Benazir Bhutto: Myth vs. Reality

The West, obsessed with making the rest of the world in its own image, has a fatal flaw when dealing with foreign politics. It tends to elevate anyone in opposition, who claims to be "for democracy," to a level they so often do not justify.

Several African and Asian opposition leaders spring to mind as being little better than thugs or despots-in-waiting, but somehow the West overlooks these character defects and touts them as wing-heeled bringers of democracy.

Benazir Bhutto was often given a shining democracy crown to wear, and happy she was to grab it. Her father was the progressively secular Prime Minister Ali Bhutto. His socializing programs gave Pakistanis a deep sense of self in the late 60s until it went bad and he was executed on trumped up charges in 1979. As his daughter she was the recipient not only of a political party her family considered their personal property, but of an automatic credibility - hers to build, hers to destroy.

Benazir was beautiful, smart and West-friendly. She always looked as if she was paying lip service to wearing hijab, and countered it with lots of makeup and fancy clothes. She was a Muslim woman we thought we could do business with. In 1988, at just 35 she became first democratically elected Muslim woman prime minister in the world. She spoke of liberating Pakistani women but she breath-takingly failed to make any inroads at all in women's equality. Surprisingly she never repealed the medieval Hudud and Zina laws that have extreme punishments for women accused of extra-marital or pre-marital sex and heinous and unthinkable laws about rape. (Zina was finally repealed by by Pervez Musharraf in 2006. Hudud , with revisions, still stands.)

Despite her anti-Taliban stances towards the end of her life, in her term in office she assisted the Taliban, then welcomed their taking of Afghanistan, and publicly opined that they would stabilize the country. Of course, she may just have been hoping for peace in the neighborhood by any means necessary, but her approval smacked of expediency, or ignorance and a less than democratic outlook.

Many in the West felt that the corruption charges that kept on swirling around Bhutto and her husband Asif Ali Zadari were, to paraphrase Hillary Clinton, a vast government conspiracy to destroy her political ambitions. Bhutto continued to plead innocence and claimed that all evidence was concocted. She even accused European banks of being in on the conspiracy, "Why would the Swiss do this to me?" she wailed. "Maybe the Swiss are trying to divert attention from the Holocaust gold scandal."

For her many flaws, she was enormously brave. You cannot for a moment imagine that she did not know she had a target almost tattooed over her heart. What would motivate someone to go so far out on a limb that attempted or successful assassination was a foregone conclusion? Was it love of her country, a sense of destiny, or a fatal flaw?

Al Qaeda gleefully boasted they had killed her. Al Qaeda is so scattered and so fractured in Pakistan it could have been any of its off-shoots and today there is still conjecture over who really killed Benazir Bhutto. (The UN has this week promised an investigation into her assassination).

It is hard not to look back at those months leading up to her death when Bhutto came out of exile without some sense of lost optimism. Bhutto was attracting huge crowds - and as she always had done - promised a new beginning, a revolutionized Pakistan. She would be the steady oar, the non-military leader who was not beholden to the Machiavellian ISI, the Pakistan internal intelligence agency, widely regarded as having its own agenda, being corrupt and dangerous. She always looked forward, represented hope, and made millions feel that Pakistan could be a modern, progressive state.

Today Pakistan is an economic basket case, saved from ruin by an IMF bailout. It is rattling sabers with India over Kashmir, and weathering criticism over its lack of action on terrorist havens within its borders. Throw the fact that it's a nuclear power into the mix and you start to get just a wee bit nervous.

How does one person deal with this? Could Benazir Bhutto - for all her bad judgments, miscalculations and errors - so often conveniently overlooked by those desperate for change in Pakistan - have made any difference to the situation Pakistan finds itself into today? We will never know.

Comments

[ZimboChick]

'Several African and Asian opposition leaders spring to mind as being little better than thugs or despots-in-waiting, but somehow the West overlooks these character defects and touts them as wing-heeled bringers of democracy'

Your last election would prove the above statement WRONG. Feel free to insert names of your choice

[9UnknownMen]

Well written. She's telegenic and speaks English well but was corrupt to the core. Her socialite existence in exile allowed her to shape her image well in the West.

Comparing her to Meir, Indira or Thatcher would be an insult.

[Artemis34]

I honor her memory.

As you say "she became first democratically elected Muslim woman prime minister in the world." And I say we need more women to shatter barriers.

You write "She spoke of liberating Pakistani women" and I say sometimes that is the first step, talking, and we need women and men who will do that too.

You observe "she was enormously brave" and I say we may still need martyrs.

When writers note that Benazir Bhutto was "flawed, ineffective, expedient and possibly corrupt" I say ARE YOU TRYING TO DEFINE A POLITICIAN? Because I know she was a politician and I know she was not a saint.

It is like saying "That Mother Teresa was so great but SHE WAS NO POLITICIAN!"

Benazir Bhutto offered her life in service of her country and her people. I'd like to see more of her courage and optimism in leaders around the around the world.

[curiousasheck]

She put her life totally on the line. How many of our "fearless leaders" here in Murica' have that kind of courage?

[ZimboChick]

zero

[Froggybottom]

You got the tiger by the tail on this one... when it comes to deciding which leaders are democratic ones, US "public diplomacy" plays fast and loose with the facts regardless of whether dems or the GOP are in power. For women, world-wide, the most frustrating part of your post is the issue of women's rights in Pakistan and other nations with similar cultural and religious values. The US and its allies always look the other way on such matters because it complicates diplomatic channels. And a piece on that would be a great follow up to this post.

As for the "legend" of Benazir Bhutto... How could those who get dropped off for work at Langley and near Pall Mall not go totally ga-ga over a future leader who was called "Pinky" by school friends in Harvard Square and Oxon. And the timeline of her first go-round as PM nicely dovetailed the shenanigans and PR associated with "Charlie's War" next door. Corruption goes with the territory but if one were to drill down on Ms Bhutto, one will find she married into a much higher level of it and got in way over her head. And it is always helpful to keep in mind the close economic relationship between the Saudis and Pakistan.

[indiamerican]

Benazir Bhutto and her father the great Zulfikar Ali Bhutto sacrificed their lives in vain. She would have been better off living abroad and being mother to her children. The Punjabi Pak army will not allow a Sindhi to run the country. The taliban will not allow a woman. Asif Zardari's reign is also going to be short lived. Inspite of her beauty and charisma Bhutto could not have provided the country with a viable government. The mixture of regionalism with religion creates a volatile mix that does not allow for a stable democracy to be established there.

[klondiker]

The rumors under the surface in Pakistani circles is that Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto's husband, is responsible for her assassination. They cite the fact that he has refused to do an investigation; refused a post-mortem, and is generally the one who gained the most from this.

[QueenOfViolets]

The problem is Pakistan is the feudal system. The educated elites live like feudal lords. You have the educated feudal aristocracy on the top, the tribalists on the bottom, and sandwiched in a thin layer between them is the modernizing middle class, struggling to avoid being trampled on and used up by the wealthy while fending off the violent insults from the tribalists.

The future in this region is the middle class. I think we should make our foreign policy decisions based on what's best for the middle class in Pakstan and in Afghanistan.

If, for example, opium smuggling turns out to be helping to lift poor people into the middle class, we should turn a blind eye and let them do it.

That sounds shocking, I know, but look at the alternatives. Things aren't going too well right now the way we've been doing them.

We need some kind of radical plan for enlarging and empowering the modernizing middle class layer in the wealthy feudal elite/extremist tribalist sandwich in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

[ponderingmuch]

I think this reasoning applies to the USA, as well. Just substitute the financial rulers of this country for the Feudal Overlords and it strikes me as the same.

As for Bhutto, I wish she had lived. What she was up to, really, would have been revealed.

[Canukistani]

I suspect that Benazir Bhutto was probably somewhat more complex than western media, particularly American media made her out to be. In the dumbed-down view of the modern media most everyone is a good guy or bad guy just like in the movies. Most, although not quite all, so-called journalists these days are hired for their looks and personality and whether they can read and/or write passably, not for their analytical ability. Ms. Bhutto said pro-western things so to the media she was obviously a good guy, so to speak.

In reality, Ms. Bhutto probably held some view that would please most western leaders and some views that they would rather not talk about. She seemed very intelligent and very brave and I believe she really did have the best interests of her country at heart. On balance, I think that if she had succeeded in taking power it could have been a very good thing for her country, but whether what she did was good for the US or other western countries would probably not have been uppermost in her mind. In western terms she was probably both good and bad depending on the issue in question. It's not about myth or reality, it's about over simplification.

[rizvisa1]

Oh we very well know what difference she would have made, and it is NONE. Pakistan did travel that road before. Same hopes were there when Oxford and Harvard educated young woman who faced lot of hardship in her life came to power after a long dictatorship. At the end of day, the people of Pakistan were no better than before, just only worse. When a boat has a big hole, no captain can save it. Pakistan is a boat with a huge hole and it is just sinking. Question is can some one slow the sinking process or speed it up.

[GrainOSand]

A general without a capable army will fail -- every time. Benazir Bhutto seemed compelling from the distance that are these American shores. Perhaps it was a combination of her being a woman who took power in the manly world of politics, combined with her aura as a human being. Whatever her appeal, one always knew that her success was tied to the army she sought to take to the field of battle, that army being, the people of Pakistan. A great leader is able to articulate a goal for the masses and have the masses respond in the affirmative and line up to execute the plan to achieve the goal with a willingness to both live and die for the stated goal. Even if a leader is able to articulate a worthy goal, if the army will not stand and fight for that goal, there will be no success in achieving the goal. This is the problem before Barack Obama. This is the folly of the Bush administration. The former must clearly articulate a goal that resonates with the masses and mobilizes them towards fulfillment. The latter was inarticulate and anything articulated was divisive not unifying and did not resonate but repulsed.

A transformative leader connects with the people, and incites and excites the people to coherent action. A transformative leader is able to grasp the collective need and to fashion a plan that speaks to those needs. The last step of the journey is the power of persuasion.

[Pdubya]

we don't want to know. we installed Musharef. how else would we get India to join us in the "war on terror" in Pakistan? Connect the dots on the map: we're fast-tracking ownership of oil fields all the way to Georgia.

[ebquillen]

Actually it is not so much "the West" as the United States and its media that tends to see everything in a distorted way. The British and European media are not so blinkered, particularly re Bhutto and our little buddy in Georgia. We Americans reflected in our media like to see everything in American terms. Someone educated in the US and speaking colloquial American accented English automatically gets a pass and it is presumed that he or she has values like those prevailing in Peoria. Not so. Bhutto's track record was very poor based on her time in office and she and her husband were extremely corrupt. She was hardly a beacon for democracy and democratic values.