Unforeseen Consequences
So, Benazir Bhutto is dead. Depending on whom you believe she was either shot multiple times or knocked unconscious, later to die in hospital. Regardless, I suspect this event will not fade away from our headlines for some time.
As always our ever so thoughtful and enlightened Prime Minister, Gordon Brown was quick to make a public statement in which he claimed that:
Benazir Bhutto was a woman of immense personal courage and bravery.
Knowing, as she did, the threats to her life, the previous attempt at assassination, she risked everything in her attempt to win democracy in Pakistan, and she has been assassinated by cowards afraid of democracy.
This is a sad day for democracy. It’s a tragic hour for Pakistan.
Unfortunately these words were uttered by a man who refuses to give the British people a referendum on the completely undemocratic EU Constitution (a promise on which he was elected) and continues to give away further sovereign powers to an unelected, bureaucratic EU Commission. The Prime Minister wouldn’t know what democracy was if it came up to him and punched him in the face.
Anyway, be that as it may; returning to the original point about Benazir Bhutto’s death, I will not pretend to know much about internal Pakistani politics, because I in fact know very little. However, what I do know is that the country has an enormous problem with Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism. This has also had a profound affect on neighbouring Afghanistan and on our troops stationed in that region already undertaking the extremely difficult task of trying to restore relative order and stability.
At present the military under President Musharraf are generally in control of Pakistan. Despite the efforts of some, including Benazir Bhutto, democracy has not yet been restored. Yet her murder is likely to accelerate international calls for elections to be held immediately and for the military dictatorship to be cast aside. Yet, perceptively Richard North notes that:
Arguably, democracy is the only means by which good government can be assured over the longer term – but, as we know to our cost in this country, even this is not a guarantee. Winston Churchill described it as the ‘least worst’ form of government, but this was a man who, during the Second World War, effectively ruled as a dictator.
Certainly, during that period, no one could sensibly have described the UK as a democracy, the normal rights of the citizens – and even elections – having been suspended. However, arguably, we had tolerably good government and certainly one which had the general consent of the majority of people.
It is worth asking, therefore, whether we should be pressing for immediate elections in Pakistan.
One wonders whether increased international pressure that will undoubtedly be placed upon Pakistan to make a rapid transition back to democracy may have unintended and unforeseen consequences. At a time when Pakistan appears to be a country in turmoil, it is perhaps unwise for outsiders to make rash decisions and appeal for something which they do not necessarily understand.
