Posted on 12/30/2007 8:12:51 AM PST by knighthawk
As in Yeats's Easter 1916, death changes our view of certain people utterly. It's a tricky thing to broach the martyrdom and apotheosis of someone you didn't like and have publicly criticised.
The news reports after Benazir Bhutto's death repeatedly featured footage of her uttering the fateful words, "Don't worry, God willing, I will be safe. I will be safe."
I'd seen that same interview earlier and at the time I commented scornfully on the platitudes carefully chosen to appeal to her Western audience, the peculiar nasal delivery, the disingenuousness.
What I saw after her murder was only vulnerability, the uncertain smile that followed the words, and her bravery. And it made me profoundly sad.
Who can doubt that Benazir was physically brave? With an executed father and two murdered brothers, no one could have been more aware of the risks of entering Pakistani politics. But she refused to be intimidated by threats from local opponents and extremists who viewed her as an American stooge.
She continued campaigning even after the attempt on her life the day she returned to Pakistan on October 18, which left up to 140 people dead. In the end she was killed just two miles from the spot where her father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, was hanged 28 years earlier.
What Benazir lacked was political bravery. She wanted to boycott the upcoming elections in January, which she knew would be rigged. Her instinct was to take a stand against the military rule that has blighted Pakistan's history and which was responsible for the death of her own father.
But in the end she didn't dare defy those in Washington who were intent on arranging an ill-judged political marriage between herself and Pervez Musharraf: two Western allies in the so-called War on Terror united only by America and mutual loathing.
In the aftermath of her brutal murder, it's tempting and more comfortable to whitewash her flaws and focus only on the obvious strengths: the charisma, the fortitude, the tenacity. But it would be wrong to allow her record in government to be obscured by the fact of her death.
Of all the accusations levelled against her, including oligarchic looting of the Treasury ($1.5 billion according to Pakistan's National Accountability Bureau), political expediency and nepotism (her husband, known as "Mr Ten Per Cent" was made Minister of Investments), the most irrefutable was that she did almost nothing for Pakistan during her two terms in power.
As the first democratically elected female leader of a Muslim country her potential was limitless, but she never even tried to repeal the Hudood Ordinances, Pakistan's heinous laws that make no distinction between rape and adultery.
In fact, during her first, 20-month-long premiership she failed to pass a single piece of major legislation. Instead, she kowtowed to the mullahs. During her second term, her government backed the Taliban takeover in Kabul, providing them with military and financial support.
She also made deals with the military, whom she despised. The PPP, which Benazir inherited from her father and the only grass roots national party that Pakistan has ever known, became the Bhutto party and was run like a monarchy.
At the same time she depicted herself in the West as the answer to religious extremism and the last hope for democracy. A beautiful, Harvard- and Oxford-educated, Shakespeare-quoting, Queen's English-speaking Muslim woman - she was always "one of us" and easily forgiven.
The West lapped up the facile soundbites and overlooked the deeply flawed political record. Just as most Western commentators have done after her death.
Benazir's implacable courage was of course commendable, but that part of the world is bedevilled by people who, like her, are personally brave but politically weak. Sadly, her tragic death can't change that.
It must now be time for the personal to be removed from politics in Pakistan. As Tariq Ali, a critic of Benazir's, tactfully wrote after her death, "The Bhutto family should not be asked for any more sacrifices."
The Western response to the murder is that a jihadi fanatic was responsible. Many in Pakistan will doubt it could have happened without some collusion with the ISI (Pakistan's secret services).
The attack took place in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, headquarters of Pakistan's dominant military, which should be the safest city in the country. Benazir herself certainly believed that there were elements within the military and secret police who were conspiring against her.
She even reportedly gave the British Foreign Office the names of three people in Pakistan's establishment who wanted her dead. Her supporters were clear who they held responsible, chanting, "Musharraf, killer" after her death.
She had also made bold statements about clamping down on extremists the day before her murder. That and her avowedly pro-Western stance and American backing earned her many gun-toting enemies in a country that blames the West and especially America for many of its troubles.
We will probably never know who was responsible. On the face of it, Musharraf and his King's Party (PML-Q) - so named because it was created by Musharraf and crammed full of his cronies - seems most likely to benefit.
Elections may be postponed and undemocratic rule prolonged. Pakistan's most popular leader is dead, Nawaz Sharif is banned from standing and his party, PML-N, along with other opposition parties, have declared a boycott.
If elections do take place as planned on January 8, there is no one left to challenge Musharraf's PML-Q or prevent it from sweeping the polls. Whether people will bother to vote is doubtful. There should at least be a postponement to allow for a 40-day mourning period in keeping with cultural tradition.
But can Musharraf himself survive, politically or physically? There have already been attempts on his life. Suicide bombings in Pakistan - unheard of before September 11, 2001 - are so commonplace now they are barely even newsworthy.
In the last 10 days Aftab Khan Sherpao, the former interior minister, was targeted and narrowly escaped a bomb blast which left more than 50 people dead. Four of Nawaz Sharif's supporters were killed at a rally on Thursday and the PML-Q reportedly lost four supporters on Friday.
Despite his recent claims to have "extremism under control", many in Pakistan now see Musharraf as a lightning rod for Islamist terrorism.
If the rioting as a result of Benazir's murder and the political chaos worsens, if the opposition refuses to co-operate and if the international community finally begins to distance itself from him, then the army may be forced to tell President Musharraf his time is up.
If that happens Benazir will have achieved from her grave what she could not achieve in her lifetime.
Ping
Wonder who wrote this for her?
The lure to power and/or martyrdom?
Of course, the ‘so called war on terror’ and,
“... she didn’t dare defy those in Washington..”
meaning,
it`s all Bush`s fault.
Another shining example of that physiological disorder
we call Bush-Derangement-Syndrome.That nut needs thorazine.
And now they have put her 19 year old KID in charge? Could they have, at least, let the tyke finish school?
This looks more and more like the “gang that couldn’t shoot straight”...what a bunch of baloney.
The irony, her maiden name, Goldsmith, is Jewish.
So she doesn’t know how good a bacon roll is on Sunday morning.
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