Left Flank

FP Passport's Blake Hounshell seems to endorse Matthew Yglesias' argument that the US has no justification for criticizing the Pakistan People's Party for anointing former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari as its titular leader, because "...the odds of us going Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton in the White House look pretty good..." It's like marking a liberal bona fide, where good intellectuals just don't throw rocks while living in glass houses. But, it's really ultimately a a bad analogy that justifies propping up a dictator.

However, Joshua Hammer and Michael Hirsch can both joke about the Clinton-Bush feud, AND more pertinently point out that General Pervez Musharraf kept a lid on democratization. The medievalism of the PPP might be manifest, but Musharraf played a more corrosive role by not allowing democratic alternatives to appear, mostly notably when he ousted Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.

America is not Pakistan: President Bush and Bill Clinton do not jail and exile political opponents.

It's politics as usual in Pakistan, where opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's assassination has become a negotiating point:

Miss Bhutto died in a suicide attack in Rawalpindi on December 27th while campaigning for the election, which was supposed to be held on January 8th. But the former ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Q) party, which is loyal to the recently demobbed Mr Musharraf, and the electoral commission, which is allegedly also loyal to the president, have argued for a delay. They cite worries over the destruction of at least 13 polling stations in Miss Bhutto's southern Sindh province, as well as festering insecurity. They may also fear that a surge of sympathy for Miss Bhutto may galvanise opposition to Mr Musharraf.

For its part the PPP, now nominally led by Miss Bhutto's 19-year-old son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, with her widower, Asif Zardari, as co-chairman and, in effect, his son's regent, has insisted that the election be held on time. In a joint statement, Mr Zardari and his son said: «The January 8th elections must proceed as scheduled. This will not only be a tribute to the memory of Benazir Bhutto, but even more important, a reaffirmation of the cause of democracy for which she died.»

The PPP fears that a postponement would allow time for Pakistani sympathies to dwindle. It would also give Mr Musharraf's army agents pause to make fresh arrangements to rig the election in his favour. They have, after all, rigged the recent elections presided over by Mr Musharraf. On Monday PPP officials said that Miss Bhutto had been due to hand a long dossier on Mr Musharraf's latest election-rigging schemes to a visiting American delegation.

Other opposition parties, notably Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (N), the third biggest, want a prompt election for much the same reasons. Mr Sharif, the main opponent of the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) in Punjab, Pakistan's most populous province, is hoping to profit from a wave of anti-Musharraf feeling there. His prospects were poor before Miss Bhutto's murder, but could perk up considerably. That would represent a fresh logistical challenge for Mr Musharraf's agents, who may consider it imperative to prevent the PPP and the Pakistan Muslim League (N) winning sufficient votes to be able to form a government together. On Monday Mr Sharif demanded that Mr Musharraf—who deposed him in a coup in 1999—should step down, a unity government be formed, then elections held.

Reuters makes clear just how the PPP has taken advantage of its slain leader's canonization:

Bhutto's killing has fuelled doubts about stability and the transition to democratic rule in nuclear-armed Pakistan, a crucial U.S. ally in its anti-terrorism efforts.

The Election Commission said on Tuesday "in principle" the vote would be delayed but Bhutto's party has objected and analysts said a postponement could lead to more violence.

Bhutto's party would expect to reap a considerable sympathy vote following her assassination in a gun and bomb attack as she left a rally in Rawalpindi on Thursday.

God forbid, militants or the military don't assassinate any more leaders, or else the the value of blood will trump the middle class vote.

Juan Cole, reporting on the Palistan People's Party's decision to run Makhdum Amin Fahim for prime minister on January 8th, takes a good swipe ridiculing the party of feudalism the PPP is determined to remain.

The PPP during the past two decades has been internally split between a rising middle class urban leadership and the old landowning families. An alternative to Fahim would have been the smart Punjabi lawyer, Aitzaz Ahsan, who was jailed for protesting the dismissal of the justices, and is admired by a lot of the urban activists. Despite Benazir's own education abroad, her instincts (and now those of her widower) was always to "run the feudals," and to depend on the landlords' ability to get out the vote among their own (largely illiterate and repressed) peasants.

The PPP leadership had a chance to become the party of the future and to galvanize the new middle class, which has spearheaded the challenge to Musharraf over his gutting of the judiciary. It has instead run the feudals again. Fahim seems to me unlikely to generate the sort of excitement that Aitzaz Ahsan would have. But then, the PPP will probably get a big sympathy vote. Once in power, however, unless it pursues policies that benefit urban classes, it will find itself eclipsed.

So, Pakistan=Fief, People=Lord, Party=Clan?