Another Ugly Day in Pakistani Politics

Here's Bush's spin on the assassination of Benazir Bhutto:

"The United States strongly condemns this cowardly act by murderous extremists who are trying to undermine Pakistan's democracy," said Bush, who looked tense and took no questions.

It's clearly too early to say, but the "murderous extremists" are just as likely to have been elements of the Pakistani military as anyone else. But more on that in a minute.

There are a few narratives that are being reinforced by the media today, all of which are, at best, badly oversimplified. They are:

• Benazir Bhutto was a brave democracy activist, a symbol of women of color breaking down the doors and storming the corridors of power. She was a much-beloved figure who gave up a cushy life in exile to return to Pakistan to bring stability and democracy to a troubled land.
• Musharraf is a "moderate Islamic leader" whose reckless abuses of power are tolerated by the international community because he stands as a bulwark against Al Qaeda radicals.
• It's simply a given that the assassination was directly related to the struggle against "Islamofascism" -- or whatever silly label one prefers.

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto is a shocking and tragic occurance that’s going to have terrible repercussions in Pakistan and beyond. That doesn't mean, however, that we should white-wash her background or lionize her as some sort of saint. She was a hero to many when she came to power, and she was the prominent face of the Pakistani democracy movement this time around. But she and her husband also robbed the country blind during her time in office and went into "self imposed exile" with tens of millions of dollars tucked away in a series of secret accounts.

Many in Pakistan saw her as the petty kleptocrat that she was. Although Bhutto always claimed that all the corruption charges against her (and her husband) were trumped up, they were tried in Western courts as well as in Pakistan; the couple were found guilty of laundering millions of dollars in bribes and kick-backs after a 6-year trial in Switzerland.

When Bhutto first came to power, her administration tried to push back against the religious fundamentalists who are a fixture in Pakistani politics but made little progress. During her time as Prime Minister, she supported and aided the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan, viewing them as a stabilizing force after all years of chaos under the Russian occupation and during the anarchy that followed. Although Bhutto joined the rest of the world in condemning them after 9/11, when it suited her, she had played footsie with religious fundamentalists just like everyone else in Pakistani politics has, ever since the founding of the nation.

As for Musharraf, it's just a marvel that anyone could call him a "moderate" with a straight face. Just as dozens of petty dictators during the Cold War realized that they could receive American aid, military assistance and political cover for cracking down on internal dissent simply by saying those magic words: "I'm an anti-Communist," Musharraf's declaration of war against Islamic extremism has been a model of cynical super-power manipulation. It's worked out great; after seizing power in a military coup, the guy's passed laws effectively outlawing his political opponents' candidacies, suspended the Constitution and the judiciary and placed half of the country's elites under house arrest, yet the media continue to portray him as a moderate leader. He's a moderate like I'm Miss America.

Here's Najum Mushtaq, of the Pak Institute for Peace Studies:

He portrayed himself as a liberal Muslim and parroted moderate Islam to appease the West. Yet, in the eight years of his military rule General Musharraf too displayed an ambiguous attitude towards the religious right in Pakistan. On the one hand, his regime is an ally of the United States in the campaign to curb extremism and militancy. On the other hand, the religious parties, some of them overtly pro-Taliban, have been his political allies and helped to sustain his illegitimate rule by acquiescing in his post-2002 experiment of controlled democracy. Under General Musharraf, the religious parties were able to win elections in one of the four provinces and became the major coalition partner in another in partnership with the pro-Musharraf faction of the Pakistan Muslim League.

Mushtaq points to a report (PDF) by the International Crisis Group:

Despite his propensity to rule through decrees and ordinances, President Musharraf has been unwilling to use his powers to implement his pledges to control religious extremism. On the contrary, his constitutional amendments, contained in the Legal Framework Order 2002, have undermined the domestic standing of moderate secular parties. Moreover, the military has actively supported the religious parties during and after the October 2002 elections. The MMA, an alliance of religious parties, is a major beneficiary of the military's use of all available means to manipulate parliamentary alliances and forge acceptable governments."

In the lead-up to the current elections -- which everyone seems to agree will now be suspended -- the pro-Taliban Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party has been busy trying to strike a partnership with Musharraf's supporters in the Muslim League. That's our bulwark against Al Qaeda, right there.