Bilawal Bhutto

Now that the exultant and gushing tributes on Benazir Bhutto’s martyrdom for the cause of democracy are subsiding, let’s subject the world to some reality check.

While democracy is a great idea in Pakistan’s feudal politics, there is no real danger of it becoming a reality there just yet.

Bhutto, “chairperson for life” of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), actually left behind a will naming her husband Asif Ali Zardari as her successor. Bhutto left the will in the event that the remaining members of the PPP developed some genuine taste for democracy and elected a real non-Bhutto successor after internal elections.

As a fig leaf of legitimacy, Zardari named Makhdoom Amin Fahim as co-chairman of the party. Together they then unveiled the true face of democracy in appointing Bilawal, the 19-year-old son of Zardari and Bhutto, as the head of the party.

The PPP is a great political asset that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto bequeathed to his daughter who in turn passed it on to her teenaged son.

 And unless Pakistan’s violent ways intervene, Bilawal Bhutto will presumably have a long innings as “chairman for life”.

It is all so brazen and no one has the time or sense to ask about the underlying contradiction in the late Benazir Bhutto’s untiring claims of bringing democracy to Pakistan on the one hand and keeping the party as a family heirloom on the other.

Even if one disregards the obvious question about a teenager’s qualification to lead Pakistan’s main opposition party, one is still left with the larger and more troubling question about the kind of democracy that the country can hope for.

Consider the choices before the people of Pakistan: a military dictator (Pervez Musharraf), a discredited politician (Zardari or Nawaz Sharif) or a callow 19-year-old (Bilawal). Suddenly Pervez Musharraf may not seem like a terrible idea. That is the irony of the way Pakistan has gone about creating its polity - a military dictator who came to power in a coup seems like the best option.

The benchmark for democracy is so low.Of course, it is entirely possible that like his mother, who also started very young, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari would learn the tricks of the trade quickly.

That is precisely the point - they are the tricks of the trade, and tricks are by their very nature shortlived.

In a normal, healthy democracy with a long history the rise of a teenager might have signalled a progressive move. But in Pakistan it is nothing more than a cynical ploy to retain the ownership of a political apparatus by those who stand to benefit from it directly.

Zardari has announced his party’s intention to participate in the elections. Quickly taking a cue from it, Sharif too has now decided to take part. At some level, it is a good sign that elections will be held with the full participation of the two main political parties. However, as we all know, democracy is much more than self-serving electoral politics.