My
Heart Bleeds For Pakistan
By
Tariq Ali
31 December,
2007
The
Independent
Six
hours before she was executed, Mary, Queen of Scots wrote to her brother-in-law,
Henry III of France: "...As for my son, I commend him to you in
so far as he deserves, for I cannot answer for him." The year was
1587.
On 30 December
2007, a conclave of feudal potentates gathered in the home of the slain
Benazir Bhutto to hear her last will and testament being read out and
its contents subsequently announced to the world media. Where Mary was
tentative, her modern-day equivalent left no room for doubt. She could
certainly answer for her son.
A triumvirate
consisting of her husband, Asif Zardari (one of the most venal and discredited
politicians in the country and still facing corruption charges in three
European courts) and two ciphers will run the party till Benazir's 19-year-old
son, Bilawal, comes of age. He will then become chairperson-for-life
and, no doubt, pass it on to his children. The fact that this is now
official does not make it any less grotesque. The Pakistan People's
Party is being treated as a family heirloom, a property to be disposed
of at the will of its leader.
Nothing more,
nothing less. Poor Pakistan. Poor People's Party supporters. Both deserve
better than this disgusting, medieval charade.
Benazir's
last decision was in the same autocratic mode as its predecessors, an
approach that would cost her – tragically – her own life.
Had she heeded the advice of some party leaders and not agreed to the
Washington-brokered deal with Pervez Musharraf or, even later, decided
to boycott his parliamentary election she might still have been alive.
Her last gift to the country does not augur well for its future.
How can Western-backed
politicians be taken seriously if they treat their party as a fiefdom
and their supporters as serfs, while their courtiers abroad mouth sycophantic
niceties concerning the young prince and his future.
That most
of the PPP inner circle consists of spineless timeservers leading frustrated
and melancholy lives is no excuse. All this could be transformed if
inner-party democracy was implemented. There is a tiny layer of incorruptible
and principled politicians inside the party, but they have been sidelined.
Dynastic politics is a sign of weakness, not strength. Benazir was fond
of comparing her family to the Kennedys, but chose to ignore that the
Democratic Party, despite an addiction to big money, was not the instrument
of any one family.
The issue
of democracy is enormously important in a country that has been governed
by the military for over half of its life. Pakistan is not a "failed
state" in the sense of the Congo or Rwanda. It is a dysfunctional
state and has been in this situation for almost four decades.
At the heart
of this dysfunctionality is the domination by the army and each period
of military rule has made things worse. It is this that has prevented
political stability and the emergence of stable institutions. Here the
US bears direct responsibility, since it has always regarded the military
as the only institution it can do business with and, unfortunately,
still does so. This is the rock that has focused choppy waters into
a headlong torrent.
The military's
weaknesses are well known and have been amply documented. But the politicians
are not in a position to cast stones. After all, Mr Musharraf did not
pioneer the assault on the judiciary so conveniently overlooked by the
US Deputy Secretary of State, John Negroponte, and the Foreign Secretary,
David Miliband. The first attack on the Supreme Court was mounted by
Nawaz Sharif's goons who physically assaulted judges because they were
angered by a decision that ran counter to their master's interests when
he was prime minister.
Some of us
had hoped that, with her death, the People's Party might start a new
chapter. After all, one of its main leaders, Aitzaz Ahsan, president
of the Bar Association, played a heroic role in the popular movement
against the dismissal of the chief justice. Mr Ahsan was arrested during
the emergency and kept in solitary confinement. He is still under house
arrest in Lahore. Had Benazir been capable of thinking beyond family
and faction she should have appointed him chairperson pending elections
within the party. No such luck.
The result
almost certainly will be a split in the party sooner rather than later.
Mr Zardari was loathed by many activists and held responsible for his
wife's downfall. Once emotions have subsided, the horror of the succession
will hit the many traditional PPP followers except for its most reactionary
segment: bandwagon careerists desperate to make a fortune.
All this
could have been avoided, but the deadly angel who guided her when she
was alive was, alas, not too concerned with democracy. And now he is
in effect leader of the party.
Meanwhile
there is a country in crisis. Having succeeded in saving his own political
skin by imposing a state of emergency, Mr Musharraf still lacks legitimacy.
Even a rigged election is no longer possible on 8 January despite the
stern admonitions of President George Bush and his unconvincing Downing
Street adjutant. What is clear is that the official consensus on who
killed Benazir is breaking down, except on BBC television. It has now
been made public that, when Benazir asked the US for a Karzai-style
phalanx of privately contracted former US Marine bodyguards, the suggestion
was contemptuously rejected by the Pakistan government, which saw it
as a breach of sovereignty.
Now both
Hillary Clinton and Senator Joseph Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, are pinning the convict's badge on Mr Musharraf
and not al-Qa'ida for the murder, a sure sign that sections of the US
establishment are thinking of dumping the President.
Their problem
is that, with Benazir dead, the only other alternative for them is General
Ashraf Kiyani, head of the army. Nawaz Sharif is seen as a Saudi poodle
and hence unreliable, though, given the US-Saudi alliance, poor Mr Sharif
is puzzled as to why this should be the case. For his part, he is ready
to do Washiongton's bidding but would prefer the Saudi King rather than
Mr Musharraf to be the imperial message-boy.
A solution
to the crisis is available. This would require Mr Musharraf's replacement
by a less contentious figure, an all-party government of unity to prepare
the basis for genuine elections within six months, and the reinstatement
of the sacked Supreme Court judges to investigate Benazir's murder without
fear or favour. It would be a start.
© 2007
Independent News and Media Limited
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