[Peace-discuss] Ali's latest on Pakistan

[Morton K. Brussel]

Something very serious lingering behind the headlines is the security  
of Pakistan's nuclear weapons.  --mkb

On Dec 31, 2007, at 1:04 AM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:

> [I like the suggestion that Ms. Bhutto is dead because she didn't  
> have Blackwater to protect her... And it seems to me that the  
> following description of Bhutto's party could be applied to one  
> closer to home, in an age of Bushes and Clintons: "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."  --CGE]
>
> 	My heart bleeds for Pakistan.
> 	It deserves better than this grotesque feudal charade
> 	By Tariq Ali, Pakistan-born writer, broadcaster and commentator
> 	Published: 31 December 2007
>
> 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  
> Washington'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.
>
>
>
> 	###
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