BENAZIR BHUTTO
(21 June 1953-27 December 2007)
| RECONCILIATION Islam, Democracy, and the West Benazir Bhutto New York: Harper, 2008 |
Rating: 5.0 High |
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| ISBN-10 0-06-156758-2 | 320pp. | HC | $27.95 | |
Born in Karachi on 21 June 1953, Benazir Bhutto was the eldest child of a prominent Pakistani family. After basic schooling in Pakistan, she pursued her higher education in the United States. From 1969 to 1973 she attended Radcliffe College at Harvard University, where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in comparative government, graduating with cum laude honors. She was also elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She later called her time at Harvard "four of the happiest years of my life" and credited it with fostering her belief in democracy.
The next phase of her education took place in the United Kingdom. Between 1973 and 1977 Bhutto studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University, during which time she completed additional courses in International Law and Diplomacy. After LMH she attend St Catherine's College, Oxford, and in December 1976 she was elected president of the Oxford Union, becoming the first Asian woman to head the prestigious debating society.
It was during this time that her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, became the tenth prime minister of Pakistan. He was executed on 4 April 1979 on charges of being involved in the murder of a political opponent. It was reported that a large part of the Pakistani public disbelieved the charge. Mrs. Bhutto and her mother were held at a "police camp" until the end of May, and then placed under house arrest for years. Mrs. Bhutto was allowed to travel to London in 1984 for medical treatment.
On December 18, 1987, she married Asif Ali Zardari in Karachi. The couple had three children: a son, Bilawal, and two daughters Bakhtwar and Aseefa.
Benazir Bhutto was prime minister of Pakistan twice, from 1988-1990 and 1993-1996. She was deposed both times on charges of corruption. It is my understanding that this is a standard way of removing political opponents in Pakistan. She spent the subsequent years in self-imposed exile in Dubai.
At the urging of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, Bhutto returned to Pakistan on 18 October 2007. President Musharraf, pressured into making a deal by the U.S. government, agreed to her return and promised to guarantee her security. However, a suicide bomber attacked a rally where she appeared, detonating explosives that killed 179 of her supporters. Bhutto herself was not injured, then.
Mrs. Bhutto has been called many things: Incompetent; corrupt; an elitist who looked down on "commoners" like Musharraf. The charges of corruption come not just from Pakistan but from sources in France, Poland, Spain, and Switzerland. The evidence I have seen convinces me there was corruption there — but more on the part of Asif Zardari, the former playboy who loved polo, fast cars, and good liquor. John F. Burns, a New York Times reporter, has been following this story. In 1998, referring to a cache of Bhutto family papers bought for $1 million from "a shadowy intermediary," he wrote, "The documents leave uncertain the degree of involvement by Bhutto... But they trace the pervasive role of her husband, Asif Zardari, who turned his marriage to Bhutto into a source of virtually unchallengeable power." Some of the evidence reported by Burns and others:
But Burns goes further, quoting unnamed Pakistani officials as claiming that these foreign deals, lucrative as they were, pale in comparison to the sums Zardari raked in from internal contracts. The New York Times special report goes into damning detail on Bhutto family corruption, convincing me that if Benazir Bhutto did not approve of what her husband was doing, she knew about it and did little or nothing to stop him.
However, similar charges of corruption were leveled at the other potential (and former) leader of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif. He too was twice removed from the prime minister position on that basis. John Burns's special report says that Sharif, then pushing Bhutto's prosecution as prime minister, himself struggled for years against corruption charges. Burns concludes therefore that the investigation of Bhutto "has been highly politicized." As for Pervez Musharraf, the general who currently heads the country, a recent survey found widespread support for the view that he was more corrupt than either Mrs. Bhutto or Sharif. Also worth noting is a report by the Auditor General of Pakistan, surfaced in 2006 after 15 years, that blames President Ghulam Ishaq Khan for approving Rs.28 million to pay for "an army of legal advisors" to file 19 corruption cases against Benazir Bhutto and Asif Zardari in 1990-1992.
As I note in my review, Mrs. Bhutto (helped by her longtime friend Mark Siegel) makes a good case in Reconciliation that she was a woman of virtue. She did the same in life, as witnessed by her many supporters, among them influential people in several Western countries as well as at home in Pakistan. In this, she was aided by natural gifts: Insight and intelligence, a talent for public speaking, and, as the image here shows, considerable charm and beauty. Her Pakistani People's Party was and remains the most popular in the country.
Against this can be set the valid evidence of corruption I describe above, as well as Mrs. Bhutto's record of performance as prime minister — a record that, according to many observers, includes mismanagement of the country's economy as well as tacit support for Pakistani insurgents in Kashmir and Islamic extremists in Afghanistan. To these defects must be added the charge that Benazir Bhutto was complicit in the murder by a police squad of her brother Murtaza — a charge which his daughter Fatima Bhutto steadfastly maintains.
The picture is a complicated one. There is reason to believe that multiple layers of ulterior motives underlie the fine words, good ideas and noble intentions of all parties in Pakistan. These possible motives include: insecurities driving the desire for fame or vindication; a thirst for revenge; simple greed or lust for power; the desire to bring down a rival by any means necessary; conflicting personal loyalties; and allegiance to opposing geopolitical imperatives. So, based on all of this, what is the true nature of Benazir Bhutto? It all adds up, in my opinion, to the fact that she was a woman of intelligence and insight, charm, and considerable political skill; that she did have the best interests of her people at heart; but that she was marred by autocratic tendencies and a love of luxury. Add to this the battling factions of Pakistan, each with their own interests and loyalties, and you have a situation in which very few leaders could manage to reconcile the contending parties. We can only hope that her death will give Mrs. Bhutto's more honorable aspirations the impetus her flaws robbed them of while she lived.
Perhaps the best summation of the complex character of Benazir Bhutto, and the complex challenge to which she returned, comes from Gail Sheehy, whose interview of her for Parade magazine was published online the day she was killed.
Like her country, Bhutto is a riddle. Brilliant, Beautiful, fearless, she is also ruthlessly ambitious, devious and corrupt. The first question that perplexes an American: How could Bhutto—Harvard- and Oxford-educated, unapologetically secular—have become the first woman elected to lead a Muslim country? In part, the answer is that in dynastic Pakistan, she is effectively royalty. The second question: Why should this election matter so much to America? That answer is simpler. Pakistan has nuclear weapons. Also, the most dangerous place in the world is Pakistan's lawless border with Afghanistan. It is a Ho Chi Minh Trail of terrorism where Osama bin Laden is believed to enjoy sanctuary. – Parade, 27 December 2007 |
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