I just received an email alert saying that Benazir Bhutto, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, was assassinated today. Bhutto had returned to Pakistan after eight years of a self-imposed exile in Dubai, with the hope to becoming Prime Minister for a third time and with the election, restore democracy in Pakistan.
Bhutto was killed after a suicide bomber opened fire and then blew himself up at a rally. This was the second suicide bombing attack on Bhutto since her return to the country of her birth.
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday outside a large gathering of her supporters where a suicide bomber also killed at least 14, doctors and a spokesman for her party said.
While Bhutto appeared to have died from bullet wounds, it was not immediately clear if she was shot or if her wounds were caused by bomb shrapnel.
President Pervez Musharraf held an emergency meeting in the hours after the death, according to state media.
Police warned citizens to stay home as they expected rioting to break out in city streets in reaction to the death.
During the 1980s I had a roommate whose boyfriend at the time was a "renegade" of the Pakistani elite. It was incredibly interesting and enlightening to talk about Pakistani politics with my roommates boyfriend because it gave me a "real life" insight to the folly that was even then Pakistani politics.
Benazir represents the cosmopolitan upper and middle class elites who want "to save Pakistan from extremists and militants" [1]. My friend at the time didn't want to go back to the country for fear that his atheism and lack of blind reverence for all things Pakistani would cost him his life and bring undue ostracism to his family.
That's how extreme the situation and culture is for Pakistanis who don't want to be part of the culture of tribalism and blind "muslimism" that has the country under siege.
More from Vinod over at Sepia Mutiny : [2]
- Both Musharaff and Bhutto are considered Pro-US / Pro-West / Secular leaders
- Especially relative to the Islamists
- And likely relative to the general population
- Bhutto moreso than Musharraf
- So, Jihadist forces (who are both Anti-Musharraf as well as Anti-Bhutto) are a likely culprit
- “Pro-Musharraf forces†are easy to finger as well but my initial gut leans skeptical
- Given their similarities, what are the substantive diffs between Musharraf and Bhutto?
- One key difference was their views of the general Pakistani population; Musharaff was a bit more of a “realist†; Bhutto presents herself as an “idealistâ€
- Musharaff feared that the populism writ large would lead to an illiberal democracy [3]
- Bhutto was more willing to turn to the electorate to ..
- lead the country to more democracy (if you think she has Good Intentions)
- secure more power for herself (if you think she has Bad Intentions despite the lofty rhetoric)
- Regardless of Bhutto’s intentions, as a realist, Musharraf was afraid that her push for “more democracy†would lead to “less liberalism†rather than realizing those goals…
Benazir Bhutto was for me an inspiration. She was fierce. She was bold. She was beautiful and smart and fearless.
"Muslimists" may have seen her as a sell out. To me she was first and foremost a Pakistani, a woman and a citizen of the world.
Benazir could have easily walked away from what she considered her fate. She could have taken a teaching post at a top university anywhere in England, France or the United States. She could have easily lived for the rest of her life in the upper class comfort offered to her in Dubai.
Yet she chose to put herself in harms way for Hope.
In a world in which women in positions of power are commonly described as bitches for wanting to be men, Benazir somehow rose above that. Not because she was "not a bitch" but because being a woman was part of her politics. She never ran away from her beauty or her 'fertility'. She had beauty queen looks. She also was mother to three children. Benazir used her "femaleness", her "natural fate" and used it as a political tool and weapon.
This is to me the #1 reason for considering Benazir Bhutto a sheroe. She was uncompromisingly a woman. A woman who loved her country if not her culture. A woman who was smart and bold and fierce.
Benazir Bhutto was an incredible inspiration because she never made apologies for being first and foremost a woman.
What will be of Pakistan after her death?
Pakistan has a nuclear arsenal. It also has sizeable percentage of the population that thinks highly of Al-Qaeda.
I can't but help think back to a former International Politics professor at New York University. I think his name was Silverman and his prediction back in 1987 was that World War 3 was going to be fought in the Middle East.
He unfortunately may be proven right.
UPDATE :
I have been excoriated in a mailing list for writing anything nice about Benazir Bhutto. I am not shocked given how I am not just the only person of color on these email lists, but the only person who actually grew up and lived in the "Third World" --for those new to the blog, that would be the US's own third world country, aka, Puerto Rico.
I just want to make the point that, no matter your view of the elites responsible for a lot of the misery that happens south of the Equator, the reality is that there was nobody like Benazir Bhutto. NOBODY.
For a lot of women of my generation and of south of the border, Benazir Bhutto was a feminist, media and even fashion icon. She was just breath-taking to watch. And she was breath-taking not just for her looks but because she dared to be a woman in politics in a country where a lot of people would have rather enjoyed seeing her hanged from the public square for defying islamic convention.
Let me press upon you that last point : IT'S DANGEROUS FOR A WOMAN TO BE IN POWER IN A COUNTRY FORCED TO CHOOSE BETWEEN SECULARISM AND ISLAM.
If liberals ready to blast Bhutto don't understand why this would be an inspiration for women around the world, then really, you have no business discussing politics.
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