Post Cold War World
Benazir Bhutto - Leader of Opposition
Sri Lanka - 25th July 1997

Ladies and Gentlemen:

The style of parliamentary government depends on in house debates, open to all members of the public. Parliamentary debates have given prominence to many a backbencher. Indeed, parliamentary debates have enriched anecdotal history.

Parliamentary debates are at the heart of a democracy. As Winston Churchill said, "Democracy is the worst form of government, apart from all the rest".

Perhaps Winston Churchill was sub consciously replying to Mark Twain who once said, "Democracy is about counting heads - not what’s in them".

Both Pakistan and Sri Lanka have parliamentary systems born from Westminster, the mother of parliaments.

Both of us were part of an empire on which the sun never set.

But that, it is said, was because God could never trust the English in the dark.

Of course Elections are not only about winning but also about losing.

There is nothing as wonderful as the warmth of a triumph and nothing as dismal as the chill of a loss.

But, as democrats, each one of us have to accept victory and defeat with equal grace knowing that each victory can be followed by a defeat and each defeat by a victory. So we, who are in the opposition, accept the verdict of the people and do not say, with Adlai Stephenson, as he did when he lost, "The people have spoken the so and so’s".

However as we head towards a new century and a new millennium, a century born after the demise of the cold war, a century which many call as Asia Century, a millennium dominated by the Information Highway, I am reminded of the words of Oscar Wilde who said, "The two weak points of our age are want of principle and want of profile".

This is the world of Information. The flip side of information is disinformation. I should know, having been the victim of a disinformation campaigns, not once but twice.

I believe the attacks against the two administrations I headed are symptomatic of a universal deterioration of dialogue in politics.

The search for political consensus, the main characteristic of a democratic society, has degenerated into partisan hysteria.

This is new phenomenon. Consensus, civility and comity have been replaced with the paranoia of partisanship.

Let me read you some thoughts that capture what I am trying to say to you today.

"Partisan politics is polluting our most important legal and ethical processes . . . and is damaging our political system. Proceedings, while billed as impartial, have become little more than ‘witch hunts’ designed to humiliate the opposing political party".

"The scandal machine that has developed bankrupts individuals, who are little more than pawns in larger political agendas. It threatens the ability of the political system to attract and retain the bright, dedicated people that our nation deserves".

This is not written about Pakistan, but it might as well be.

What I have quoted to you are the words of President Clinton’s lawyer.

In the United States, even a discussion on the ratification of a ban on chemical weapons takes on the character and rhetoric of a partisan war.

And the trend is consistent across the continents.

Four Indian Prime Ministers within one calendar year have changed, governments disintegrating not over policy, but over politics, not over program but over opportunism.

A peace process in Middle East is allowed to be frozen and come precipitously close to unraveling, while the political attention of Israel seems riveted by innuendo and scandal.

In Bangladesh, the ruling party and the opposition interchanges almost identical strategies of parliamentary boycotts and street disruptions, as power shifts from one party to another.

And the Supreme Court of Pakistan ruled that a government enjoying the confidence of parliament and people can be sacked on the basis of unsubstantiated press reports in media dominated by five barons.

Additionally in Pakistan, the democratic concept of accountability has been made to stand on its head, to be inverted, to become a weapon of authoritarianism. Accountability has become a mechanism of brutal victimization, directed exclusively at me, my family, my Party and those involved in my government.

Those who came before us - even military dictators who governed by martial law decree, are held above the law.

And, this too, is a universal trend. Media trials, such as the White Water issue in the United States, are used to detract attention from the working of a government.

In India the Rao government collapsed under charges and counter charges of corruption.

No one knows whether the charges are true or false.

In the old days the press could not report on subjudice matters. But now opinions and conclusions are formed on the basis of news paper reports. Hearsay, speculation and rumour taken over from the cold reason of an argument in a court room.

The atmosphere is vitiated to such an extent that one sometimes wonders whether a fair trial can take place against such a background.

I recently read that a friend of the Clinton’s Susan Mc Dongal has moved a writ claiming she is being ill-treated in prison where obscenities are shouted at her to force her to breakdown.

We, in Pakistan, can empathize with that, having seen Party members, family members and officials, imprisoned for long months, exhausting financial savings on lawyers, in harsh conditions in an attempt to force a false confession or come up with tainted evidence.

Ladies and gentlemen :

The world has witnessed significant changes, through different ages, which has each influenced, in its own fashion, the tone and tenor of politics.

The Iron Age gave way to the Agrarian Age which was eventually replaced by the Industrial Era.

We are now watching the sun set not only on a century but an age. Not only the cold war era of urban politics brought about by the Industrial Revolution.

We are entering the Information Age. An age where opinions will be formed on the basis of what we see or hear, irrespective of whether what we see or hear is accurate or inaccurate.

Soon public meeting and mass contact will diminish as personal communication is replaced with electronic communication. Appearances will have as much force as ideas.

This is a new world.

We, in South Asia, need to equip ourselves to defend democracy and freedom, to defend the politics of the people with these new tools. Otherwise authoritarian forces will gather once again to wage a propaganda war against the true leaders of the people and to force anti-people governments on our nations.

For our Nations are the Nations of the future.

We have the markets with our large common populations.

The end of colonial rule on Hong Kong is significant.

It marks the end of colonialism. It marks the emergence of Asian Nations demanding to be treated as equals.

With the end of the Cold War the world of trade wars has started. This is the world dominated by multi-nationals springing largely from the developed world. These multi-nationals are the main source of political funding in the Western countries.

The developed countries need our markets to keep the terms of trade in their favour, need governments that look not at the cost in human terms, but the profit in fiscal terms.

The factories of the developed world cannot get dividends unless the emerging markets of Asia are held hostage to the developed world’s commercial interest. For this puppet leaders are necessary who follow the developed world’s prescriptions to safe guard the interests of the developed countries.

Those who are seen as a threat to developed world’s agriculture or industrial interests will face economic sabotage a physiological warfare waged through propaganda.

Can a compromise be reached or is a clash between the Developed Christian World and the Emerging Asian Muslim --- Confucian World inevitable?

Only time will tell. But as the world turns another round, it is important for Asian leaders to consult between themselves, to learn from each others’ experiences and build a bargaining position from which the rights of Asian people are balanced against the commercial interests of the developed world.

For the developed world has powerful instruments at its disposal to cripple emerging Asian markets. International financial institutions are but one lever. Crashing the stock market by withdrawing funds a second. Withdrawing foreign exchange and affecting the balance of payments a third. Erecting invisible tariff barriers by exploiting global values,
such as human rights and child labour, a fourth.

Ladies and gentlemen :

As Anura Bandaranaike celebrates two decades for democracy in Sri Lanka, always remember the fragility of democratic institutions throughout the region of South Asia.

Let us walk on into the new millennium with hope and with vision, but always aware of the dangers and threats to our fundamental political rights always lurking in the hearts and plots of the next set of conspirators against democracy.

Let us learn from the past, to protect the future.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.

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