Leadership
and Courage
Mohtarma
Benazir Bhutto's Speech delivered
at Agnes Scott
Women's College Decatur, Georgia
March
14, 2000
Honoured guests, ladies and gentlemen.
I thank you for your kind invitation,
and for your warm welcome to Agnes Scott College in Decatur.
I am no stranger to North
America.
I spent four of the happiest years of
my life as a student at an American college.
In all that has happened in my life
since my graduation from Harvard 26 years ago, the carefree days on
the college campus seem a distant dream.
I want to take this opportunity with
you today to take stock -- of my own life, of the political
situation in Pakistan, and of Pakistan’s position as we cross into a
new era.
For those of us who fought freedom in
Pakistan, the events since November 1996 have been painful beyond
comprehension.
The dismissal of the democratically
elected government of 140 million Pakistanis by one man, the
President, through edict began the country's slide into anarchy and
chaos.
It took just three years since the
government I led was arbitrarily dismissed for the men in uniform to
take control.
Now, the long shadow of the military
casts itself over South Asia.
Democracy is celebrated the world over
as the most accountable, representative and legitimate form of
political systems.
That political system in Pakistan was
destroyed when a government enjoying the support of parliament and the
people was thrown out by the President in a military backed
action.
My successor, Nawaz Sharif, rode to
power on the back of that military action. Whilst the West greeted him
as a constitutional ruler with a powerful mandate, our people saw him
as a conspirator who had seized power through ballot rigging.
A regime, born in the darkness of
conspiracy, triumphing on stolen ballots lacked, from its inception,
the security and legitimacy which springs from the will of the people
freely expressed.
So preoccupied was it with the
consolidation of power, with the seizure of the levers of the state
apparatus that the more important issues were grossly neglected.
Governance gave way to vendetta.
Settling personal scores in an unprecedented pattern of persecution,
including the use of torture, became the order of the day.
Under the Nawaz regime, Pakistan's
democratic institutions were systematically dismantled. Nawaz
attempted to destroy the opposition and impose a one party
dictatorship.
He toppled the president. He usurped
the power of the courts. He imposed censorship and intimidation of the
press. In the end, Nawaz fell on his own sword, in a final desperate
attempt to take over the one institution that remained independent,
the one institution that could defend itself.
Nawaz Sharif’s attempt to topple the
Army Chief of Staff was a monumental and arrogant miscalculation and
manipulation of power.
It failed. But now we all pay the
price.
The Army of Pakistan may have
overthrown a civilian government, but it certainly did not overthrow a
democratic government.
Democracy in Pakistan, under Nawaz
Sharif, had died a thousand deaths before the Generals acted.
Unfortunately, since the October coup
just five months ago Pakistan has made little progress towards
democratization. The leader of the coup, General Musharraf, promised
to lift Pakistan out of its dismal situation with a liberal reform
agenda.
But the powerful and extremist coterie
which surrounds him have prevailed.
There was a window of opportunity, a
window of hope. But that window is closing quickly.
The new regime has been unable to
grapple with issues relating to:
A powerful arm of the regime, the
National Accountability Bureau, conveniently called 'NAB', headed by a
general, is continuing with the politics of persecution.
It is the politics of persecution that
is dividing the country, creating bitterness, undermining the rule of
law and frightening away desperately needed capital for the sinking
economy.
Governance is once again being
neglected.
The military stepped in to restore
order and democracy – but they have accomplished neither and
instead, with their most recent actions, Pakistan’s constitutional
democracy has been weakened further.
Just two months back, the generals
moved against the judges. Their assault on Pakistan’s judiciary came
with a new oath that the judges had to swear, replacing their
obedience to the Constitution.
That oath resulted in the sacking of
half the Judges on Pakistan's Supreme Court, including the Chief
Justice.
The forced new oath has dealt a serious
blow to the independence of Pakistan’s judiciary, and has shaken the
confidence of the people – a people who have all but lost faith in
the credibility of their institutions.
The Rule of Law is at the heart of a
democratic system. The judiciary plays a pivotal role in giving
confidence to ordinary people that justice will be done, that laws
will be obeyed, that fundamental human rights will be upheld, and that
torture and obstruction of justice will not be permitted.
Sadly, in Pakistan, in the last three
years or more, the judiciary has taken a battering.
First ,the Nawaz regime manipulated it
through favoured justices. Now the generals have undermined it with
the new oath.
The proud people of Pakistan, denied a
Constitution, denied a parliament, denied an independent judiciary,
and in the grip of an economic malaise, are fast losing faith.
They are losing faith in democracy and
in politics, although neither are to blame.
A dangerous anarchy and cynicism is
taking hold. Such anarchy and such cynicism bode ill for Pakistan and
for South Asia.
Clerics wait in the wings in the hope
that a political vacuum can help them stage a clerical takeover.
Pakistan is no ordinary country.
Geography places it next to radical Afghanistan and revolutionary
Iran. The world's most wanted man, Osama bin Laden, lives in its
shadow in the mountains of Afghanistan.
The ugly politics of violence and guns
rips the country apart even as it vacillates on critical issues
pertaining to nuclear proliferation.
Last year, Pakistan nearly went to war
with neighboring India in the icy mountainous area called Kargil.
Tensions are still running high,
presenting the international community with its nightmare possibility,
a potential nuclear war in a critical area of the world where one in
five people of the earth's inhabitants live.
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is with great anticipation that I
await the visit of President Clinton to South Asia.
I welcome his decision to include
Pakistan in his trip.
Many voices were raised against the
American President’s visit to Pakistan.
Last month, when I met him at a formal
reception, I emphasized why as a democrat, as the leader of a party
that opposes military dictatorships, I felt it important that he visit
my country -- a country I cannot visit for fear that I would not be
allowed out again.
Pakistan played a critical role in
standing shoulder to shoulder with the free world in its fight against
communism. It was important that President Clinton acknowledge the
role and sacrifices of the Pakistani people in ending the Cold War and
ushering in a new era of free markets and open opportunities.
The Clinton visit comes at a critical
time when the Indo-Pak borders echo with the sound of gunfire. It is
hoped that the visit to Pakistan will maintain the political balance
in the region. Such balance is necessary to avert war and promote
peace.
President Clinton’s visit also
provides a rare opportunity to persuade Pakistan’s military regime
to move towards the path of political reconciliation in keeping with
the Islamic traditions of compassion, tolerance, and progress.
Moreover, the American President can
directly, and more meaningfully, convey to the Pakistani leadership
the importance of restoring democracy and the Rule of Law in
Pakistan.
President Clinton, having averted a
potentially nuclear conflict last May, knows first hand the importance
of the unresolved dispute of Jammu and Kashmir and the prospects of
stability in a region rich with market opportunity.
By visiting Pakistan and India,
President Clinton can use quiet diplomacy effectively to get peace
moving in the region.
His visit offers hope to tens of
thousands of Kashmiris living in the shadows of Indian control.
The Pakistan People's Party and I have
urged President Clinton to consider four key issues in his South Asia
agenda:
First, the unresolved Kashmir dispute
which threatens hinder stability in the region.
Second, the issue of poverty
alleviation and the role the international community can play through
a South Asia Marshall Plan.
Thirdly, the issues of proliferation
which have moved starkly up the international agenda with the eleven
nuclear detonations by India and Pakistan which took place in South
Asia in 1998.
And fourthly, to encourage restoration
of democracy in Pakistan by pushing for an announcement of a timetable
for free and fair elections, release of political prisoners, and a
much needed political consensus on important national issues.
Ladies and gentlemen,
For the people of Pakistan, for my
party the PPP, my family and I, the last three years have been a
nightmare.
Thousands of our supporters, including
women and children, were arrested and taken to jail. The regime
publicly boasted of torturing witnesses as the judiciary silently
watched.
Even foreign citizens were kidnapped
and threatened with death to trump up politically motivated
allegations.
Scores were forced to flee the country
rather than debase justice with perjured statements extracted under
coercion. Their family life was disrupted, their careers destroyed.
Time stood still for Pakistan as the
rest of the world moved on.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I know it has become the fashion both
in the developed and developing world over the last decade, to destroy
leaders’ reputations by innuendo, allegation and rumour.
Now it is only necessary to call an
investigation, and set forth a vicious media campaign, even if
partisan and politically motivated, for a person to fall under the
cloud of suspicion.
Not just in Pakistan, but even in the
most developed democracies.
Nawaz Sharif attempted to use the
courts to destroy the Pakistan peoples party and to destroy me
personally.
My Party, family and I are innocent
victims of a vast conspiracy to obstruct justice, eliminate our
leadership, and to subvert Pakistan's movement towards a liberal,
moderate and modern nation state committed to global values.
The abuse of justice that took place,
through collusion with a hand full of controversial judges, has been
verified by independent foreign judges. These include: the Right
Honorouable Sir John Morris, the former Attorney General of the united
Kingdom, David Harwell, the retired Chief Justice of the South
Carolina Supreme Court, and Burley Mitchell, the immediate Past Chief
Justice of the State of North Carolina.
Once it was innocent until proven
guilty, now it is guilty unless proven innocent.
This travesty of justice which took
place has taken a deep toll on me, both politically and
personally. Yet it's take on the country has been far worse.
Some call this new political art the
"politics of personal destruction."
The politics of personal
destruction has undermined civil institutions in Pakistan, the Muslim
world's second largest country.
Governments rise and fall not on
performance but on personality, not by accountability but allegation,
not on facts but on slurs.
The search for political consensus, the
main characteristic of a democratic society, has degenerated into
partisan hysteria, a rule or ruin philosophy.
There are academies that wonder whether
Pakistan is a failed state. That is cause for great concern.
It is important that the international
community not turn its back on a country rich in weapons of mass
destruction.
It is important that the international
community support Pakistan -- the people of Pakistan in their quest
for representative government. A government that can tackle the
problems of terrorism and conflict that threaten to overtake a once
great nation.
It is in times of crisis that
leadership is tested. And one fact is clear -- Pakistan is in turmoil
an with it stability in South Asia is at stake.
This is a time to demonstrate
leadership in a country where tensions run high and where people go
hungry. A country where powerful drug lords undermine civil rule when
faced with extradition. A country where men still kill women in the
name of male pride.
It is these contradictions, so severe,
which threaten to suffocate the State itself.
In the 21st Century, the people of
Pakistan, once again robbed of the right to freedom, need answers that
can come if they are allowed to determine their own destiny.
Dictatorships cannot give those
answers. Dictatorship does not work -- that was the decisive lesson of
the twentieth century.
Dictatorships cannot solve the
important social issues which are crying out for attention.
Issues of poverty, gender equality and
minority rights have fallen by the wayside in the last three years
since democracy was derailed in my country on that night of November
6th, 1996.
Issues of job security, of the dignity
that comes with empowerment and of fair prices for crops and
goods produced are being neglected, even as I speak to you, as one
dictatorship replaces another in Pakistan.
Dictatorship is draining the vitality
of my country and destroying the dreams of it youth.
The democratic government I led did its
best for Pakistan. But we disappointed our people in failing to come
up with an independent investigative mechanism to tackle the
perception of widespread corruption. Successive governments have made
the same error.
The danger today is that Pakistan may
end up paying the price. The must not be allowed to happen.
And that is why leadership is so very
important to the direction that Pakistan and South Asia take in this
"the new global age."
Ladies and gentlemen,
The United States is displaying
leadership when it promotes the right to civil government and the
dignity of men and women in South Asia.
The U.S. is playing a leadership role
when it sends a delegation of US Members of Congress, and Secretary of
State Karl Inderfurth to Pakistan, urging the restoration of civil
rule and calling for the military to set a date for elections.
It plays a leadership role in deploring
the recent ‘Order’ that sitting judges sign loyalty to the
military rulers.
This voice and these visits show how
leadership has changed in the 20th Century.
Leadership is no longer confined to
national boundaries or to state governments. Leadership has taken on a
global dimension.
Once leadership was confined in the
narrow hands of an emperor or a conqueror. It moved on into the hands
of the privileged political elite.
But now leadership is passed into the
hands of ordinary citizens.
The opinions of hundreds and thousands and millions of citizens sent
from across continents of what is right and wrong -- traveling like
tiny ripples growing as they reach their destination -- with an
amazing strength.
And with each ripple comes a wave of
hope for the people who suffer.
The sense of justice, the sense of
outrage, that a citizen feels and expresses to its own government can
have a tremendous impact and can effect -- whether it be women's
rights, the environment, or the dismantling of democracy in a far away
land like Pakistan.
This is the most dramatic
transformation in leadership in Pakistan that I have experienced in
the last two decades.
The canvas for political leadership has
expanded.
We are increasingly moving towards a
global community, sharing global values, reaching out to each other to
share burdens and find solutions.
As I struggle for my people, as I dream
dreams for them, I derive moral courage from global
reinforcement.
The last time democracy died in my
country, I stayed behind. As a prisoner I was a powerful symbol for my
people. My imprisonment gave our movement for democracy
strength.
That was in the last century. Now, I
find that I can do more to lead my people, and keep alive their hopes,
by moving from city to city, country to country fighting for our
cause.
I address the Pakistani community, I
address non-Pakistanis knowing that these events help shape public
opinion.
That public opinion is critical to the
direction that my country will take as we head towards the 21st
century.
It is not easy. But leadership is never
meant to be easy.
It is born of a passion, and it is a
commitment. A commitment to an idea, to a people, to a land.
I travel, never knowing when I will be
able to see my husband. He has been in prison for over 3 years, a
hostage of my political career.
I travel and miss my children. They are
all under eleven. It is difficult explaining to little children why
their mother can't be with them.
But leadership involves making family
sacrifices.
Leadership means rising above ones own
wants, needs and emotions.
Leadership is tough.
It consumes ones who personality --
from morning to night. I am on call for my Party's political campaign
24 hours a day -- 365 days a year. There is no question of being tired
-- and there are no holidays.
Tiredness is a luxury I cannot afford.
Leadership is a life of tension and
anxiety, in the office and out of the office. Of being on call for
every crisis or political emergency that a new day can bring.
And leadership is about appearances.
About being calm and forcing yourself to think clearly whenever your
stomach is churning.
I am asked often why I continue on a
road filled with pitfalls.
I do it because I believe my leadership
has changed much, and can change more, for my country and in
particular, for women still denied the right of choice.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I had never wished to enter public
life.
It was nothing that I sought.
I had hoped, at Harvard and later at
Oxford, that I could pursue a career in journalism or in the Foreign
Service.
Forces beyond my control shaped the
direction of my future.
Personal choice and personal happiness
was replaced by social responsibility and political obligation.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I grew up as a daughter of the East who
was educated and spent significant parts of her life in the
West.
And so, in a sense, I se myself as a
bridge of two cultures, two worlds, and two pasts.
As a child I attended a private school
in Karachi, run by Catholic nuns, sheltered from much of the turmoil
of early Pakistan, a shy and insulated girl.
When I was but sixteen years old, my
father determined I should not be denied the Islamic right of
knowledge, and thus he sent me abroad for higher education, and I was
admitted into America’s premier university, Harvard College.
All my life, and even spiritually to
this day, it was my father who guided me, who mentored me, who
encouraged me, who gave me the strength and confidence to express my
views.
His soul and his values are alive
within me, wherever I go.
It is interesting that the person who
insured that I would break lose of the constraints of my culture and
gender, was not a woman, but a man.
A very great and wise man, my father
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto -- the greatest inspiration in my life.
My travel abroad when I was 16
was a true awakening.
I walked into a very new world.
I was alone for the first time in my
life.
The pampered child was suddenly
cooking, cleaning, washing and ironing -- independent and
self-sufficient.
I was exposed to the most brilliant and
respected professors, to the most compelling ideas, to a demanding
curriculum, to the most accomplished students in all of North America.
I was for the first time in my life
living together with strangers, in a dormitory of peers, where I had
to take care of myself but also participate in an intellectual
village.
It was the first time in my life that I
was in an environment where women were treated as full participants in
society in every way.
I was also thrust into a political
environment that was unlike anything I had ever known.
I came to Harvard in 1969, at the heart
of the Vietnam War, with our campus, and all of America, in political
and social turmoil.
In time, I, like many of my classmates,
took to the streets, took to the barricades, demanding an end to an
unjust war.
And while I was in America for those
four years, I participated and observed in a miracle of democracy -- I
saw the power of the people changing policies, changing leaders, and
changing history.
It was that early experience, possibly
more than anything else, that shaped my political being that
unalterably shaped my faith in democracy.
From Harvard I went to Oxford, where I
became the first foreign woman to be elected as President of the
Oxford Union. It was my first election, my first victory.
I had been told that as a foreigner, I
could not win and should not run.
I had been told that as a woman, I
could not win, and should not run.
But I did run and I did win. And I
learned a valuable lesson.
Never acquiesce to obstacles,
especially those that are constructed of bigotry, intolerance and
blind, inflexible tradition.
I also learned another critical lesson
in life -- to follow my own political instincts.
I returned to Pakistan in 1977, hoping
to pursue a career in the Foreign Service.
But circumstances soon unfolded that
would dictate the path of the rest of my life and change the direction
of the future of my country.
Within one week of my return from
Oxford, a military coup toppled the elected democratic government of
my father.
Our house was surrounded by tanks. We
did not know if we would live or die, if we would survive to see the
dawn of the next day’s sun.
A brutal, dictator had overturned
a free and fair election, imposed martial law, and suspended all
constitutional rights within my country.
My father was arrested, released,
re-arrested and finally hanged.
My party was targeted. Our
leaders were murdered, tortured, imprisoned.
The lucky ones went into exile.
With the leaders behind bars, members
of the PPP turned towards me to lead them in rallies, and to tour the
country and seek a restoration of democracy.
I did not seek leadership, it was
thrust upon me. Tragedy, political circumstances, and the forces
of history rallied a nation around me.
I was fortunate in my campaign to lead
my nation. As my father's daughter, my name was recognized throughout
the country.
I was fortunate in that my father's
supporters, who believed in his vision of a modern Islamic democracy,
rallied around me to continue the struggle.
I was fortunate in that the PPP was a
federal party with its roots in the four corners of the country,
providing me a national platform.
It was a national platform from which I
launched the struggle for democracy in 1977 and with it my own
political career.
I realized then the importance of a
good education that my father had placed such emphasis on.
It was that education which gave me the
discipline to accept schedules. It gave me the ability to manage
conflicting demands and it gave me the opportunity to strengthen our
political base.
Certainly my education in some of the
best liberal colleges helped me in preparing to play the
leader’s role.
But it was the real, practical
education that I received from my father, which prepared me most. He
taught me that in politics, pride comes before a fall, that leadership
springs from humility and sensitivity to the dreams and hopes of
the weak and powerless.
It was my father who initiated me in
debates and who, through his faith in me, gave a shy girl the
confidence to meet overpowering challenges.
Yet, in a sense, I had no control over
the events which would quickly change my fate. My course was no longer
mine.
I was catapulted into politics by the
force of circumstance.
When my father was executed two years
later, I was called upon by a people in despair to take charge and
pursue his mission for freedom and constitutional rule.
I am proud of the Pakistan Peoples
Party, which provided me, a woman, the opportunity to lead the nation
in a country with deeply rooted tribal values and a hierarchical
order based on social division.
This was not an easy task at a time
when the military dictatorship insisted that a woman's place was
behind the house and behind the veil -- not in the work place.
Many believe that South Asian
women leaders have inherited leadership through assassination of loved
ones in the family.
To do so is to forget that each
of us had to win our badges of honours by paying a political price.
I paid that political price, spending
nearly six years in one form of imprisonment or another, mostly in
solitary confinement, in an all pervasive climate of fear and
dread.
I pay that price today with my husband
incarcerated as part of the psychological warfare waged to break my
spirit.
Then senior members of the party could
not reconcile themselves to being led by a woman and that too a young
one.
My leadership was opposed by senior
leaders who accepted me a rubber stamp for their decisions and turned
against me when they found I had a mind of my own.
In many ways it was a lonely struggle.
A life of youth and vibrancy was curtailed by prison walls and social
taboos.
Yet, the very weakness was a strength.
Societies that discriminate against women can also venerate
them.
Women, as mothers and sisters, are
placed on a pedestal to protect and honour in way unfair in the
West.
As the daughter of the martyred, I had
a special position in the heart and minds of the people I led. I was
their leader, but also their sister -- one of the larger family that
sticks together no matter how strong the political strain, no matter
how grave the adversity.
By its nature the politics born of
struggle against dictatorship is the political ostracization
that must be endured.
Bureaucrats, judges, military officers,
bankers, businessmen were all scared to incur the military rulers
wrath by interacting with me -- they rewarded cut off from our
movement
The gulf proved costly when democracy
was restored. The people supported us. The elite's feared us.
I naively believed that our
opponents would accept the will of the people. They did not.
The PPP and I were outsiders, we were
strangers to them and we threatened them with our program of social
emancipation.
I threatened them by what I was -- a
woman and a young one too.
I was only 35 years old when I was
first elected Prime Minister Pakistan in 1988. The world celebrated
the victory of a woman leader in a traditional Muslim society. My own
supporters across the country were jubilant, dancing in the streets to
celebrate the triumph of democracy against dictatorship, liberalism
against fanaticism.
But not my opponents. In Pakistan, and
throughout the Muslim world there was opposition to my victory.
My election shook the foundation of a
conservative Muslim world which had just backed a holy war in
Afghanistan -- and the men in men in uniform who had fought that holy
war.
A senior religious scholar from a
leading Muslim country issued an edict criticizing my election and
declaring that it was un-Islamic for a woman to govern a Muslim
country.
I was helped when another religious
scholar from another Muslim country issued an edict declaring it was
Islamic for a Muslim country to elect a woman leader.
Politics and religion mixed with
greater intensity as the full force of the religious card was used
against the new government.
The aim was to create a religious
frenzy. The goal was to overthrow the government and demonstrate that
a woman could not govern. It was also to show that a victory by a
woman in such an election was an aberration.
Several assassination attempts were
made against me including one within the first month of my term at the
Lahore Airport.
A campaign was waged within the
Organization of Muslim countries to expel Pakistan on the
grounds that it had violated Islamic tradition by electing a woman
leader and could only return if the election verdict was
overturned.
Every Friday, from the mosques, sermons
were given inciting the people to overthrow the government.
However, having a popular base meant
having the popular support. It was that popular support that gave our
government legitimacy and gave us the strength to implement our
reformist agenda.
We proved in Pakistan that the barriers
of tradition could be broken.
We proved in Pakistan that opportunists
and fanatics would not dictate our agenda.
It was a victory for women every where.
Especially Muslim women.
Although my opponents fulminated,
calling me an Indian agent and an Israeli agent, the people supported
me.
And I was determined to prove my
leadership through concrete actions.
The Government I led had an ambitious
program of political liberalization, ending censorship, legalizing
trade unions, and placing a special emphasis on health, education, and
macroeconomic reform.
But, despite the peoples support,
after just 20 months, the entrenched Establishment that had refused to
bow to the people’s will, backed the President in sacking my
government through edict, at a time when world opinion was distracted
by Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990.
The result of overthrowing a
popular government and replacing it with a puppet let to anarchy and
chaos gripped the Nation.
Pakistan was on the threshold of being
declared a terrorist state. Our economy was on the verge of
collapse.
My party did not lose its faith in me
nor did I lose my faith in politics or the people of my country.
Within three years I was re-elected as
Prime Minister of Pakistan.
In reflection, I realize that being a
leader in a large developing country that had been stifled by the
forces of dictatorship was difficult in itself.
But being a woman made the task even
more formidable. I faced greater challenges than I could have
ever imagined.
It is not easy being a woman
anywhere.
In many ways there are still hurdles
for women to jump in the U.S.
It is not easy being a successful woman
in politics, education, health or finance.
Moreover, for women leaders, the
obstacles are greater, the demands are greater, the barriers are
greater, and the double standards are greater.
And ultimately, the expectations of
those who look at us as role models are greater as well. For all
women, it is critical that we succeed. Unfortunately, there are still
many out there who would just as soon have us fail, to reinforce their
myopic stereotypes restricting the role of women.
I recall with great empathy the words
of Baroness Margaret Thatcher, who once said:
“If a woman is tough, she is pushy.
If a man is tough, gosh, he’s a great leader.”
How often, in Pakistan, the United
States, all over the world, we have heard characterizations of women
in politics as pushy, as aggressive, as cunning, as shrewd, as
strident.
These words, if applied to men in
politics, would be badges of honour!
Those of us who have chosen to serve in
business, government and other professional careers have broken new
ground.
We have broken the stereotypes, and we
have been prepared to go the extra mile, to be judged by unrealistic
standards, to be held more accountable.
Therefore, women leaders have to
outperform, outdistance and out-manage men at every level.
We should not shrink from this
responsibility, we should welcome it.
Welcome it on behalf of women all over
the world, in cities, in rural villages and in the great universities
and centers of learning, arts and culture.
For all who have suffered before, and
for all who come after us, we are privileged to be in this special
position, in this special time, with unique opportunities to change
our countries, our continents, to change the world…and inevitably
change the future.
Different are the opportunities, the
challenges and the styles in leadership for women vs. men.
I have not found that there are any
male leaders who will agree there are differences in styles between
male and female leaders.
But we female leaders, and I speak from
my conversations with other women leaders, believe that female leaders
are stronger and more determined.
I personally believe that women leaders
are more generous and forgiving. Male leaders tend to be more
inflexible, and rigid.
However, ironically, I have met many
male leaders who feel that women leaders are actually more rigid.
Male leaders can learn from female
counterparts how to keep people together.
Women leaders have a tradition and an
historical legacy of bringing up families and creating a sense of
family community and unity. This is what men leaders need to learn
from women leaders.
I asked a male leader what we female
leaders could learn from them and he replied in a simple word
“intrigues”.
Just as men and women can learn from
one another, so can leaders from different cultures, regions and
religions.
In leading people from different
cultures, a leader has to have a sensitivity towards the values of
different cultural groups to strengthen the common points and bind the
different cultures together.
In the West, people often take free
choice, free speech, and human rights for granted, as a matter of
right.
In the East, the leaders have not only
had to battle the different political parties, but also resist the
entrenched establishment.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The West needs to appreciate that the
East, and I speak of the Muslim Nations in the East, are part of the
same Judaic, Christian Civilization.
Ours is a religion that sanctifies
Abraham, Moses and Jesus as Prophets.
It pains me when I see Muslims
stereotyped as extremists and terrorists. It would shock the West if
the Serbian criminal Milosevic was called the face of the West.
It is equally shocking for us when
Osama bin Laden is called the face of the East.
In every culture, in every
continent, in every civilization, there are men and women of goodwill.
And there are those who preach hatred and seek to create bitterness.
And, yes, there are extremists too.
I recall the UN conference in Cairo on
population planning. There I saw the Christian and Islamic extremists
unite in seeking to deny women control of their own bodies.
Extremists, operating even now along
the border of Canada, murder doctors for providing women with choice
over their own reproductive life.
Extremists, in your country and mine,
indulge in acts of senseless violence.
Unfortunately, acts of senselessness
make the news while acts of goodness are too often taken for
granted.
We need to remember that the
Information Age broadcasts the extreme rather than the mainstream --
where worldwide news is flashes into our dining rooms every
night.
I want you to know that the mainstream
in the East is very much the mainstream in the West.
It is grounded in faith, in family, in
our dreams for the future.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Leadership for me, throughout my
career, was an attempt to combine the best of the many cultures which
I had experienced.
To build for my people the ability to
compete and thrive in the challenging new technological era.
Introducing the world of modern
communication into Pakistan was one of the goals of my party.
We heralded the information revolution
by introducing fax machines, digital pagers, optic fiber, cellular
telephones, satellite dishes, Internet, the e-mail and even CNN into
Pakistan.
I was proud of Pakistan when under my
leadership; Pakistan integrated into the global economy and became one
of the ten emerging capital markets of the world.
I was in England when Margaret Thatcher
introduced the economics of privatization. I was also in America to
see the economics of deregulation.
And I took these lessons from the West
to the East.
My government provided a big-push to
infrastructure development, particularly in the energy
sector.
The World Bank called our energy
program a model to the entire developing world.
And due to the investment-oriented
policies of the PPP government, we attracted twenty times more direct
foreign investment in Pakistan than under previous government
administrations– the majority of it from the U.S.
But it is in the social sector that our
accomplishments have the most special meaning to me. Possibly as
a woman and as a mother I found the human cost of social neglect
shocking.
Increasing literacy rates by one third
was one of our goals. Building schools for girls was another. And
recruiting women teachers for the new primary schools was a new
challenge where we succeeded.
Securing women's rights by signing the
Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women in
Beijing promoted women's rights.
Prosecuting perpetuators of domestic
violence helped make Pakistan a more just society.
Leadership meant introducing the world
of computer literacy to prepare our people for a new century, a New
World.
As a woman and mother, I was
particularly concerned about the conditions of health for the children
of Pakistan.
Approximately 50 million child deaths
are predicted in South Asia over the next decade.
Of that astounding number, 30 million
are avoidable if the countries of the region embark on serious health
education and health delivery programs.
In order to promote mother and child
health care, we recruited and trained 50,000 village health workers in
the far-flung villages of Pakistan.
With the help of this army of women, we
iodized salt, eliminated polio and reduced the population growth rate
from 3.1% to 2.6%.
We embarked an ambitious effort to
immunize the children of Pakistan from a host of preventable child
hood diseases that could be brought under control.
The WHO gave me a gold medal in
recognition of Pakistan’s effort in the field of health.
To protect women in society, we
established special women’s police forces and women’s courts, to
hear with understanding and sympathy cases of domestic violence and
domestic abuse.
Courts and police forces for women,
staffed by women.
And we created women’s banks for
women entrepreneurs, empowering them with the tools to start their own
businesses. And yes, we allowed men to deposit their funds in
the women’s banks –and they did.
It was a miraculous transformation of a
society, a transformation that cannot be negated by disinformation and
personal attacks on me.
What we accomplished --
concretely and specifically -- is my legacy to the people of
Pakistan.
We opened up education, and we opened
up markets.
We opened up opportunity and we opened
up foreign investment.
We opened up economic development and
emancipated our rural villages.
Above all, we opened up minds. We
opened up individual choice.
We attacked prejudice and
discrimination.
Ladies and gentlemen, leadership and
courage are often synonymous.
Ultimately, leadership depends on
action, daring to take actions that are necessary but not always
popular.
To do what is right, by educating and
moving an electorate, understanding the moods, the needs, the wants,
the hopes and the aspirations of a surging mass of humanity.
Leadership is an opportunity to paint a
new vision on the canvas of political life in a nation's
history.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We have just witnessed only for the
third time in recorded history the momentous turning of the
millennium.
At that extraordinary moment, when the
huge ball dropped and the year 2000 lit up the winter sky, we carried
the lessons of the past that have enabled us to radically transform
the future.
Our generation, the first in recorded
history, is fundamentally empowered with the control of its own
destiny.
The chains of the past --
colonialism, ignorance, dictatorship and sexism -- are broken.
I remember the words of my father to me
written from the death cell. He wrote to me:
“Every generation has a central
concern, whether to end war, erase racial injustice, or improve the
conditions of working people.
The possibilities are too great, the
stakes too high, to bequeath to the coming generation only the
prophetic lament of Tennyson:
‘Ah, what shall I be at fifty should
nature let me live...If I find the world so bitter at twenty-five.”
Ladies and gentlemen,
Leadership is about beating
bitterness, beating adversity -- it is about having the will to
overcome insurmountable obstacles in fulfilling a cause larger than
oneself.
For the good of democracy in Pakistan,
for the goal of gender politics and for the goal of equal
opportunities, in my homeland, I am determined to speak out and in so
doing play my part in building a better world.
Thank you, ladies and
gentlemen.
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