Pakistan's Mr. 10 Percent Wins the Presidency
He Wins: Pakistan's Asif Ali Zardari, husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, has reason to smile today. (John Moore/Getty Images).
Craig Ferguson, the great Scott and recently naturalized American who hosts The Late Late Show on CBS, begins every one of his monologues with his trademark line: "It's a great day for America." Come Florida hurricanes of Alaskan barracudas, $4-a-gallon-gas or trillion-dollar recessions, "It's a great day for America."
Well, if Pakistan had its own Craig Ferguson, I doubt he'd start his monologue tonight by saying that it's a great day for Pakistan. The country's parliament voted for president today (there is no direct popular election for that post in Pakistan, which is a parliamentary democracy on paper but mostly either the fiefdom of a few long-reigning families or the province of military dictatorships).
The results: Zardari won 481 of 702 votes, with Pakistan Muslim League-N candidate Saeeduz Zaman Siddiqui winning 153 votes and Mushahid Hussain Syed, representing the fallen fortunes of ex-President Pervez Musharraf, winning 44 votes.
The man they voted for is likely Pakistan's single-most corrupt politician, "Mr. 10 Percent," as he's known there, for his reputation for skims, schemes and kickbacks: Asif Ali Zardari, widow (again, on mostly on paper: the marriage was an arranged convenience) of Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in December. Zardari represents the Pakistan Peoples Party that Bhutto's father founded. (Bhutto herself didn't have the cleanest reputation, her twin stints as prime minister having ended in cyclones of disgrace and corruption inquiries).
A comment left by Salman when I first wrote about Zardari last week sums it up:
Asif zardari becoming president of pakistan can only be described as a joke. This guy is a theif who should never see the day light, but instead here he is about to become the president. Last time Asif zardari looted pakitsan’s treasure, this time he will sell pakistan as theres nothing left in pakistan to be looted. And what about people of Pakistan? The populatin of 165 million, R all of you dead???? They must be dead coz i didnt see a single comment against this move over here. Wake up Pakistanis Wake up.The comment reminds me of the British Daily Mail's headline the day after George W. Bush's re-election in 2004, although it bears repeating: Pakistan's president is not popularly elected. Maybe today's result will compel a constitutional change.
Amazingly (or maybe not?), the Bush administration is happy with the election result, seeing in Zardari its best hope to curb the Taliban in Pakistan and its spillover effect in Afghanistan. That tells you how desperate, and desperately, dangerously out of touch, American policy has become in South Asia.
Pakistan's future is not a happy one.
See Also:
- What Pakistan's 2008 Parliamentary Election Meant
- Pakistan Beyond Musharraf
- What Is the Pakistan Peoples Party?
- What Is the Pakistan Muslim League?
- Profile: Nawaz Sharif, Leader of the Pakistan Muslim League
Other Reporting and Views on Zardari's Election:
- Doubts Blend With Joy As Bhutto Widower Is Elected President (Los Angeles Times)
- Bhutto's Widower Elected President (New York Times)
- Zardari Vows to Respect Parliamentary Sovereignty (Arab news, Saudi Arabia)
- Editorial: Welcoming President Zardari (Pakistan Daily Times)
Comments
Perhaps you missed the whole idea that sometimes when Ferguson says “It’s a great day for America” he is joking. And he is host of The Late, Late Show. David Letterman, his boss, hosts The Late Show.
You’re right about the missing late, but I disagree about the joke: for all the cynicism of the show (and the format), there is in Ferguson, as there is among most of us immigrants, a genuine desire to snatch and even contrive a little greatness from the jaws of whatever else out adoptive country has been lately (and it’s been a lot more whatever else than great, late-lately).