A tribute to Bhutto

By Wajid Shamsul Hasan*

Martyred Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto’s last book “Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West” –perhaps her last testament --was a befitting epitaph to her incomplete but glorious life.

As a liberal, progressive and democratic Muslim leader in the mould of Quaid-i-Azam and Zulfi kar Ali Bhutto, her impassionate plea for an understanding between Islam and the West was to save the god’s little earth of an inevitable disaster.

She believed that the war Muslims in particular and the world in general should be concerned about was not a clash of civilizations between Islam and the West but between moderates and extremists, a conflict between those who believe in higher human values and those who want to turn the clock back. The 9-11 terrorist attacks hurt her deeply. She felt it "twisted the values of a great and noble religion and potentially set the hopes and dreams of a better life for Muslims back a generation."  Muslims, she believed "became [al Qaeda's] victims too."

In Reconciliation she makes a dedicated effort to reclaim Islam from the abuse of the extremists who are hell-bent to employ it for political advantage. She succinctly brought out the difference between Al-Qaeda’s and Islam’s real concept of Jihad.

In Islam Jihad meant a personal struggle "to follow the right path," in any field of human endeavour. The extremists had distorted this for fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan in the service of the United States to end up ten years down the road to convert terrorism into a full time business.

Bhutto believed in the total empowerment of women as laid in Holy Quran. She rightly wrote that fair treatment of women and minorities in Islam was revolutionary and far more progressive than what was practiced by contemporary Christian and Jewish societies.

Islam’s concept of socio-economic equality for all was the most powerful phenomenon that could pose a challenge to any other ideology any time. However, Islam's egalitarian traditions were constantly hijacked by the despotic Muslim rulers who reduced religion to a tool to consolidate their hold on power.

In order to resurrect the real Islam in the growing global complexities Bhutto had been pleading for ijtihad — the early Islamic tradition of challenge and inquiry to interpret the Holy Quran in relevance to and context of the current era. Her observations in “Reconciliation” are true manifestation of the real spirit of Islam as reflected in the concept of Ijtehad. As a befitting tribute to her we need to reiterate the Quran's message of peace and tolerance and not let it drown in a sea of extremism.

Her refutation of it gave Samuel Huntington's theory of the “Clash of Civilizations” a severe blow. She proved his thesis wrong that conflict between Islam and the West was inevitable.  She rightly concludes that Huntington 's work "has actually helped provoke the confrontation it predicts... The clash of civilizations theory is not just intellectually provocative: it fuels xenophobia and paranoia both in the West and in the Islamic world."

Instead, she observed, the tension was within Islam itself.  "The failure to resolve that tension peacefully and rationally threatens to degenerate into a collision course of values, spilling into a clash between Islam and the West."

Solutions offered by her were neither naive nor simplistic.  She suggested an end to dictatorship, greater economic investment, better education and a "reconciliation corps" of cultural ambassadors. She died pleading for a Marshall Plan for Afghanistan and Pakistan to salvage them from going on the path to
disaster.

The tragedy of Bhutto's assassination was not so much in the loss of one of the greatest leaders. It actually amounted to the demolition of the only bridge of sanity between East and West. She had emerged as the prophet of peace and reconciliation in a world that was being fractured by those who had been sold out to the inevitability of a clash of civilizations and revival of the spirit of crusades.

She worked on the premise that there was little distance between a dream and a reality. She was strongly of the view that it was impossible to kill a dream and if one wanted to kill it then one could only do it by making that dream come true.

It was her dream to make Pakistan a great country. It was this dream that took her into the lion’s den to singe his beard despite knowing that he was after her blood. She will be remembered eternally for her unsurpassable contribution for the cause of democracy, empowerment of women and less privileged. She was a dauntless leader—a role model--who was unafraid to speak her mind even in the face of death.

Democracy in Pakistan was just the revenge she wanted from her killers. Both she and her people triumphed over the barrel of the gun with the power of their ballot but the challenges confronting the country today are too many. Hydra-headed enemy of democracy is at it again. If the masses turn a blind eye to the machinations of the vested interest sprouting in various shapes and forms -- against the democratic dispensation—there shall be no turning back.

The month of December has become indelible in our life as a nation. Pakistan ’s founder Quaid-e-Azam was born on December 25, it saw the creation of Bangladesh on December 16 and it got the permanent scar of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination on December 27.

Notwithstanding the other factors that played havoc for dismembering the country, history would always remember the role of the apex judiciary in casting the most fatal stone for speeding up the process of disintegration. Had not Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Muhammad Munir upheld  the dissolution of Pakistan’s mother parliament by Governor General Ghulam Muhammad and that of Prime Minister Khawaja Nazimuddin in 1953, Pakistan would have remained united and by now would have become a formidable democracy. That decision became the
fore-runner for other judges to follow to sanctify dictators.

Unfortunately, our judiciary has repeatedly allowed itself to be abused by military and civilian dictators. It played into the hands of Ayub, Yahya, Zia and General ® Musharraf. Justice (R) Qayyum was abused by Saifur Rahman to have martyred Benazir Bhutto and Zardari convicted to please his “Bara Sahib”. The media doomsayers seem to be doing their sinister bit to create conditions for the scuttling of democracy.

Changes have been forecast. They have been hearing the marching sounds of boots. In their Tv shouting matches, they have been found passionately pleading-- on the verge of tears-- calling upon the jackboots to intervene and also the masses to revolt. They want judicial activism to judicially murder democracy through confrontation between different pillars of the state.

Pakistan , its people, its government and its armed forces will surely triumph over extremism. Though singled out to be the sole target--President Asif Zardari at the helm of affairs with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani Pakistan would continue to plod into pastures new. The best tribute to the memory of martyred Bhutto would
be to thwart all the anti-democratic machinations and not to allow
history to repeat.

 

December 24, 2009

(*The writer is the High Commissioner of Pakistan to UK and a confidante and Advisor to Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, former Prime Minister of Pakistan)

 

 

 

Last updated: 14-01-2010