was a well-known figure around the historic university after she became
the first Asian woman to be elected president of the Oxford
Union debating society, attracting worldwide media attention that nurtured
several British prime ministers. After a stint at Oxford, where she became
the first foreign woman to lead the Oxford Union, its most prestigious debate
team, Bhutto returned to Pakistan intending to join the diplomatic service.
Benazir Bhutto was many things — zealous guardian of
her dead father's legacy, aristocratic populist, accused rogue, even one
of People magazine's 50 most beautiful people. And in the end, she was
a victim of roiling passions in the nation she sought to lead for a third
time. To
the West, she was the appealing and glamorous face of Pakistan — a
trailblazing feminist, the first woman to lead a Muslim nation in modern
times — though her aura was dimmed by accusations of corruption. But
to many Pakistanis, she was a leader who spoke for them, their needs
and their hopes. Even
her worst critics would say that "she was a masterful politician,"
said Zaffar Abbas, an editor for the respected Dawn newspaper. She knew
"what the people of this country wanted."
Violence
ran like a thread through her family life, to an extent that caused her
admirers to compare the Bhuttos, in the contribution they made to Pakistan's
political life, and in the price they paid for it, to the Kennedys
— and her enemies, pointing to the Bhuttos' bitter family feuds, to compare
them to the Borgias.
She
came to Harvard in 1969, at the heart of the Vietnam War, with the
campus, and all of America, in political and social turmoil. Calling Harvard
"the very basis of my belief in democracy," she says that coming to a
land where there is freedom, where young students can criticize the president
without being sent to prison, fueled her own belief in the democratic
system. She says she "found
America to be a very integrated society, prepared to accept, to integrate
and to welcome."
According to Bhutto, that "determination
to see freedom in my own country, to see rule of law, to see democratic
institutions, was born in that period of great intellectual ferment at
Harvard," when the debates over the Vietnam War and the feminist movement
raged across campus and throughout the nation. 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.
I
(Bhutto) recalls 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, in North
America, 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.
Breaking
Ceilings
We have broken
glass ceilings (i.e. becoming in 1988 the first woman to be democratically
elected to lead a modern Muslim country), we have broken the stereotypes,
and we have been and continue to be 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. 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. Of course we can sit back,
and complain about the problems, the obstacles, the inequity, the bad
cards dealt to us. Or we can stand up, roll up our sleeves, and get down
to work, accepting the slings and the arrows as part of the job of being
a leader at the end of the 20th century.
 |
Life
as a Leader of Pakistan
In
reflection, I realized 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. Unfortunately, there are still many people
out there who would just as soon have us fail, to reinforce their myopic
stereotypes restricting the role of women. 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. I refused to accept the arbitrary barriers of bygone eras. I knew
I could win, and I did. Thus, I learned a valuable lesson: never acquiesce
to obstacles, especially those that are constructed of bigotry, intolerance
and blind, inflexible tradition. She
recognized that dictatorships come and go, and populations can only
be held down for so long with the barrel of a gun. Myanmar's Aung San
Suu Kyi was one of Benazir's favorite examples of someone who will ultimately
defeat the military. Benazir always believed in freedom of speech and
information. I
was 35 years old. I was the only woman in history to be elected to
head a government in the Islamic world. Her proudest accomplishment, Bhutto
says, is her success as a woman in a man's world. "My greatest contribution
lies in that my success as a woman in a Muslim society, where tradition
and tribal taboos held sway, has emancipated other women," she says. "My
success helped other women make choices that were not available to them
before, not only in Pakistan but all over the Muslim world." *
In
politics, Bhutto diverged from her peers (at Harvard) concerning China,
which was the great bugbear of American politics at the time. Having met
Chinese leaders like Chuen-Lai and Lu Sha Chi, Bhutto says she found herself
at odds with many of her friends in her admiration for and understanding
of the Chinese nation.
Benazir
Bhutto
Prime Minister of Pakistan
In office: 19 October 1993 – 05 November 1996
President Wasim Sajjad / Farooq Leghari
Preceded by Moeen Qureshi
Succeeded by Miraj Khalid
In office
02 December 1988 – 06 August 1990
President Ghulam Ishaq Khan
Preceded by Muhammad Khan Junejo
Succeeded by Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi
*
Born 21 June 1953(1953-06-21)
Karachi, Pakistan
Died 27 December 2007 (aged 54)
Rawalpindi, Pakistan
Political party Pakistan Peoples Party
Spouse Asif Ali Zardari
Alma mater Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, Radcliffe College, Harvard
University
Religion Islam |
Benazir's
Father & John F. Kennedy
When
Benazir's father Zulfikar
Ali Bhutto, (scion of a wealthy landowning family in southern Pakistan
and founder of the populist Pakistan People's Party who was president
and then prime minister of Pakistan before his ouster in a 1977 military
coup; two years later, he
was executed by the government of Gen. Zia-ul Haq after being convicted
of engineering the murder of a political opponent) who was then Pakistan's
foreign minister, met President John F. Kennedy for the first time at
the White House in October 1963, Kennedy was so impressed that he said
to Zulfikar, "Too bad you are not American, because if you were, I would
have appointed you to my cabinet." Zulfikar Bhutto responded in his humorous
and clever way: "President Kennedy, that is very kind of you, but if I
was American, I would not be in your cabinet but would be president of
the United States!"
Changing
Point of Her Life7
Her sights were
still set on a possible career as a diplomat rather than a politician.
But soon after her return, in 1977, her father was ousted as prime minister
in a military coup and imprisoned, and martial law was declared. Two years
later, he was executed, and his death became the defining moment in Bhutto's
life, launching her full- bore into politics.
"I
told him on my oath in his death cell, I would carry on his work," Bhutto
later said.
She
paid a price for her promise. Over the next five years, with the Pakistan
People's Party outlawed, Bhutto was in and out of detention, sometimes
under house arrest, or in prison, under harrowing conditions. In her autobiography,
"Daughter of Destiny," she recounted her experience in solitary confinement
in a desert cell in 1981, where the heat was almost unbearable.
Assassinated
on December 27, 2007
Benazir
Bhutto, the Pakistani opposition leader and twice-serving prime minister,
was assassinated Thursday evening as she left a political rally here, a
scene of fiery carnage that plunged Pakistan deeper into political turmoil
and ignited widespread violence by her enraged supporters.
Ms.
Bhutto, 54, was shot in the neck or head, according to differing accounts,
as she stood in the open sunroof of a car and waved to crowds. Seconds
later a suicide attacker detonated his bomb, damaging one of the cars
in her motorcade, killing more than 20 people and wounding 50, the Interior
Ministry said. It may have been a single
assassin who killed former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto,
but if so, he could have been working with any number of Islamic extremist
groups - as a result the list of people and groups considered Bhutto's
archenemies was a long one. Her
return from eight years of self-imposed exile with a pledge to reform
Pakistan in ways have upset entrenched political interests, powerful fundamentalist
religious organizations, and Al Qaeda and the Taliban. In
addition, she was aligned with the U.S., and vowed to crack down on
the increasingly popular radicalism spreading through the country. And
she had publicly accused the government's military and intelligence establishments
of coddling terrorists.
The
death
of Ms. Bhutto, leader of Pakistan's largest political party, throws
Pakistan's politics into disarray less than two weeks before parliamentary
elections scheduled for Jan. 8 and just weeks after a state of emergency
was lifted. There was immediate speculation that elections would be postponed
and another state of emergency declared.
The assassination
will have long-lasting repercussions not only in Pakistan, but in neighboring
Afghanistan as well, where Western troops are battling a fractured but
determined Taliban movement. Any significant destabilization of Pakistan
would carry risks for the entire region, analysts said.
Pakistan
was arguably the world's most unstable nuclear power. Now there's no argument.
With the country's strongest hope for a democratic future now lying entombed
near her martyred father, Pakistan faces at best a long period of turmoil
and uncertainty, and at worst a civil war. Its nuclear arsenal has never
been less secure, and Al Qaeda and its sympathizers have never been closer
to realizing their dream of obtaining a nuclear device.
A
deeply polarizing figure, Ms.
Bhutto spent 30 years navigating the turbulent and often violent world
of Pakistani politics, becoming in 1988 the first woman to lead a modern
Muslim country.
A
woman of grand aspirations with a taste for complex political maneuvering,
Ms. Bhutto was first elected prime minister in 1988 at the age of 35.
The daughter of one of Pakistan's most charismatic and democratically
inclined prime ministers, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, she inherited the mantle
of the populist Peoples Party that he founded, and which she came to personify.
She
had narrowly escaped an assassination
attempt upon her return to Pakistan two months ago. Her death now presents
President Pervez Musharraf with one of the most potent crises of his turbulent
eight years in power, and Bush administration officials with a new challenge
in their efforts to stabilize a front-line state — home to both Al Qaeda
and nuclear arms — in their fight against terrorism.
Bhutto
made an indelible mark not just on her home country but on the international
political scene, both for her gender and her outspoken insistence on the
need for Pakistan to remake itself into a secular, liberal state.
Despite
her shortcomings, "what will remain is a commitment to democracy --
to moderate, centrist values, tolerance, a role for women and an accommodation
with India," Stephen Cohen, a South Asia expert at the Brookings Institution,
said Thursday. "She helped create a new identity for Pakistan as a place
where women could be prime minister."
1977
CHINESE LIBRARY OPENS
The Chinatown
branch of the Los Angeles Public Library opens.
1977
START OF ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH
June
1977
- Representative Frank Horton (R-NY) and Norman Y. Mineta (D-CA) introduced
Pacific/Asian Heritage Week (House Resolution 540) in the House of Representatives,
which called upon the President to proclaim the first ten days of May
as Pacific/Asian Heritage Week.
July
19, 1977 - Senators Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga introduced SJ
Res 72 in the Senate, similar to legislation introduced by Frank
Horton and Norman Mineta in the House.
| MIS
TIMELINE |
|
March
1972
President Richard Nixon signs Executive Order 11652, which begins
the process of declassifying all military intelligence documents
gathered during World War II.
|
|
May
1972
Ryukyu Islands including Okinawa are restored to Japan, ending
America's 27-year occupation.
|
|
1974
Norman Y. Mineta, who served in U.S. military intelligence during
the war, is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and becomes
the first mainland Japanese American in Congress.
|
|
May
1976
Years of Infamy, one of the most widely read and influential books
on the Japanese American internment experience, is published.
|
|
1978
A national movement for redress and reparations begins with the
Japanese American Citizens League's adoption of a resolution that
called for redress and reparations for the internment of Japanese
Americans.
|
|
1978
JACL CALLS FOR REPARATIONS
National
convention of the Japanese American Citizens League adopts resolution
calling for redress and reparations for the internment
of Japanese Americans. Massive exodus of "boat people" from Vietnam.
1978
ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH IS OFFICIAL
July
10, 1978
- House Representatives passed legislation to proclaim an Asian/Pacific
American Heritage Week in May. The proclamation had to be obtained yearly
because the final Joint Resolution did not contain an annual designation.
Oct.
5, 1978 - President Jimmy Carter signed the Joint Resolution
CONSCIOUSNESS OF ASIAN AMERICANS RECOGNIZED BY THE UNITED STATES
This proclamation and legislation is the United States' official recognition that from their first days on these shores, Asian Americans fought against the discrimination they faced. Strikes, slowdowns, and legal actions were common. It is little known, for example, that Filipino farm workers actually initiated the famous grape boycott of the 1960s, which was then joined by Mexican workers and tremendously amplified under the leadership of Cesar Chavez. Most of these struggles were fought on a nationality or class basis.
It was not until the late 1960s that a common racial/panethnic identity took hold among Asian Americans. Several facts contributed to this delay: different Asian nationalities immigrated in different historical periods, they rarely lived or worked in the same geographical areas, most were immigrants until the 1960s, and their native languages were unintelligible to each other. Thus there was no amalgamation of the Asian nationalities as their had been, say, among the different African ethnicities under slavery (and that took many generations). Although Asians in the United States fell victim to the same racial laws and customs and
followed the same racialized patterns, the predominant consciousness remained ethnic/national, not panethnic or racial.
The development of Asian-American consciousness took place in the 1960s when, for the first time, the majority of Asians in this country were U.S. born. It was an explicitly political consciousness influenced by the Civil Rights and Black Power movements of that era. And it was cemented for many by the murderous racist dehumanization of Asians exhibited by the U.S. government, press, and armed forces during the Vietnam War.
To be Asian American was not a simple recognition that one had roots
in Asia; it meant to reject the passive racist stereotype embodied in the white-imposed term "Oriental" and to embrace an active stance against war and racism. The people of color movements of the 1960s led to the rejection of the term "Negro" in favor of "Black" or "Afro-American"; it produced the new concepts of "La Raza" and "Chicano"; and it gave rise to "Asian American."
Unbeknownst to many people, including many movement people, the
Asian-American movement of the late 1960s and 1970s was of mass proportions and dramatically transformed the political (and personal) consciousness and institutional infrastructure of the different Asian-American communities. In addition, influenced by the powerful Vietnamese, Chinese, and Korean communist parties of the time, many Asian-American activists turned to Marxism and became a major presence in the U.S. communist and socialist movements of the period.
However, neither racism nor racial consciousness among Asians has ever supplanted either the consciousness or the reality of nationality. Indeed, the tremendous increase in immigration since 1965 has reproduced an overriding foreign-born majority among Asians residing in the United States and has further strengthened national/ethnic consciousness.
IMPORTANCE OF RECOGNIZING ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN COMMUNITIES
The racialization of nationality was a critical event in U.S. history that has shaped today's social formation and even impacted its foreign policy. The racial formation of Asian Americans since the Immigration Reform of 1965 has been very different than the pre-1965 period. The civil rights achievements of the 1960s and 1970s, the structural change of U.S. capitalism to what is sometimes called "post-industrial society," the immigration reform of 1965, and globalization have reshaped the Asian-American communities and their status in U.S. society. Because of
their educational level, Asian Americans, along with white women, were probably the main beneficiaries of affirmative action.
Immigration reform has enabled the Asian-American population to explode from only about one million in 1965-mostly Chinese, Japanese, and Filipinos-to something like 13 million, emanating from numerous Asian countries today. Consequently, the majority of Asian Americans today have no family connection to Asian-American history prior to 1980.
The provisions of the 1965 immigration act and subsequent legislation have reinforced the class trends set in motion by exclusion. These laws allow Asian immigrants to enter this country primarily based on their family connections to the disproportionately merchant/professional population already here (family reunification) or based on their unique technical or professional skills. Consequently the highly educated and middle-class section of the Asian-American population has been reproduced on a bigger scale. At the same time, many of those entering based on family reunification are workers with few resources and limited English-speaking skills, so the numbers of isolated sweatshop workers in Asian enclaves have also grown.
The working-class section of Asian Americans has been expanded by Southeast Asians who entered the United States not under immigration law, but under refugee law after the failed U.S. wars of aggression in Indochina. The socio-economic profiles of Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians, and Hmong in the United States are very similar to those of Native Americans, blacks, and Latinos.
Asian Americans today have the highest median education and household income levels but at the same time unusually high percentages of Asians live in poverty and have minimal education. Among the hard working are the millions of extremely poor Asian-American workers who are often rendered invisible in the mythical Asian success story. The many vibrant left and progressive Asian-American organizations today tend to concentrate their organizing efforts precisely among these immigrant workers, many of whom are women. Class looms large in Asian-American politics.
1979
