the price of dictatorship
August 26th, 2006 by 
Abbas Halai
i didn’t think i’d post here until i got back to canada but i came across something and really had to take the time out to post here. benazir bhutto has written an op-ed in the guardian on august 23rd. the comments after the article are well worth the read as well. do go through them here.
Benazir Bhutto
Wednesday August 23, 2006
To some, the disquieting pattern of the link between Pakistan and terrorist plots against the west may seem irrelevant and coincidental. To me the pattern is a consequence of the west allowing Pakistani military regimes to suppress the democratic aspirations of the people of Pakistan, as long as their dictators ostensibly support the political goals of the international community.
In the late 1970s the democratically elected government of Pakistan was toppled by a coup led by the army chief General Zia ul-Haq. At first the international community demanded a restoration of democracy. But after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan these demands subsided as the US saw an opportunity to hobble the Soviet Union. The US funnelled aid for the fundamentalist mujahideen through Pakistan, specifically through the military intelligence agencies Zia had created to cement his iron rule.
This alliance converted my homeland from a peaceful nation into a violent society of weapons, heroin addiction and a radicalised interpretation of Islam, and the diversion of resources to the military devastated Pakistani society. As the government relinquished its responsibility in education, health, housing and social services, people looked elsewhere for support. The clearest manifestation of this was the spread of political madrasas. They became the breeding ground for hatred, extremism, militancy and terrorism. Once the Soviets left Afghanistan, the west abandoned democracy there. Pakistan and Afghanistan became the sources of a political and religious extremist movement that morphed into the Taliban and al-Qaida.
The new Pakistani dictator, General Pervez Musharraf, has played the west like a fiddle, dispensing occasional support in the war on terror to keep America and Britain off his back as he proceeded to arrest and exile opposition leaders, decimate political parties, pressure the press and set back human and women’s rights by a generation. His regime, claiming sections of the frontier are ungovernable, has relinquished responsibility to the Taliban and al-Qaida. During both of my tenures as prime minister, my government enforced the writ of the state there through the civil administration and paramilitary troops.
The Musharraf dictatorship doles out ostensible support in the war on terror to keep it in the good graces of Washington, while it presides over a society that fuels and empowers militants at the expense of moderates. And the political madrasas, which I spent years as prime minister dismantling, flourish and grow under the military dictatorship. Why is it that the terrorist trail always seems to lead back to Pakistan? Why are second-generation Pakistani emigres far more attracted by this pattern of terrorism than other disillusioned Muslims in the west? What is it about Islamabad that puts it at the centre of terrorist plots?
For decades the message sent to Pakistani youth through repeated military interventions is that might is right. The west, by supporting the suppression of the democratic aspirations of Pakistanis, has enabled the dictatorship to permeate this message among a new generation of Muslim youth. Further, the use of radical institutions to superficially address some social needs is the key to understanding the pattern that links Islamabad to terror-related incidents.
Democratic governments do not empower, protect and harbour terrorists. Democratic societies largely produce citizens who understand the importance of law, diversity and tolerance. A democratic Pakistan, free from the yoke of military dictatorship, would cease to be the Petri dish of the pandemic of international terrorism.
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