A Deeper Look at Pakistan, the West, and Benazir Bhutto

If I could make one political wish for the New Year, it would be for westerners to become better informed about Middle-, Near-Eastern and South Asian politics, culture, religion and history. The recent death of Benazir Bhutto is a case in point: was she the attractive, English-speaking, champion of democracy portrayed sympathetically in the western press? Or a more complex player in the violent and corrupt struggle for power that is modern Pakistan, with hands that were perhaps not quite as snowy as the white gauze veil she always wore in public?

(at left: a stamp from Pakistan's first series after independence, 1947.)

I've spent some time during the last week reading various articles about Bhutto and Pakistan, all stemming from a link I found on Nancy Ghandi's Under the Fire Star. Just before Christmas, I finished the final book in the Raj Quartet, which ends with the detonation of the atomic bomb in Japan, abandonment of hopes for a united India after independence, and the inevitability of the partition of India and Pakistan into Hindu and Muslim states, accompanied by terrible violence. This complex legacy of western influence and religious and cultural conflict continues, of course, along with underlying political intrigue.

The picture is murky at best. What we do not hear much of in the west is how General Musharraf still protects his friend Khan, who sold Pakistan's nuclear secrets to Iran and Libya. We do not hear how Benazir Bhutto's government supported the Taliban takeover of Kabul, or the allegations of her role in the murder of her brother, with whom she quarreled politically. And we do not understand that the reason for the rise of support for Islamic governments in many of these countries is because -- unlike the generals, or wealthy aristocratic ruling families -- the Islamic parties are perceived as helpers and champions of the poor.

Here are some links; I hope you will take a look and find them as informative as I did, not only about foreign politics, but about our own pre-conceptions.

William Dalrymple in the Guardian, "Pakistan's Flawed and Feudal Princess":

For the Americans, what Benazir Bhutto wasn't was possibly more attractive even than what she was. She wasn't a religious fundamentalist, she didn't have a beard, she didn't organise rallies where everyone shouts: 'Death to America' and she didn't issue fatwas against Booker-winning authors, even though Salman Rushdie ridiculed her as the Virgin Ironpants in his novel Shame...However, the very reasons that made the West love Benazir Bhutto are the same that gave many Pakistanis second thoughts...

Jason Burke in the Observer:

The day I spent on the campaign trail with her this month was vintage Benazir. At first I interviewed her in a relatively formal fashion. Then I put my notebook away and we simply talked - about her ambitions, Pakistan, the coming elections and, of course, the various threats against her. As ever, I was impressed by her intelligence and courage and depressed by her delusions and ego...

Robert Fisk in the Independent:

Of course, given the childish coverage of this appalling tragedy – and  however corrupt Ms Bhutto may have been, let us be under no illusions that this brave lady is indeed a true martyr – it's not surprising that the  "good-versus-evil" donkey can be trotted out to explain the  carnage in Rawalpindi...

Tariq Ali's, "Daughter of the West," in the London Review of Books,is a prescient in-depth look at the life and political fortunes of Benazir Bhutto, published just a few days before her death. (The title is a play on that of Bhutto's own memoir, Daughter of the East.) If you really want to know more about Pakistani politics and the history of the Bhutto family, read this piece. It is long but fascinating, and details Benazir Bhuttos's long road from her days as a young, courageous political idealist trying to keep her father alive, to her falling-out with her brothers, her marriage to a corrupt businessman with whom she made millions, and her transformation into a power-seeker no longer truly concerned with reform, and largely out-of-touch with the people of her own country.

Finally, here is an article by Omar Waraich in Karachi, written from photographs and eyewitness accounts of Bhutto's assassination and burial which proves, to me at least, that she died the way we were originally told: shot in the head and neck by an assassin before the suicide bomber detonated his device. Not generally a method used by Al-Quaeda.

Pakistani politics are complex, with their share of corruption and violence, and the Bhutto family has been on the receiving end as well as causing, indirectly or not, the deaths of many other people. Who killed Benazir Bhutto? Many had their reasons. Robert Fisk believes the assassination was ordered by General Musharraf and carried out by the ISI, the Inter Services Intelligence, Pakistan's powerful secret police.

This vast institution – corrupt, venal and brutal – works for Musharraf...But it also worked – and still works – for the Taliban. It also works for the Americans. In fact, it works for everybody. But it is the key which Musharraf can use to open talks with America's enemies when he feels threatened or wants to put pressure on Afghanistan or wants to appease the " extremists" and "terrorists" who so oppress George Bush. And let us remember, by the way, that Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter beheaded by his Islamist captors in Karachi, actually made his fatal appointment with his future murderers from an ISI commander's office. Ahmed Rashid's book Taliban provides riveting proof of the ISI's web of corruption and violence. Read it, and all of the above makes more sense.

Bhutto herself, speaking to Jason Burke, described "a cabal of retired senior military officers and intelligence agents in league with radical Islamic militants 'embedded in the country' who, she said, formed a secret parallel state of immense power." She may, of course, have been talking about the same people.

Whoever it was, the fact is that Musharraf remains in power, elections have been delayed, Washington's power-brokering deals are off, and Bhutto lies in her family's tomb.

 

Comments

[treacle]

This is a very interesting post & I am really glad I stumbled across it. As someone of part-Pakistani origin I am more interested than most in current events. It will be interesting to see how things develop now that Benazir's son has been elected as Co-Chairman, at the behest of his father.

[beth]

Thanks, Treacle. It's heartening to read that someone familiar with the country finds this interesting...I hope others will follow some of the links and learn more. Thanks for coming by and for commenting, and I hope you'll be back!

[margaret]

HarperCollins has just announced the posthumous publication of Benazir Bhutto's book Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West. Publication date is Feb. 12, and her husband and children contributed a brief afterward.

I have a very high regard for the Raj Quartet. I've read it twice, and each time found more and more to like and learn.

[Dave]

You know, I've missed Fisk. I used to read him religiously up until around 2004 when the Independent started charging to read their columnists. Then I sort of forgot about him. So thanks for the reminder!

[Pica]

The day of Bhutto's assassination we went for lunch at the local Afghan restaurant. The owner was talking with us about it and said he was glad she was dead, because she supported the Taliban in Afghanistan. I was shocked at the vehemence but realized there was much, so much, I didn't know... thanks for this, Beth, especially the links.

[Dick]

Yes, useful stuff, Beth, & thanks. Good to see three UK big-hitters on the subject being quoted!

[elizabeth]

Oh, Beth, how I echo your first wish: I'll raise a glass to that.

Great links. Also, those seeking thoughtful coverage of Pakistan can hardly do better than the blog Chapati Mystery (click the 'homistan' tag and follow the last many months from the Chief Justice's dismissal onwards....)

Other highly recommended blogs: Informed Comment: Global Affairs, Pakistaniat, the links at 3 Quarks Daily, Rise of Pakistan, Anil Kalhan's posts at Dorf on Law, Teeth Maestro, and the Lahore, Islamabad, and Karachi metroblogs. Global Voices has had very good roundups. There's excellent coverage available, just a pitiful paucity of it in the mainstream Western press (as usual, alas).

[Martine]

Great links, thanks. Tariq Ali's article is worth the long read.