New at Reason
Shikha Dalmia examines the life of Benazir Bhutto, and concludes that her most lasting legacy may be yet to come.
Comments to "New at Reason":
Bingo | December 31, 2007, 12:51pm | #
A very optimistic account, and I hope it does come to pass. Even better that the Pakistanis did it without the involvement of the US.Nemo Ignotus | December 31, 2007, 2:47pm | #
Instead of imagining the Bhuttos to be the equivalent of the Rockefellers, it might be better to picture a different New York family...the Gottis.You'll have a better sense of how Benazir, who probably was behind the murder of one of her brothers, operated, if you think of her that way. You'll also have a better understanding of why Pakistan is so messed up. Imagine if the major parties in the US were essentially family enterprises run by the Gotti family of NYC and the Calabrese family of Chicago. (This may not be too hard, what with the GOP essentially being Bush, Inc. and the Dems pretty close to being Clinton, Inc.)
Instead of seeing Benazir as the second coming of Susan B. Anthony, think of her as John Gotti with a Prada purse, or as a feudal grandee, who had trouble speaking the language of her homeland, but spoke the imperial speech quite well, with a thing veneer of liberalism.
She was an awful person, and it says something about how bad Pakistan is that her return to power would have almost certainly been an improvement.
So far, btw, her legacy doesn't look democratic, unless "annointing her son as leader as soon as his father ceases being regent" counts as democratic.
Nemo Ignotus | December 31, 2007, 2:57pm | #
Oh, and I think it's beyond optimistic to hold out the way the Congress Party has been working in India as a model.Let me put it a different way than Dalmia did:
After Rajiv Gandhi got whacked, his wife took over but, realizing she couldn't be Prime Minister, retreated a bit, and has backed someone who won't be around to stand in the way when her son Rahul decides he wants to be PM.
She's still President of the Congress Party, and the candidates she's promoted aren't exactly dynamoes, even when they are under the age of 65.
Maybe India might be better off if Congress had collapsed, and Pakistan might be better off without its corrupt dynasty.
bill | January 1, 2008, 1:19am | #
OK it's terrible that she was killed, but Bhutto was no saint. She was forced from power twice for corruption. Her husband was known as "Mr. 10%" for all the graft he took. Plus, She supported the the Taliban! They came to power during her tenure as Prime Minister. She actively supported them.Brian Sorgatz | January 1, 2008, 12:25pm | #
Interesting. Some commenters just regurgitate points that Dalmia makes in her article, without refuting the specific points of qualified hope she makes.Other commenters seem to do something even lamer: they assume that pessimism (as opposed to enlightened cynicism, which is something different) correlates positively with intelligence. Bullshit! The optimistic view is not automatically wrong. Memories of this kind of condescension on the part of my parents, by the way, make it easy for me to understand Benazir Bhutto's internecine backstabbing.
Brian Sorgatz | January 1, 2008, 12:32pm | #
Internecine family backstabbing, I mean. According to my online dictionary, family in particular isn't part of the definition of internecine.Brian Sorgatz | January 1, 2008, 12:36pm | #
I screwed up again! D'oh! My Mac's own pre-installed dictionary, I meant to say.joe | January 1, 2008, 2:01pm | #
I got a Mac for Christmas, too, Brian.I'm having a devil of a time finding the Start button.
If you've got the Mac up and running then the easiest way to find the start button is to get it out from under all of the leftovers you threw away today.
B | January 1, 2008, 6:42pm | #
I would imagine she will help democracy more in death than in life for the simple reason that Bhutto was a pathetic excuse for a democrat. She did next to nothing to improve the lot of the Pakistani people when she was in power. Nothing she did can be described as furthering the cause of democracy, in my opinion.Now she has posthumously caught the Kennedy syndrome. A mediocre president, or in the case of Bhutto, a lousy one, is lionized as great because her life was cut short by an assassin's bullet.
madpad | January 1, 2008, 11:07pm | #
He lacks Bhutto's charisma and dynamism, but that won't be a problem for him this time because of the sympathy vote his party will draw.Yeah...'cause once he wins this sympathy vote, he won't have to actually do anything that requires charisma and dynamism...you know...like lead a country.
Lord knows you don't need those skills when it comes to wresting control from an entrenched military dictator.
wayne | January 2, 2008, 1:59am | #
The thing that gets me about this Pakistan mess is that her 19-year-old son is now the heir apparent to Pakistan's throne.That is sensible, isn't it? After all, it is HER son, a Bhutto, with regal Bhutto blood flowing through his veins. Yes, he is the best boy for the job.
If she had been asasinated ten years ago, imagine the impact on the world to have witnessed a nuke-toting middle eastern country deftly managed by a ten year old; it would have been nearly Biblical. Of course, the now-mature 19 year old's statemanship won't seem nearly as impressive.
zubair torwali | January 2, 2008, 1:02pm | #
What you have written in the article is quite true. The PPP will get renewed impetus from the heinous murder of its chairperson. I have interviewed many people who were in no way supporters of PPP. They had all their sympathies with the bereaved party now. PPP would sweep the general election if were held on the previous schedule. The postponement of the general election by the brutal rergime of Musharraf is in fact an endeavour to orevent PPP from a two third majority. You have also exactly pointed out that militancy has increased during the so called enlightened regime. It is becuase Musharraf's enlightenment and secular posture is a sham, a fruad. How can a military man be enlightened. He has deformed enlightenment and reason in Pakistan. It is also true that the more the establishment wants to crush PPP, the more it flourishes. It is not a party now. It has become a cult after the judicial assasination of its founder and the heinous murder of his daughter. Wev wonder when will the secret agencies stop their hidden agenda?