Registan.net

It is interesting to read Paisley Dodds make what almost seems a racial argument for Benazir Bhutto’s unsuitability for Pakistan:

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Benazir Bhutto’s pale skin, designer clothes and degrees from Harvard and Oxford seem to contradict her self-appointed role as savior of Pakistan’s poor and illiterate — particularly in Karachi’s slums.

Campaign posters of the former prime minister, once nicknamed “Pinkie” because of her rosy complexion, cover grimy storefronts in poor neighborhoods where her support is strongest. Black graffiti welcomes her home after an eight-year absence.

“We will stand by B.B.” said Karim Dad Baluch, 66, his dark skin leathery and wrinkled as he murmurs her initials. “Her father helped us. Now it’s time we help her.”

Less certain, though, is how long the poor will wait for aid. [Emphasis mine.]

I suppose this could be par for the course for the AP these days: relying on stereotypes, cheap anecdotes (not even good ones if they want to highlight dire poverty), and vaguely mentioning the corruption associated with her rule. There is also a curiously twisted grammar in that dispatch as well.

But let us not forget, Bhutto was twice removed from power for “corruption”—a sticky term in a corrupt third world country, to be sure, but that didn’t stop the Swiss from indicting her on money laundering charges. The Swiss, by the way, still have an open case on her, and it’s unclear how the amnesty deal she struck with Musharraf will play out.

Though it perhaps says something when the Swiss have a problem with money laundering, they’re not alone. Both Poland and France have produced evidence implicating her in significant international corruption schemes. At the least, it can be said Musharraf isn’t beyond the pale in accusing her of corruption.

Despite this, it makes sense for the floundering dictator to invite her back in: unable to rally much popular support, Pervez Musharraf was in desperate need of connection to the public. Bhutto can still rally the troops, so to speak, to her side. That, I suppose, was meant to be the point of Dodds’ piece.

It is also interesting to think about what fundamentalism has done to Pakistan. Karachi wasn’t always known for its vast network of religious extremists, nor was it known for trying to assassinate its most popular politician (Bhutto isn’t unreasonable in seeing Hamid Gul’s hand in this, though no one really knows if he had anything to do with the specific operation, or if he simply continues to openly support the Taliban). Similarly, while Balochistan has always been a relatively violent place, it was not historically as horrendous as it is now. Before 1980 white people could traverse Peshawar and travel into Afghanistan with relatively little fear (Rosanne Klass described the journey from Peshawar to Jalalabad as safe, if you travel during the day and don’t stray from the road); they could even travel in Waziristan without worrying about being executed on site by the neo-Taliban.

Indeed, digging around on YouTube reveals some surprising videos of what has been:

Hrm. Maybe not. On the other hand, vintage footage of none other than former prime minister Benazir Bhutto belly dancing might be exactly what I meant:

I am assuming it is her, since, try as I might, I cannot confirm this outside the youtube post. Laugh as some might at this, it’s actually really sad, and not in the way you may be thinking. While I’ll readily admit to not really understanding the true dept of Pakistan’s cultural complexity (which is, in either case, far in excess of the short rift it’s given by most westerners, media and analysts alike), it seems undeniable something has been lost over the last three decades of war. Maybe it’s a certain insouciance of chubby girls shaking themselves alongside a disturbing gay Phil Spector look-alike, or watching a woman who would eventually be the first female head of a Muslim state dance in a club when she was young.

There probably isn’t any one single thread connecting these disparate events together—Bhutto’s political bid, her possible corruption, the ire of extremists, and Pakistan’s political collapse—save one thing that has the only real chance of affecting some real change in the country: open, free, and fair elections. This would preclude, unfortunately, Musharraf’s immunity deal; it would similarly not give Nawaz Sharif much wiggle room should he try not to get deported again. Elevating her above the law just so Musharraf can get some reprieve is only pushing the ultimate problem Pakistan faces—establishing a firm rule of law and a cohesive national identity—away. It’s left, unsolved, on the horizon.

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