Comrade Taimur,
The following article is one that I copied for your input. It is from a
trotskyist site so that obviously is an element for caution.
I present this article because it does bring out some points that are very
relevant for questioning the position of Bhutto. Since I am not in any way a
citizen of Pakistan or affiliated with any groups there I do not pretend to
know first hand the information that is necessary to develop an informed
position.
You, obviously are a member of a communist organization in Pakistan, which is
why I defer to you on this matter.
Although I have not focused my attention on this situation in Pakistan as I
have other projects that occupy more time than I actually have, in honesty,
many of the points brought out by this article do sum up my views on Bhutto as
basically being in line with US capitalism while in opposition to Musharraf.
This article was written September 2007 so it is very recent.
Fraternaly
Mark Scott
What lies behind recent developments in Pakistan? Why did the Supreme Court
lift the ban on Nawaz Sharif returning to Pakistan for him only to expelled by
the Military as soon as he set foot on Pakistani soil? Why are Benazir Bhutto
(in exile) and the military dictator Musharraf trying to reach a deal over how
the country is to be governed in the next period? None of these manoeuvres can
be understood without looking at the terrible nightmare that the Pakistani
people have been thrown into.
The Pakistani economy is in tatters, the social fabric of the country is
tearing apart, civil war is raging from Waziristan to Balouchistan, Karachi is
in the throes of a possible ethnic and nationalist conflagration. Yet again,
national oppression has become a festering wound, the state has lost its sting,
the opposition leadership has capitulated and tried to kill the vigour of mass
resistance, culture has been vandalized, human relations have deteriorated,
cynicism dominates the intelligentsia, obscurantism with its open fangs
threatens society, liberalism exudes a sickening vulgarity, and economic and
social oppression are agonizing human life.
The story of Pakistani capitalism is over. And in spite of the present
apparent impasse, the masses will rise beyond all imagination of the
reactionary Pakistani media. It is a universal law of class society that the
waves of class struggle may ebb, but they always come back with a vengeance and
enter the arena of history as the masses attempt to take their destiny into
their own hands.
Aggravating Turmoil The quasi-military dictatorship in Pakistan has been
lurching from one crisis to another ever since it took power through a
bloodless coup in October 1999. However, the turbulence and convulsions since
then have been aggravated so much that the regime is now teetering on the
brink. The recent episode of the return of Nawaz Sharif, twice former prime
minister, and his subsequent deportation to Saudi Arabia adds to the string of
tumultuous events which are shaking the regime more and more.
Nawaz Sharif is a business tycoon and was brought into politics by the
vicious Zia dictatorship in the 1980s in reward for the massive wealth showered
upon the generals by his entrepreneur family who had enriched themselves with
the loot they had accumulated under the despotic military rule. He is a
right-wing politician who was overthrown by the military when he tried to
over-assert his power, which in itself was at the mercy of the generals. His
political base mainly comprises of businessmen and shopkeepers. After his
overthrow ‑ and safe exit to Saudi Arabia negotiated with Musharraf by
the Royal family under influence of Bill Clinton ‑ he was fast dwindling
into political oblivion.
Ironically, it was Benazir Bhutto who brought him back into the limelight by
pestering reluctant PPP activists to portray him as a champion of democracy.
Benazir's main motive in forming an alliance with Sharif's party was to stop
any left radicalisation within the PPP and present herself to the "world
community" as a pro-market politician.
But then the Americans forced Benazir towards conciliation with Musharraf,
and so she had to break with Sharif. Meanwhile, the Islamic nationalist and
other right-wing parties allied themselves with Sharif and they formed the APDM
(All Parties Democratic Movement) in London. All this further bloated Sharif's
megalomaniac tendencies to which he has always been vulnerable.
He had the notion that on his return millions would pour onto the streets and
the regime would crumble and abdicate power in his favour. This was not to be.
Most of his party leaders, mainly capitalists and landlords, had switched sides
as soon as he was ousted from power. They had joined yet another version of the
Muslim League formed by the army, in line with the whole of the political
history of Muslim Leagues propped up under every military dictatorship.
In spite of the fact that there was no mass turnout or paralysis of society,
the response of the Musharraf regime was equally desperate and nervous. The
massive state operation carried out on the return of Sharif exposed the fragile
nature and the rapidly dwindling confidence of the Musharraf regime. Sharif is
back in the comfort of his personal luxurious palace in Saudi Arabia but the
convulsions continue to rattle the state and society in Pakistan.
Trotsky in 1932 wrote on the February 1917 regime in Russia, "The government
with its inattention to the masses, its light-minded indifference to their
needs, its impudent phrase-mongering in answer to the protests and cries of
despair was raising up everybody against it. It seemed as though the government
was deliberately seeking a conflict." This description graphically illustrates
the state of the present crisis ridden regime in Pakistan.
The crisis is so intense today that never in the history of Pakistan has
anyone seen such confusion, perplexity and bewilderment in society. The media,
pseudo-intellectuals and analysts are adding to this confusion. They are
raising all kinds of secondary issues, such as the judicial crisis, the Red
Mosque, the Musharraf-Benazir deal, the return and re-exile of Nawaz Sharif,
the uniform of the President, frivolous statements by American diplomats and
presenting them as key issues in the minds of the masses. But the real aim of
these analysts, together with all these scandals, is to hide the real economic
and social turmoil ravaging society. The speed and intensity of these explosive
events is such that while one incident is taking place the next one comes
rolling over it. The speed of events is actually the symbol of the intensifying
socio-economic malaise that is engulfing society.
A failed state The Pakistani ruling class has been a failure ever since its
inception. Today they are even worse than they were in 1947. An important
contradiction of this epoch is that the ruling classes of underdeveloped
countries have to bear the brunt of the crimes and sins of world imperialism.
In fact it is the basic law of this system. Under the cruel burden of
imperialism those states fail that cannot accumulate a large amount of finance
capital because monopoly capitalism does not allow them any concessions in this
cutthroat competitive globalisation. The Pakistani state is facing the same
dilemma.
Where we see explosive contradictions in the state and in the politics of the
ruling classes, there we also see changing coalitions, compromises and
alliances at every juncture. Who is not in a deal with someone or other? But
behind every "deal" there are financial interests.
Behind the Islamisation of the Mullahs there is the need for protection of
black money. Without the patronage of the state agencies, the Mullahs could
never have dreamt of the number of votes they got in the 2002 general
elections.
This criminal network was established by the CIA to finance the Afghan jihad
of the 1980s.
Every "deal" of the MQM is aimed at guaranteeing the protection of its
extortionist gangs in Karachi and elsewhere. The PML(N) represents those big
shopkeepers, businessmen and industrialists who could not get a share of the
looting of the last few years. Nationalist leaders now want their own
"independent" small capitalist markets with support from the USA. But why would
the Pakistan Army give them these markets when it is having a free
roller-coaster ride of its own?
So long as the army was not so deeply involved in finance capital, the story
was different. But after the Zia-ul-Haq regime the penetration of finance
capital within the Military has itself become a source of discord within the
army. This process has been responsible for the internal decay and weakening of
military discipline. To fulfil the ever-increasing demands of the exploiters
and overcome the deficits in State expenditure they have to rely on the World
Bank and the IMF. These imperialist institutions have accumulated this wealth
by plundering and exploiting the masses of Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Therefore, when these institutions give loans or "aid" to local brokers they
give them on brutal terms and conditions. This makes the local elite
subservient to imperialism. In Pakistan most of the plundering is carried out
by imperialist monopolies and international financial institutions in
connivance with the Military and the elite.
Capitalism has reached such a point where it cannot justify its own existence
any more. This should be understood not from a commercial but a social point of
view. It has to resort to vicious exploitation and unprecedented oppression.
The condition of the Pakistani capitalist economy is a miserable one. The
rise in the growth rate actually ends up in lowering the living standards of
the vast majority of the impoverished populace. Due to the intensity of this
crisis deceit, corruption, fraud and erosion of social values and life are
endemic. The aggravation of lumpen tendencies with the high rise in crime,
bloodshed, insecurity and plundering due to this corruption and social
degeneration, has taken urban and rural life hostage.
The sharp rise in poverty, disease, unemployment, illiteracy, price hikes and
filth, has rapidly worsened the conditions of the masses which is resulting in
cultural suffocation, obscurantism, alienation and frustration. The main reason
for this apathy is that no political party or leadership or tendency on the
political horizon is offering any real solution or a way out to end this
misery.
The greed of the ruling classes has reached such an intensity that they are
plundering the wealth of the country on an unprecedented level, even for a
corrupt country like Pakistan. In the last three years the section of the
ruling class in power has had loans worth Rs.33 billion waived and at the same
time it has received subsidies to the tune of Rs.24 billion. This blatant theft
of Rs.57 billion was to the benefit of just 1122 feudal lords, industrialists
and businessmen. Among them 11 industrialists alone plundered Rs12.3 billion in
2003 from the State.
There is a major balance of payments crisis with the highest ever deficits in
trade as well as in the current account. Foreign debt in the year 2004 was
$35.47 billion. It has now reached $40.172 billion. This has happened in spite
of the record home remittances by overseas Pakistanis of $6.5 billion and a
record overseas direct investment of $64 billion.
Currently 78 percent of the population lives on less then $2 a day. 82
percent of the people are forced into non-scientific modes of medication. 68
percent of diseases are due to poverty. 54 percent of children cannot go to
school. Expenditure on health as a percentage of GNP was 0.7% in 1998-99. In
2005-06, the expenditure on health was a paltry 0.5% of GNP ‑ the lowest
in the world. In 1999-2000 expenditure on education was 2% of GNP. In 2004-05
it was as low as one percent. Thus misery and suffering stalk the land.
Privatisation, downsizing, liberalization, restructuring, the contract
system, forced redundancies and other such savage policies are brutally
crushing the working class. This social chaos, corruption and looting is also
creating huge fissures and contradictions within the State institutions. The
Pakistani ruling class due to its historical belatedness, technological and
financial dearth, has difficulties in surviving in the present era of
globalisation. In this process the ruling class is so dependent upon the state
institutions, especially the army, that after the imperialist monopolies the
Pakistani army has become the largest financial and industrial entrepreneur in
the country. Now more than 25% of the economy is the property of the military
top brass.
The explosion of internal crises in the various institutions of the State,
including the army, is basically the reflection of the conflict between
different financial interests. On the surface it appears as a conflict between
Islamic fundamentalists and the Liberal factions, but in fact it is a battle
for the booty that comes from looting. Both the liberal and fundamentalist
political tendencies rest on the same economic base: capitalism!
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