Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Like Father Like Daughter

A.G. Noorani gives the latest edition of Benazir Bhutto’s memoirs, Benazir Bhutto: Daughter of the East: An Autobiography, quite a drubbing. He writes:
The only additions are a new Preface and the last chapter. The former drips with megalomania; the latter, with mendacity. "Like England's Queen Elizabeth, I, who had also endured imprisonment and remained single, thought I would never get married." She married a man of ill repute, Asif Ali Zardari. Both stand convicted in Swiss courts in cases of corruption and money laundering
The apple does not fall far from the tree, I see. We all know what her father was like, and what fate had in store for him. Her father was a Western-educated feudal lord, and so is she. She has that sense of entitlement that only rich landowners possess, and she carried herself in the same way when she became Prime Minister.

And for all her progressive pretense, she was a ruthless politician at heart, willing to cut a deal for anything and with anyone, be they jihadists or the military, as long as it ensures her hold on power. In the end, she demonstrated nothing except arrogance. Her father was arrogant too, and look what happened to him. She should count herself lucky.

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