Let's be Candid and do the Dead a Favour

Benazir Bhutto, former Pakistani Prime Minister and daughter Zulkifar Ali Bhutto, a martyred Prime Minister was assinated today (27 December 07) at a political rally. As in the case of every rally in her career, Ms Bhutto attracted huge crowds and her assination at the tender age of 53 has been rightly condemed by Pakistani and International leaders.

Suicide bombing is a particularly nasty way of taking people out. The object of a suicide bomb attack is to inflict as much damage on the civilian population as possible and to create an atmosphere of fear and mistrust within the civilian population. Personally, I find the idea of making the young and impressionable strap a bomb onto their backs to die for your political agenda to be particulary distasteful. Suicide bombing is a sign that something is rotten with the cause it's supposed to be fighting for, it represents something wrong with the enemy of the cause - its a symbol of something rotten all round.

Benazir Bhutto's assination is a tragedy in as much as it is a tragedy that someone has to have their life cut short for any particular reason.

But let's get certain facts straight. As colourful as Ms Bhutto was, she was by no means a symbol of democracy and freedome that the great and the good in the world are making her out to be. Ms Bhutto, the world's first female leader of an Islamic Nation was, to put in bluntly a abuser of power and a crook, who along with her husband and brother's plundered the nation.

When she was first elected, she came into power on the back of her murdered father's martyredome. A few years latter she was dismissed by the President of the day, Ghalum Ishaq Khan. Like all good politicians, Ms Bhutto made a stunning recovery and got herself back into power and this time, there was a handpicked President, Faroqu Laghari. However, within a few years, her ally had to dismiss her government - an event which the Economist Magazine said, "A rare occasion when we support an appointed President in his decission to sack a popularly elected Prime Minister."

Of course many would argue that Ms Bhutto was paving the way for the return of democracy in Pakistan. It was her bargining with current President Musharaff that made him give up his role as army chief. It was the need to bring her supporters on side that President Musharraf ended a state of emergency and agreed to hold elections.

Crap! Benazir Bhutto was part of the reason for President Musharaff's climb to power in a military coup. For 8 or so years, Ms Bhutto and her rival and current co-opposition leader, Nawaz Shariff took turns to plunder the nation. President Musharaff has made some serious mistakes such as the storming of the Red Mosque and his current imposition of emergency rule have shown him to be as power hungry as the civilians he overthrew.

But let's face it. If Benazir Bhutto had been a half-way decent and honest Prime Minister, Pakistan would be in a much better shape than it is today. Her incompetence was compounded by the subsequent incompetences and dishonesty of Nawaz Sharif.

Let's be honest here. It's sad that a human life has been cut short in the way that it was. But let's not cloud the memory of that person in a false idealism. To do so only leads to more of the same problem - namely the corruption in Pakistan's civilian leaders. Portraying Benazir Bhutto as a martyr of democracy won't turn Pakistan into a wonderful democracy. Assessing what she was in an objective light will allow the world to assess Pakistan's problems in a more sensible light.