Tariq Ali compares American efforts to create a Bhutto-Musharraf power-sharing government in Pakistan to an arranged marriage.
Showing posts with label Pakistan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pakistan. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Monday, December 31, 2007
How many Muslim women leaders can you name?
Charismatic, striking and politically sly, Benazir Bhutto, 54, was reared amid the privileges of Pakistan's aristocracy and the ordeals of its turbulent politics. Smart, ambitious and resilient, she endured her father's execution and her own imprisonment at the hands of a military dictator to become the country's - and the Muslim world's - first female leader.The Muslim world's first female leader? Really? Are they serious? Maybe the first democratically elected prime minister of a modern nation-state that is majority Muslim, but to make the jump to say the first leader in the entire history of the 'Muslim world' is misleading and incorrect methinks.
What an incredibly misleading way to begin a story. I said as much to someone, and they said, why is that misleading? So I said umm, Aisha led politically (right?) after the death of the prophet. The person said, "Well I didn't know that." And she's right- no one does, which is why major respected papers with international readership can get away with making such a statement (which really has not much to do with the rest of the article). Notice how the author can write a biography of a female leader of a Muslim modern nation, something that would contradict the stereotypes of most of the readers, without actually challenging the stereotype. With that sentence they reinforce the idea that women can't lead- she must have been the first.
Can we please note here that there hasn't been any non-white non-male president in the US?
Here are some of the FEST's favorite Muslim women leaders (min zamaan and in this current zaman):
Khadija: The first wife of Muhammad. Also his elder, his distant cousin, and his financial sponsor. She was the first person to convert to Islam, and the prophet didn't marry any other wives until after her death. She is remembered as having a leading role in early Islam.
Aisha: A later wife of Muhammad, remembered as having had a special relationship with him, who after his death was respected for her accounts of the prophet's sayings and actions. Up to a quarter of Islamic law may be attributed to her explanations. In the battle that split Islam into Sunni and Shia, she raised up and led an army.
Najah Al-Attar: Syrian Vice President as of 2006 and former Minister of Culture. Don't let her fake wig distract you from her accomplishments.
Khaleda Zia: Bangladeshi Prime Minister from 1991-1996 and 2001-2006. Also she was Forbes' 33rd Most Powerful Woman in 2006.
For a plethora, see here.
Tarboush Tip: Nadeem, May, Fadi
The Pakistan Bhutto Party
Benazir Bhutto was a great verbal champion of democracy. I remember reading an article about a speaking tour she gave in the United States when she was PM. The article noted she used the word "democracy" roughly 60 times per speech. That however did not make Pakistan any more democratic but it did shift public opinion about it in America, as polling during her tour showed.
As an aside, Pakistan still is leagues ahead of the oppositionless Arab regimes, in which elections are nothing more than a spectacle with a foregone conclusion.
Still, I was a bit irked to see that the replacements of Benazir Bhutto in the Pakistan Peoples Party included her husband, who named their 19-year old son, a student at Oxford University, as the party head. They announced her husband, a former minister who was widely believed to be corrupt (which included jail time. He claims it was politically-motivated), would remain in custodianship until he finishes his studies. It is more than a bit strange that a dynasty will run a centrist people's party aimed at promoting democracy.
As Anatol Lieven argues in last weekend's Financial Times, Pakistan needs more than a dynasty to function and prosper. He argues only a broad coalition could resist a military takeover or religionist usurpation. Pakistan should try to move away from such politics, which do not empower the people but rather the established elite.
Then again, it's not as if America is much ahead, with a Bush or Clinton in executive office for the past 30 years -- and the prospect of four more. It is without surprise that the American government stood behind the Bhutto dynasty by re-inserting her into Pakistani politics. As noted by former National Security Adviser Zbignew Brzezinski:
I think the United States should not get involved in Pakistani politics. I deplore the absence of democracy in Pakistan, but I think admonitions from outside, injecting exile politicians into Pakistan, telling the Pakistan president what he should or should not wear, that he should take off his uniform, I don't really think this is America's business and I don't think it helps to consolidate stability in Pakistan.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Breaking News: Pakistan's Bhutto Assassinated
A bomb blast at a Butto rally killed about 20 people, including former prime minister and political leader Benazir Bhutto. Butto recently returned to Pakistan to lead a pro-West, secular political opposition. She negotiated a power-sharing plan with current head Musharraf before her return. She went back to lead her Pakistan People’s Party in next month's elections.
Monday, November 05, 2007
We Welcome Pakistan to the League of Perpetual Emergency Law States
On behalf of several Arab states, the Palestinian Authority and Israel, KABOBfest welcomes Pakistan to the exclusive club of states under emergency law. Though these are long-time members of this esteemed, exceptional group, a Musharraf-led Pakistan should fit right in.
Emergency law is such a nice way to negate implementation of high-handed ideals enumerated in Constitutions -- unless you are Israel, which has no constitution. Instead it has arguably non-binding "Basic Laws" that are also inapplicable during times of emergency law and leave out key democratic freedoms such as such as the Right for Equality, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Protest, and others. Israel has been in a state of emergency since its birth. After all, it still has the natives to deal with. This means for Palestinians, it is martial law, whereas Jews experience order and predictable legality. In sum, it's apartheid.
In solidarity, and to deal with the greatest threat to KABOBfest security, I declare a state of emergency for this blog. I am suspending open commenting access, will rigorously edit and screen posts, and am cutting down on flirtatious dalliance on the KABOBfest e-mail listserv until the "anonymous" terrorists attacking us in the comments section halt their assaults.
Pakistan's Musharraf: US Ally Goes Too Far
But that is not the problem, the real problem for the US with Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, suspending the constitutions and therefore civil liberties is that he could not avoid the negative publicity associated with it, and became more of a liability than an asset.
The first reaction from the state department was regret, but affirmation of the strong relationship and continuation of aid, then to demands of new elections, and this is only day two of Musharraf’s adventure.
The latest news speak of hundreds of arrests, and shutting down of all independent media, all of this seems to be playing on US news networks, much to the discomfort of the White House.
Now let's make it clear, I have a stake in what goes on in Pakistan because half of all Americans I meet think I'm actually Pakistilian.
Musharraf knows that some extent he actually could get away with some draconian measures, as far as the US reaction is concerned. He knows that the US has no other allies but him in the nuclear power that is deemed a “front line in the war on terror.” Benazir Bhutto, the recently returned exiled leader has even distanced her self from the US in her effort to position as the anti-Musharraf, in fact, the more democratic a choice the next leader is, the least likely he or she to be friendly to the US.
But the dictator may have overplayed his hand; unlike his more more savvy counterparts in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Israel, Musharraf snapped, he reacted in above-the-threshold steps that attracted media attention from all over the world, kind of like those dummies in Myanmar. And despite the little leverage it has over him, the US will soon find itself having to press Musharraf on his latest actions. But given the US's options such confrontation would be cosmetic at best, so for those of you about to be appalled, no worries, it's not the first time the US backs a dictator, at least this one is better than many.
It got to the point that a criminal like Bush could claim the moral high grounds, and demand that the president of another sovereign nation to hold election –ones that are sure to drive him out of office nonetheless-, and drop his military uniform, but it is the fault of the likes of Musharraf who chose to ally themselves with Bush against their own people.
Egypt’s dictator, for example, one of the US’s main allies, had had the country’s constitution suspended since his arrival to power nearly 27 years ago, his police forces assault and beat protesters on a regular basis, his jails are filled with activists and journalists without trials, or with show trials at best. But his moves are calculated; while they enrage the Egyptian people, they are below the threshold needed to become CNN’s sensational story of three days.
Saudi Arabia, similarly, continues to crack down on political descent and prevent its citizens, especially women, not to mention its non-citizen immigrants from basic rights, but continues to fly under the radar with its media savvy and resources, and by telling the US that those being oppressed are the people who view the US least favorably any way, in addition to the fact that the US is not exactly concerned, as long as the situation does not become a liability with all the media attention.
Israel, on the other hand, is the most savvy among America’s criminal allies, some how it’s managing to maintain an occupation of an entire people, enforce an apartheid-like regime, brutalize and entire population with heaviest, most advances weaponry in the world, while appearing as the victim at the same time.
Of course it helps that the media in the US is has enough people who selectively ignore news stories damning of Israel, but Israel itself knows how to make their job easy; proportionate responses and keeping it below the threshold are by no means Israel’s MO, but they know how to spin their stories, and more importantly, they know how to time their most aggressive actions. It’s military officers receive training in US mass media and news cycles, it’s population is so indoctrinated with the military’s narrative, that a news reporter can interview to random individuals in the street and they will give the same soundbites.
During the California wild fires of last month, Israel launched its most violent attack against Gaza in many months, and it seems to have planned, and gotten Washington’s OK for a major ground assault against the strip that “it does not occupy,” so wait until the next major event that dominates the news media for them to launch it, if no Hurricane or a major earthquake hit or a new sex tape is released of Paris Hilton sometime between now and the primaries time, that that is probably the zero hour.
Perhaps Musharraf should enlist in a PR course at the Israeli embassy.
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