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Pakistan: Did Benazir Die For Democracy?By Shahid R. Siddiqi. Axis of LogicAxis of Logic

Sunday, Dec 27, 2009

Benazir Bhutto was assassinatedtwo years ago, December 27, 2007

DID BENAZIR DIE FOR DEMOCRACY?Or is she being exalted in death to sanitize her successors who have leapfrogged intopower?

South Asians are sentimental people. Their romanticism and devotion to revered historical icons anddeities over several thousand years has shaped their political psyche of nurturing personality cults.To this add their ignorance about modern day political realities due to pervasive illiteracy and youwill understand the reason behind the meteoric rise to power of charismatic albeit controversialleaders in recent history.

And when after their contentious stints with power these political heroes fell, mostly violently, theirwarts were removed to transform into martyrs, clearing the way for their dynasties to succeed them- a throwback of the ancient monarchical system. In India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh,dynastic rule created turmoil from incompetence and misuse of power, stymied the development ofpolitical institutions and weakened nascent democracies. Such political heirs generally failedbecause they had leapfrogged into power without having evolved through political experience.

Pakistan saw Bhutto dynasty emerge after the judicial murder of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1979, a verypopular leader and founder of Pakistan Peoples Party, at the hands of General Ziaul Haq who hadoverthrown him in a coup in 1977. Benazir, the scion of Bhuttos political dynasty, was one suchheir who lived and died a controversial figure.

An insecure and inexperienced young woman at the time, Benazir was named political successor byher father from his death cell. From a novice, who struggled along with her widowed mother to runBhuttos political legacy, she matured into an astute politician, aggressive and enlightened, ridingthe sympathy wave created by her fathers tragic death and the Bhutto name she inherited. Thename continues to be revered by the poor to this day, for Bhutto had given them hope.

It goes to her credit that she fought her way though a wicked and hostile male-dominated world ofPakistani politics to carve a place for herself and go on to become the first woman prime minister.The harsh circumstances she endured en-route to power and the traits she inherited from her fathershaped her psyche. She lost the gentle womanly touch in her personality, becoming manipulative

and callous. Her actions were to prove later that she was no champion of democracy as some ofher supporters and successors have called her. This is wholly a misstatement.

Benazir was inspired and tutored by her father. No wonder then that in many ways she was like him he, who was a brilliant, charismatic, shrewd, ambitious, self centered and an autocratic politicianwith visceral hatred for dissent. To gain popular support he championed the cause of socialism andthe poor when ironically he was a feudal to the core by birth and by temperament. Shortly after

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climbing to power, he discarded his socialistic garb, dumped his capable compatriots who coulddisagree with him and surrounded himself with political pygmies who danced to his tune. To himruthlessness was an instrument of power. Machiavellian in mindset, he allowed Pakistan todismember in 1971 because in that lay the promise of the power he sought. He and Benazir weredifferent in one way though he did not show that greed for money.

Despite her claim that she stood for the poor, Benazir remained an elitist and never personallyidentified herself with them. She was no Gandhi. She went to live in Cannes after her fathers death an expensive resort city of French Riviera. And when came time to contest her first election, shechose the slums of Lyari (Karachi) as her constituency. How ironic: someone who lived in one of therichest places of Europe came to represent the poorest of the poor in Pakistan? But Lyari hasremained the poorest slum in Karachi and a hub of crime, despite her two stints as prime minister.

The home of Benazir and Zardari in Surrey, 70 miles south of London. She also had a home in Dubai and lived forperiods in Cannes on the French Riviera.

Soon after ascending to power, Benazir mastered the art of manipulation and deception. Shetolerated democracy because it was the only means by which she could get into power. How she ranher party was another matter, which she ruled as an autocrat. By getting herself appointed as party

chairperson for life she rooted out any dissent and challenge to her authority.

Benazir was prime minister twice and both her governments were dismissed prematurely on chargesof corruption and bad governance. Not only were her administrations generally marked bymismanagement, corruption, nepotism and social injustice, but she nominated her spouse, Asif AliZardari (now president) as minister in her cabinets twice and gave him a free hand to indulge inunfettered corruption that earned him the name of Mr. 10%. As a result, the couple came to berated the second richest family in Pakistan.

Her human rights record was dismal too. She was criticized by Amnesty International and otherHuman Rights groups for death squads, abductions, torture and deaths of political detainees inpolice custody. Political opponents were hounded, harassed and jailed. Her own younger brother

Murtaza Bhutto was murdered by the police in Karachi during her watch as prime minister.Murtazas widow claimed that Zardari was behind the murder but after a trial he was acquitted bythe court. Murtaza, after returning to Pakistan from exile, had demanded party leadership and hisshare of the family fortune from Benazir.

After her second fall from power, without clearing her name from the charges of corruption andmisuse of power, the leader of Pakistan Peoples Party sneaked out of the country, abandoning

Pakistan, her People and her Party. The interests of the people and democracy did not matter.

An absconder from law, she termed her absence as self exile. In this self exile Benazir continuedto maintain her stranglehold over the party, knowing that emergence of alternate leadership wouldmean her political demise. It is widely known that after 2002 elections she refused to let her partyssenior vice chairman and an old loyalist accept General Musharrafs offer to form federalgovernment, sans Benazir. Instead, she allowed the opportunity to go to her opponents as shefeared she would lose her ability to bargain her return to Pakistan with the Army. So much for her

respect for democracy within her party!

Power is addictive. Benazir could not live without it. She knew that she was a persona non grata forthe Army and hence any deal on her own was not possible.

A creature of insatiable ambition, she figured out that her safest bet was to ride back on theshoulders of the Americans who were lookin for a credible and democraticall electable artner

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willing to carry forward their agenda of war on terror. Aware that the Neocons were unhappy withGeneral Musharraf for dragging his feet in committing hara-kiri by heeding their call to do moreagainst the Taliban, this was a perfect moment to sell her services. She had no qualms aboutbartering away Pakistans interests and partnering with those she had at one stage publicly accusedof her fathers murder. It was now time to let bygones be bygones and seek their imperial shelterand support to gain power.

Benazir used her charm in the Western capitals to cultivate the political elite and the media,presenting herself as an astute, popular politician, a thoroughbred Western educated democrat anda proponent of human rights, struggling to restore democracy. For the Americans, she built herimage as a brave Muslim woman, secular and liberal, willing to take on Muslim Jihadists.

The Americans saw in her a person who could succeed where Musharraf had failed to provide apolitically popular civilian face to a pro-American military government. They loved her theme song:

without her, democracy in Pakistan would be a lost cause and cut a deal with her. In exchange forimplementing the Neocon agenda she would assume power for the third time.

"Washington is behind me. I can't lose this opportunity. I have

been waiting for it for nine years. We need to get Pakistan

democratic again. I am needed here. It is now or never."

- Benazir Bhutto

A politically damaged and vulnerable Musharraf capitulated under American pressure and accepted apower sharing arrangement, absolving her of all corruption charges through an infamous USbrokered legislation called National Reconciliation Ordinance that washed off her and her spousessins. She returned to the chants of long live Benazir by her constituents who were unaware thatneither they, nor the country, nor democracy figured in the deals she had made in Washington.Insatiable urge for power did.

But this time around, power was not going to be hers. She died chasing power. She was killed by anassassin while campaigning for the elections on December 27, 2007. Her death has remained amystery. Some allege that Al Qaeda or other extremist groups were behind it. But the more popularbelief is that she paid the price for having reneged on her deal with Washington.

The tragedy spurred intense emotional response among her followers that was used by her widowerAsif Zardari to position himself for leadership of her party. After her second fall from power Benazirhad kept him away from politics under party pressure for having become an embarrassment and for

bringing the party into disrepute. But this was his opportunity to catapult himself into thepresidency that was later vacated by General Musharraf.

The party Benazir inherited from her father was treated as family heirloom upon her death. Like ascene from a Shakespearean play, her widowers pulled out and waved her will, scribbled on a pieceof paper and questionable at best, before the partys executive council whose members were toostunned to challenge it and he usurped the party. Most ludicrously, her teenage son hastened tosuffix his name with Bhutto to secure Pakistans throne in the future.

To sanitize their image, her political successors are now systematically creating her larger than lifeimage and call her death martyrdom. They have coined slogans such as Benazir died forrestoration of democracy. Had it not been un-Islamic, they might have gone as far as granting hersainthood. Even the American government took the unusual step of posthumously branding her a

champion of democracy through an advertisement in local newspapers on her first anniversary.

The obituaries painting her [Benazir Bhutto] as dying to save democracy distort history, saidWilliam Dalrymple (author of "The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi, 1857") in New YorkTimes, January 4, 2008.

Those who extol her democratic virtues do not make a convincing case. Her political record simplynegates their claim. She neither served democracy nor human rights in her life or in her death. Infact, she had a disdain for both.

Read his bio and more analyses and essays byAxis of Logic Columnist, Shahid R. Siddiqi

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