Revisiting Bhutto’s “Reconciliation”

 

By Wajid Shamsul Hasan

 

For me she is still around. Though conspirators against democracy, empowerment of the less privileged, perpetrators of obscurantism, extremism, bigotry, interfaith conflicts and doomsayers of the clash of civilisations had thought that by physically eliminating Benazir Bhutto in December 2007 they had changed the course of history in their own favour.

 

Now when I look back and join millions in remembering her on her birthday anniversary (born June 21, 1953) I feel how wrong her opponents were. Earth-shaking events following her assassination have turned the tide in giving birth to a new world order. Take Pakistan’s case as an example. By sacrificing her life her pristine blood has been responsible for the rebirth and blossoming of democracy.

 

Never before in Pakistan’s roller-coaster journey through various phases that included long periods of dictatorship, did we ever succeeded in practising politics of consensus, national reconciliation and totality in support to the democratic dispensation by even Praetorian establishment that had always pulled the country in the direction other than the one chosen by the founding father Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

 

Notwithstanding the faults and failings of the nascent democratic order all its institutions are working in unison. And god willing the legacy of national reconciliation and politics of consensus bequeathed by her to the nation and its political leadership will see it through the current period of turmoil and challenges. Besides giving rebirth to a democratic order her greatest contribution lies in her infinite message in defence of Islam as a religion of peace, tolerance and harbinger of inter-faith co-existence. In her last testament “Reconciliation, Islam and the West” Bhutto defended Islam as a progressive and egalitarian system that nails the prejudiced view that it was a religion of violence and fear.

 

Through convincingly vigorous arguments to counter anti-Islamist forces propagating its totally distorted view, she extensively quotes and discusses verses of the Quran that uphold universal peace, plurality and the democratic traditions of consensus and debate. Like a learned religious scholar unlike the Taliban breed, she has brought into focus to create awareness, verses from Quran that prohibit the very actions that extremists claim as necessary or justifiable acts of "Holy War”.

 

Her presentation in “Reconciliation” is armed with quotes from the research and conclusions of a large number of Muslim scholars and authorities on Islam. I entirely agree with the conclusion of an eminent writer who along with other heavyweights spent the better part of the past decade making the same argument. There cannot be two views that her book is a very useful storehouse of ammunition with which to defend Islam as a religion of peace, harmony and universal tolerance.

 

Unlike the prophets of doom masquerading as religious scholars while stoutly defending Islam’s socio-economic justice—Bhutto did not waver in her perseverance to underscore her wisdom and foresight. She rightly emphasised that there was not only need for “Ijtehad” for change in the Muslim way of life according to the needs and challenges of the present age, democracy was not a western idea but part of Islam that believed in equality and condemned poverty as the greatest curse of god. She was also candid in criticising those who perpetrated extremism on the plea that their actions were a reaction to injustices by the west while completely ignoring violence by Muslims against Muslims in Muslim countries. She was rightly bitter over the silence from the Ummah when it came to be killing of Muslims by Muslims on sectarian grounds.

 

Bhutto all her life was a champion of democracy for all people—irrespective of their caste, creed, colour or gender. She was at her best when she challenged issue of democracy versus Islam. With her scholarly depth and profound understanding, she focused on the political histories of a large number of Muslim-majority nations, strongly pleading that the failure of democracies in most of the Muslim countries was political rather than religious. In almost all cases, the west (either a colonial European power or the US) had played a questionable role in undermining democracy and propping up dictators. Example Pakistan, Egypt etc. While the western leaders cried hoarse for waging wars to make world safe for democracy, their preference was always in favour of supporting evil of dictatorship for geo-strategic expediency and gains. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was absolutely right and brave when not very long ago in a Congressional presentation confessed that Pakistan today was reaping the bitter harvest of seeds sowed by the United States following Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

 

When in exile knocking at the western doors to wake up their leaders that if they were sincere in defending the pristine values of democratic freedoms/human rights they must join hands with her for the restoration of democracy in Pakistan. She tried to show them wisdom in the words of Lord Chris Patten that if the West wanted to bring sanity and stability in post-Soviet Afghanistan, it must stop supporting dictatorship in Pakistan. Lord Patten believed that only a strong democratic Pakistan can help in ushering order and stability in Afghanistan.

 

Democratic Pakistan was made to join West in support of Taliban since they were seen in the eyes of the West to be harbingers of orderliness in a strife-torn, war-ravaged country following Soviet withdrawal. It was through western help Taliban took Kabul right after the fall of her government in 1996 - squarely placing all the blame for Pakistan's Taliban policy on her successor. Whatever she never gave up her opposition to obscurantism.

 

Most importantly her book demolishes the "clash of civilizations" thesis. She makes mince meat of it with the aid of a number of Muslim theologians whose vision was based on reason, sanity and tolerance within the Muslim world. She died searching for support to strengthen those voices of reason and sanity and to get them space to be listened. She was profoundly perturbed since she believed that the real clash was not between Islam and the west, but within Islam itself. And according to her the way out was for the moderates to be victorious over dictatorships as is being witnessed in today’s Middle East where democratic spring is replacing dark eras of authoritarian regimes.

 

Bhutto had laid out her own blueprint for the defeat of extremism by concerted efforts involving both Muslims and the west. Her suggestion that the oil-producing Gulf states "jump-start economic and intellectual development" in the rest of the Muslim world via a Muslim Investment Fund. She even pleaded for a Marshal Plan for rebuilding Afghanistan and Pakistan—ideas that remain elusive to this day while trillions of dollars are going down the drain with no hope of victory in sight. She concluded her book by acknowledging that her proposals "may seem daunting and even impossible. I make these recommendations because the times demand something more than business as usual . . . It is a time for creativity. It is a time for bold commitment. . . There has been enough pain. It is time for reconciliation.

 

One agrees with the view that it may be tempting to think her death undermined her belief in what was yet possible, but it seems more in keeping with the spirit of Reconciliation to say that there are ways to counter those who use violence to further their ends. We just can't wait until tomorrow to do it. We must strike now. A little late would be too late.

 

 

London

June 21, 2011

 

Last updated: 21-06-2011