Her Heritage and Region’s Culture Suggest Bhutto Can Be a Leader

One of the world’s larger (population 110 million), poorer and least literate nations taught us some useful political lessons two weeks ago. Pakistan’s national election marked an unusually calm transition from long years of military dictatorship to democratic government--something that many countries, from Chile to Burma, are trying desperately, but unsuccessfully, to do. In a society where only about one-quarter of the people can read and write, there was a voter turnout considerably higher than that at the recent American presidential polls. Most surprising, given its Islamic culture and conservative tradition, was Pakistan’s election of a 35-year-old-woman--Benazir Bhutto--to national leadership.

The result validated Pakistan’s sense of political responsibility. At the national level, voters gave Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party a majority, but balanced it with a vigorous showing for other political forces. In state and local elections, regional groups--those close to parochial concerns--did better. Evidently, the average Pakistani wants government with restraint and also governments that will deal with great national issues as well as with smaller and more immediate matters.

In the struggle of contending legacies--the battle of ghosts--voters gave a strong edge to the Bhutto inheritance in the person of Benazir, daughter and political heir of the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was deposed as prime minister in 1977 and hanged.

Benazir Bhutto is both the child of privilege and the child of tragedy. Born to a family of great wealth and prominence, and intensely political even as a young girl, she developed an imperious personality. Then disaster struck. Since 1977, she has been subject to all the inflictions that an authoritarian regime can impose on an increasingly popular opponent, including house arrest and exile.

The death of her beloved father was the dominating event in Bhutto’s life, shaping all her activities in the past decade. In these years, there has been little time for reflection or leisure. She has had to gallop ahead of events, always looking over her shoulder at the watchful agents of Gen. Zia ul-Haq. At times, especially in the early 1980s, she seemed disagreeable, unable to cultivate the critical art of soothing political egos. Many associates of her father, wrongly expecting Benazir Bhutto to be only a figurehead behind whom they could reach for power, departed. Yet she has grown into the single most important political leader in Pakistan, capable of infusing large crowds with the magic her father once dispensed. This progression from vengeful offspring to full-fledged leader has not been easy, but it suggests the potential for evolution into the statesman Pakistan needs.

Today, Benazir Bhutto is not only the symbol and the catalyst of a democratizing Pakistan, she is also a phenomenon in the Islamic world--the first woman leader elected by the masses. This unusual acceptance is lodged in two circumstances. The first is personality and heritage. Her courage and resourcefulness under pressure gives her a special stature. In addition, the notion of a wronged child seeking retribution resonates in the hearts of many Pakistanis.

A second factor in Bhutto’s ascent is regional culture. The first elected woman leader of a modern government was former Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike in Sri Lanka in 1960, who is seeking election as president of her country next month. Indira Gandhi became prime minister of India in 1966. The political opposition in Bangladesh is led by two women of Islamic faith--Hasina Wajed and Begum Kaleda Zia. In 1964-65, Fatima Jinnah, sister of the founder of Pakistan, ran unsuccessfully for president of the republic. These women did initially benefit from their relationship with dead political heroes, but they nonetheless sustained their careers independently. There is, it seems, something in the culture of South Asia, whether it be Hindu or Buddhist or Islamic, that supports women’s participation and advancement in public life.

This heritage will surely encourage Bhutto as she faces a daunting prospect--depoliticizing the army, curbing religious zealotry, energizing the economy, managing relations with India and, above all, governing a country whose experience with democracy is less than a dozen years in its history of four decades. In doing this, she will perhaps recall the wisdom of her father who, many years ago, told me: “To rule is easy, to govern is difficult.”