The Hindu Business Line : Benazir’s life of contradictions

Benazir’s death has left her friends, admirers and party workers with a deep sense of loss, mourning a charismatic leader who held out hope of restoring democracy and some semblance of order to a country fast degenerating to newer depths of extremist violence and anarchy. But it could also be a turning point in the nation’s history, says RASHEEDA BHAGAT

Benazir Bhutto lived a life of contradictions. She was one of the most prominent and courageous women leaders from the Indian sub-continent and laid claim to the title ‘Daughter of the East’ through her widely publicised book of the same title. But in reality, as all those close to her will vouch, she was a ‘daughter of the West’.

The head-scarf, the constant references to Allah’s will, etc., were triggered in the first place by political compulsions. Her fellow students in Oxford remember her as a “fun-loving babe”. William Dalrymple has written about how well she knew not only the shopping hotspots in London’s Oxford and Bond Streets but that she had also confessed to him the “sin” she often committed in driving over to her favourite Baskin Robbins ice-cream shop in the city.

Her English, all of us who have met her know, was much better than her Urdu, and it was essentially her first language. Small wonder that Western leaders who desperately need to engage and vibe with Islamic leaders of some sort or the other in a world that is getting increasingly polarised between the West and Islam, understood her and could easily do business with her. They loved her liberal views and felt comfortable with this Muslim leader, who was just like one of their own. She understood western culture, western ethos and western ways, even while she kept a firm hold on the massive support base of her cadre in the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

Family heirloom

That the PPP will continue to be the Bhutto family’s heirloom was proved once again by the blatant manner in which the party hurriedly anointed Benazir’s 19-year-old son Bilawal as not only PPP “chairperson for life”, but also christened him anew as Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, adding the crucial and magic Bhutto title to his original name.

As Benazir continued her shrill campaign during her “exile” from outside Pakistan for the return of democracy and the need for Pakistan to have a strong and effective government, even her staunchest supporters could not help recalling the two immensely corrupt regimes over which she had presided. The woman with such liberal views, the first woman prime minister of Pakistan, could not remove from its law-book the atrocious Hudood ordinance, which has such pre-historic provisions as two women’s testimony equalling that of one man in a court of law. The shameful law holds good even today.

Also, the Pakistan government under Benazir extended support to the US to create the monster called Taliban, which destroyed what was left of Pakistan and is fomenting problems in the country today. Of course, the Musharraf regime would have us believe that the Taliban, in collaboration with the al Qaeda, eliminated her as “the most priced possession of the US”, but the contradictory statements from the Pakistan government and a ludicrous attempt to whitewash the facts regarding the actual cause of death, point the finger elsewhere.

Raw courage vs corruption

Benazir, whose brutal assassination has had the world marvelling at her raw courage in returning to the electoral battle at the worst possible time in Pakistan’s violent history, also presided over regimes where her relatives, especially husband Asif Ali Zardari, were allowed to peddle influence. The Bush administration might have persuaded the Pakistan President, Mr Pervez Musharraf, to put the corruption cases again Benazir and her family on the backburner to smoothen the path for her return, but some European nations, where cases have been registered against her and Mr Zardari, are not likely to do the same.

Another contradiction of Benazir’s life was that while she held fast to the Bhutto legacy, invoking her father’s name and the sacrifices he had made for Pakistan, within the Bhutto family she had a dubious reputation. Her mother Nusrat Bhutto and Ghinwa, the widow of her slain brother Murtaza Bhutto, and her daughter Fatima, accused Benazir of having a hand in his elimination as she could not brook the idea of another Bhutto claiming the throne.

Ironically, the contradictions and controversies of Benazir’s life continued in her death. In which other Islamic country would you find a husband being so blatantly, and more important publicly, so subservient to his dead wife?

PPP hijacked

At the press conference on Sunday, when the hijacking of the PPP by Mr Zardari and his son was announced, it seemed as though the dignity due the departed soul was denied Benazir as one watched Mr Zardari raising cheers to the memory of Mohtarama Sahiba, Benazir Saheba, Bibi Saheba, etc. Well, it was a rare sight to watch a Muslim leader acting with so much deference towards his wife’s memory.

Death bestows sanctity on anybody, and when it comes in the form of a violent, meticulously planned assassination of a female leader as courageous as Benazir, it creates a halo that tends to dim all the negative images. Once the picture clears, however, and one makes an objective assessment of Benazir, weighing her good qualities against the bad, particularly in the context of the turbulent times ahead for Pakistan, one cannot help grieving the loss of a charismatic and courageous leader.

To take on the Pakistan army, even though she may have made peace with its ruling deity before returning to the country, is not a joke. That Benazir was fully aware of the attempts to eliminate her is obvious enough after her brutal and cowardly killing. The e-mail she had sent to her American friend Mark Segal, her will, where she could not rise above the temptation of treating the PPP as her family fiefdom, speak of a woman who knew that violent death was stalking her like a shadow.

Those who mourn her death feel a deep sense of loss. And these include blind admirers and real friends who could see both her virtues and flaws and didn’t hesitate to point out the latter, Pakistanis and the rest of the world which looks at Benazir as a charismatic leader who held out hope of restoring democracy and a semblance of order to a country fast degenerating to newer depths of extremist violence and anarchy.

You cannot help wondering why such an astute woman, who was fully aware of the price she would have to pay for the tiniest of wrong moves, popped out of her bullet-proof SUV to wave to her supporters. But, then, adulation is a heady feeling which brings along its own brand of intoxication and a sense of invincibility.

As news of her assassination came in, the first thoughts went to her three children. The country and the party would find another leader as time waits for no one, but what about the deep void left in her children’s lives was the uppermost thought in people’s minds.

Hope of democracy

Even the young and handsome Bilawal, who tried to look brave and composed before the cameras as he proclaimed, raising his voice, that his mother said that democracy was the best revenge, deserves better than to be roughly and hastily pushed into the quagmire of Pakistan’s politics. And this only because the PPP think-tank knows only too well that his father, who along with Benazir, was once known in Pakistan as “Mr and Mrs 10 per cent”, would never be accepted by the Pakistan electorate as Benazir’s successor.

So the plot is neatly sketched out. Bilawal, after being made PPP Chairperson returns to complete his education in the UK, the PPP, which is almost certain to sweep the polls will have as prime minister its vice-chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim, and Mr Zardari will take a firm grip over the remote control for both the party and the government.

A country teetering on the border of chaos, deserves better than this. Pakistan is poised at this moment at a precarious stage in its history. Pakistan loyalists argue it is not a ‘failed’ but a ‘dysfunctional’ nation and the right kind of leadership can still pull it from the brink. Benazir might have managed that feat; corruption is one issue and a vibrant democracy is another, and, sometimes, one has to settle for the lesser evil.

The Pakistan Muslim League (N) chief, Mr Nawaz Sharif, is watching from the wings and has joined hands with the PPP in condemning President Musharraf and demanding a free and fair election. There is even talk that the two parties might form some kind of a coalition and provide a national government.

The silver lining is that Pakistan’s recent history has seen the nation plunge to such abysmal depths that whatever happens next can only be better. If properly handled, this could be a turning point in the nation’s history and, in death, Benazir might have helped her country achieve this objective.

(Response may be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in)