You Can Run, But You Can't Hide...
It was her imperative to run for office. Yet again. She was compelled. The inheritor of her own destiny. Earmarked for greatness by the inheritance of the family's political dynastic rule. Meant to be, and she succumbed to the need to immerse herself in her country's need. It was her calling; her country's struggle was her own. She would bring Pakistan toward the light of reason and democracy.Although when she had the opportunity the will somehow eluded her, and she was content to rule that fractious ethnic, religious cocktail of humanity in the traditional way to which it had become accustomed, albeit from a secular perspective. She was, after all, "the daughter of Pakistan". Corruption linked to her regime an unfortunate byproduct of which she claimed complete innocence.
No one can deny her accomplishment as a charismatic leader, a determined woman who succeeded in making history herself as the first female leader of a Muslim country. Leading it imperially, in contradiction of being the "chair for life" of a populist party whose purpose it was to bring inclusiveness and justice to all of Pakistan's population.
Her idea of democracy strangely at odds with her iron intention to single-handedly retain her position as head of her party, even at a geographic remove, during her self-imposed exile. An exile ensuring she would not be arrested, brought to trial and incarcerated for corruption. Accused of taking 1.5-billion from the state with the active connivance of her husband.
Whom she had elevated to minister of investment during her second government term. It was his wheeling and dealing and entitlements to healthy percentages of all government transactions that tainted her, while enriching the family's coffers carefully placed in accounts abroad.
She had the trust of the immense lower classes of her country for her promises to deliver them from need. Educated abroad, Harvard and Oxford-graduated, completely at home in the West, but utterly dedicated to her eastern heritage, her native tongues lapsed oddly enough - just as her real connection with the real need of the people she represented slipped in urgency.
During her governance Pakistan encouraged the rise of the Taliban, permitting the setting up of fundamentalist religious institutions and the madrassas that turned out countless jihadists. Al-Qaeda and the Taliban felt very at ease and were made to feel comfortable on the border regions. Her brothers met with Yasser Arafat and under his tutelage, formed the Pakistan Liberation Army, an acknowledged terror group.
On her return from exile, she was ecstatic to be home once again, and energized by the love and hope evidenced through her presence by the humble people who supported her. "This has strengthened me to do what I can to save Pakistan by saving democracy, which is so essential to giving people safety, security and better prospects", she claimed.
But then, democracy never had existed in Pakistan. And how she imagined she offered safety and security to her people while actively encouraging the presence of extreme religious elements, and jihadists is beyond imagining. It was only in her later incarnation, her most recent attempts to return as head of government that she spoke of aspiring to wipe out terrorists in her country.
And in the process gained their enmity and dedication to her obliteration as a force within the country, and as a living human soul. Not that they represented her only enemies. Besides al-Qaeda and the Taliban she was definitely unloved and appreciated by other fundamentalist Islamists within the administration and the intelligence services. Not to mention Pakistan's military with which she had been at odds.
She was encouraged to return by a White House effort to have her share governance with Pervez Musharraf, with the intention of installing, through her intervention, democratic rule. The U.S. continued to agitate and prevail upon Musharraf to restore normalcy and to lift the state of emergency he declared after the massive bombing in October that killed 140 people and wounded hundreds of others during Bhutto's triumphant return procession.
As though democracy, instantly declared, would turn the fortunes of the country around. Democracy: freedom from oppression, freedom of expression - supplanting the reality on the ground in politically-fractured, theocratically divided Pakistan. Emerging societies, underdog societies look at the prosperity of the West and imagine themselves sharing in the possibilities.
An immediate solution to their pressing problems. Not so simple: when the U.S.S.R. imploded, all its constituent parts panted for democracy, believing it would bring them wealth and opportunity. Instead it bred civil chaos and opportunities for sharp-minded businessmen; the rise of the oligarchs and political charlatans, beggaring the country in the process.
Democracy did not quite prove to be the therapeutic road to capitalist success everyone imagined it would be. The potent mixture currently evident in Pakistan where fully one-third of its society is comprised of acutely fundamentalist Islamists, squaring off against a relatively small secular-minded educated class, and a larger moderately-inclined and lower-class Muslim population portents ill for the future if no way is found for reasonable accommodation.
The polarizing interests, the threat of continuing divisions of deeper dimensions threatening complete destabilization of the society, the continued poking interventions of the West to meet their own needs in the geography make for a very frail-appearing and trouble-prone future. That all the security trotted out to ensure Benazir Bhutto's safety was insufficient unto the day leads many to despair for that future.
It's when things appear at their bleakest sometimes and fearful expectations are expressed at the highest level of concern, that human relations somehow find a way to surmount the misery of despair and defeat. We sit and wait.
Labels: That's Life, World Crises
posted by Pieface @ Friday, December 28, 2007
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