to devise methods of rectifying the nation's ailing economy. Known as the Progressive Circle, this government sponsored dowreh ("Persian for a gathering held at regular intervals") was a deliberate attempt by the shah to thin out the older generation of politicians with a new ‘progressive’ crop. With its inception in 1959, the Circle acted in conjunction with a similar government commission called the Plan Organization. Hoveida would play a major leadership role in the Circle and would be the catalyst behind much of its recruitment efforts.

Besides experience and patronage, Freemasonry was seen by many politicians at the time as a supplemental credit towards obtaining high ranking government positions. It is no doubt that many members of the Foroughi Lodge, the chapter Hoveida would eventually join, harboured and produced many influential politicians of Iran's modern era. Hoveida became a Freemason in 1960 believing that his mere association with the organization would help propel him into the national spotlight. Hoveida would succeed in this regard, but the attention he received was all but positive. Freemasonry in Iran has always been seen as an extension of British imperialism, and with rumours surrounding Hoveida's religious persuasion, opportunities to attack Hoveida's character were not taken for granted by his political adversaries during his years as head of foreign affairs and Prime Minister. It is well documented that Court Minister Asadollah Alam and General Nasiri of SAVAK, Iran's domestic security and intelligence service, helped expedite the publication of key controversial books against Freemasonry, referencing Hoveida in each piece. Rumours were also spread by his detractors that he was a Bahá'í, a persecuted religion in Iran, but both he and the Shah denied that he was a Bahá'í.