All in the family

Now that the initial feelings of shock and revulsion over the death of Benazir Bhutto are fading, commentators are lining up in entirely predictable ways to assess her legacy and figure out what may happen next. On the right (typified by Janet Daley in the Times), Bhutto's assassination is seen as a crime against democracy, and used as a rallying cry for the "West" to take urgent steps to defend its freedoms. Over on the left, in the Independent, Slate and elsewhere, there is more focus on Bhutto's flaws and her less-than-universal popularity among her fellow countrymen.

It's pretty clear that if you wanted a poster-girl for third world democracy, Benazir Bhutto wouldn't have been your first choice. She was the scion of an old-established political dynasty in Pakistan, one with a decidedly mixed history as far as integrity goes. Using your last will and testament to pass on control of your political party to your husband, currently facing corruption and fraud charges, and to your 19-year old son, doesn't fall within any reasonable definition of democracy.

Mind you, it's a bit rich for the "West" to lecture Pakistan about this. After all, we still tolerate a hereditary monarchy in the UK, and the US seems to be trying to create one. If Hillary wins the Democratic Party nomination, there's every prospect that the US Presidency will be held by members of just two families from the late 1980's to the middle of the next decade. The Bhuttos should be so lucky.

The really interesting aspect of this story is the suggestion that Bhutto was about to reveal evidence that the US government was covertly attempting to rig the elections in Pakistan in favour of President Musharraf. Think about it: the US might have been planning to present the presence of Bhutto in the country as evidence that the elections were democratic, while still engineering the result that it wanted. Then Bhutto ruined the plan by finding out it. It's an intriguing theory, but surely it doesn't hold water: it's much too subtle a plan for the US intelligence community.