Friday, December 28, 2007

* On Benazir Bhutto - The ultimate prize

OMG!! Benazir Bhutto!
Alive yesterday, buried today!
Waoh! And you begin to wonder…..

You would actually think the world in which we live in is actually moving in a certain direction; in one whereby our leaders can come to a common table of resolutions because they recognize that the have different strategies for a shared interest; where our leaders can realize that diplomacy can actually end in talk without the use of weaponry; where our leaders can finally allow their civilians to go to sleep with both eyes closed because they know their leaders will smooth it out in their game of minds; where naively I think blood must not be shed for change to be attained; where our leaders recognize that their actions and greed while in power invariably affects the very people whose interests they sought to represent.

What a world! Today’s realism is pathetic! How far away are we from that idealism?

Sadly and dauntingly, the ultimate prize of passionate leadership and activism seems to be death. I can relate with the notion of making sacrifices to bring about change, trigger a movement or create revolution. But what I can’t relate to is where death fits into this picture. Although, throughout history, the death of such leaders has ironically marked the true birth and evolution of everything that they stood for! And somewhere in our humanness and subconscious, our ability to relate to idealist philosophies and principles only begins to truly resonate when it’s triggered by abrupt and dramatic happenings!

Well, she’s made the list! The list of leaders who have paid that ultimate prize.
May her family be comforted! May her country find peace! May the world learn from this!

4 comments:

EmbelleN said...

Curse or cuss? It happened to the Ghandis in India, the Kennedys in the US and now to the Bhuttos in Pakistan. Could political heritage, aristocracy, and family dysfunction among others, be the common thread between these well-known and renowned families? Is the price worth it or was she seeking other gains? seeing that she had been prime minister twice before? and now she has left a mother, a sister, a husband and three teenagers behind? worth it? I wonder and ponder...

dDaiga said...

Hello Emby! Thanks for your feedback and good remarks! These families sure do have similar interwoven links. Whatever the gains or favors she amy have been seeking, the price was too high and in my opinion not worth it. Personally I feel that no reason is good enough to justify preventable or untimely death. Also, although we could argue that greed or excessive zeal were some motivating factors, her passion for peace and resolve certainly outweighed. After all, in spite of her 2 time win as PM, she still guarded and maintained her position as party leader while on self exile. There must be something about power that keeps them longing for more even when danger or death looms in the hallways. This scenario sort of evokes the image of a shakespearean tragic hero: where the same attributes that took them to power, are the same causes of your downfall. And the sad part, at least one member of that family will follow in those footsteps again.

Nshek said...

hello D!
Greatness comes through sacrifice and I believe Benazir just did what she had to do. It is Unfortunate that it ended this way, but she had to come back. I don't see in her attitude a total power greed. Beyond the need to regain power, she knew that she was the only person who could bring a desperately needed political change in pakistan.
I also believe that she came back because politics was what she knew and what she did best.She could not stay away longer. The upcoming elections gave her the ideal opportunity to step back into the arena. This time, she went in and got knocked out before the real battle could even begin.
Benazir is out! Former premier Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz have been banned from the elections. The opposition has been shut down. Musharraf is surely smiling at this time.

Nshek said...

Bilawal Zardari, Bhutto’s 19-year-old son was chosen Sunday to succeed her as chairman of her opposition party. He is still a student in Oxford. Nevertheless, his father will be the one running the party in the main time.
The dynasty continues!!!