KARACHI: The gift of the gab. It’s one thing Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is not exactly known for, and often given immense slack for, whether it is his heavy accent when he speaks in Urdu or his apparent uneasiness.
But the scion of the Bhutto dynasty has certainly improved when it comes to delivery and imitating the oratorical magic of his grandfather, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and mother, Benazir Bhutto.
Unlike some other politicians in the country who anxiously flip through papers and search for their lines on cue cards, Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari seemed rather confident and well-prepared for his recent speech in Karachi on October 18.
The speech made many wonder how Bilawal, known for his shortcomings when it comes to Urdu, had memorised the nearly two-hour-long speech with relative ease. Well, it seems, the son of the "daughter of the East" brought a few tricks with him from the West.
Presidents in the West have used teleprompters for more than half a century. In recent times, US president Barack Obama has also been criticised for his heavy reliance on them. While presidents in the past typically used them for the ‘most important’ speeches — an inauguration, a State of the Union or an Oval Office address — Obama uses them for everyday routine announcements and even for the opening statement at his news conference. It seems, Bilawal has picked up on the trend and decided to become the first Pakistani politician to make use of the nifty device.
Haww, I thought Bilawal memorised the whole speech. But.... pic.twitter.com/IKlwgmk4Dz
— Syed Ali Raza Abidi (@abidifactor) October 19, 2014
A teleprompter is a display device that prompts the person speaking with an electronic visual text of a speech placed on their right and left side. It is the device Bilawal looked at as he delivered his speech in Karachi on October 18. A teleprompter was also seen placed in front of him during his speech on December 27, 2013.
Using a teleprompter is similar to using cue cards. The screen is in front of, and usually below, the lens of a professional video camera, and the words on the screen are reflected to the eyes of the presenter using a sheet of clear glass. Because the speaker does not need to look down to consult written notes, he appears to have memorised the speech or to be speaking spontaneously, looking directly into the camera lens.
https://twitter.com/majorlyp/status/523528426653638657
https://twitter.com/GDLanglands/status/523529258648735745
One could assume that part of the reason why Bilawal gets so much flak for his accented Urdu, and now for being dependent on a teleprompter is probably due to the lofty standards he has to live up to. Bilawal’s grandfather, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, is one of the most influential Pakistani politicians to have ever lived. His mesmerising speeches and strong socialist message once hypnotised an entire nation.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto at the UN Security Council on December 15, 1971.
Zulfikar’s legacy continued with Benazir, who became a personality in her own right, despite being measured against her father – similar to how Bilawal is today measured against his mother and grandfather. However, Benazir was certainly ahead of the curve when it came to matching her dad’s skill as an orator. Her arms moved as theatrically and chants were as loud and energising as her father’s. Only time will tell whether Bilawal will be able to fully emulate his mother’s and grandfather’s oratory magic but for now we can safely assume that there is still some time before he delivers an unaided speech.
Benazir Bhutto's last addresses to the nation at Liaquat Bagh, Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s Eid address at Bilawal House, Karachi on October 6, 2014.
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This story was edited by Hassaan Khan.
Additional input: Sundar Waqar and Ibriz Sheikh.
COMMENTS (19)
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I have read the long and tedious comments from your contributors with amazement : apart from their poorly written verbosity to boost their egos they completely miss the central issues. A long line of dynastical rulers have turned Pakistan into a basket case, a failing debt ridden country.Laden with debt which could not be paid off even by the generation yet to be born.These rulers have totally robbed the country - for the last twenty years Paakistan has been classed as one of the most corrupt countries. Now they are borrowing money to pay present debts! This country is now like a car being driven towards a desolate desert and approaching a sign saying " last chance to fill up". And the driver is oblivious to this dire warning. So wake up. Imran Khan and Tahir Qadri are the only ones making this wake up call.
As for the Bhutto family, stop worshipping false gods - together they have brought Pakistan to her knees. Zardari, the great robber, was given keys to the nation's coffers by Benazir every time she came to power. Now, Zardari has dressed up Bilawal as a Bhutto to fool the people. And then he can carry on the grand larceny like his father.Even Benazir had secret Swiss accounts holding millions of dollars. On Benazir's sentiment people brought in Zardari and now are they going to bring in an arrogant kid who cant even speak Urdu, let alone read it.Prince Bilawal is born - long live the future King. Onward to oblivion.
People deserve the leaders they get.
He born with golden spoon in his mouth but he cannot become a leader of Pakistan nation. He is nonsense out spoken but no commonsense. Only those want to prompt him who are want to get looting more Pakistan.
There is absolutely no comparison between Z A Bhutto and Bilawal! The former was a giant when it came to politics and oratory, the latter a mere pygmy.
Gab means talk at length and not effective reading or scolding or repeating the same thing over and over again.
Even Mohammad Khan Junejo's Urdu was very poor. Very true urdu is not a litmus test for any politician. Whereas English is to much extent as most of the business in courts, assemblies, administration and diplomacy is done in English. English is non controversial. Whereas Urdu is carries a baggage of many controversies. @Mirza:
@Mirza: If you think Faryal Talpur and Zardari are going to let bilawal be his own man, you are living in a fool’s paradise. If one goes by his hysterical speeches, you’ll know who his handlers are. The poor boy cannot even visit Safdar Abbasi or Naheed Khan at his own what to talk to taking decisive actions..PPP is the old order and the custodians of this old order i.e. the Aunt and Dad, are not going to let him be in the driving seat anytime soon and that my friend is going to put the final nail in the coffin of PPP. I have said it before and would say it again, no one could have destroyed PPP, even establishment couldn’t do it but thanks to the last tenure of Zardari SB,PPP is gasping for life now and for that we are eternally indebted to Zardari Sb since we’ve had enough with the corruption feudal party.
It seem article has been planted.
Kahan Bhutto aur kahan ye chore baap beta.
The type of comments on Bilawal's speech from the media and other political leaders indicate the noisy and superficial state of our current political debate. Keeping aside question of agreeing or disagreeing with the current approach of PPP, it is disappointing to see a big lack of rationality. The PPP can hugely benefit from the Karachi experience, by considering: 1, Even today the party has a center-left political position. Which is much more strong and relevant compared to the Sindh card. 2, The legacy issue needs not be over played. 3, The real continuity or the revival is required at the party policy level. Despite being in the Government only 18 months back, there is a need to carry out comprehensive analysis of national and global situations, develop perceptions within the party after a thorough debate and evolve doable strategies for Pakistan. In fact, all parties need to have a real agenda, one of the reason that the present government is not able to move forward on any front. 4, PPP should launch a national campaign to formulate Pakistan's strategic, economic, political problem, discuss various options and develop broader agreement on key solutions - leading to its new manifesto. Only, with this type of exercise, party itself will know where it stands. 5, The survival of PPP is in involving its workers & supporters in a serious debate. Only slogans will not give any leverage to the party. 6, While, "nationalism" is slowly becoming a "center-right" quality in many parts of the globe (including India) & has its scope in Pakistan as well, the PPP (& ANP) has a unique historical moment to evolve center-left-nationalist doctrine. This is a real challenge to the old generation of its philosophers. Even for intellectual outside the PPP and for the so called LEFT, time is to do some serious work to develop liberal-left agenda for the nation. 7, In fact PPP needs a couple of years to properly evolve its agenda - different from the last 10 years, which were not much different.
Young Bilawal should not be exposed his political immaturity at his early age. His dramatic expression and political dialogue whether it is about kashmir rant or about domestic high pitch political speech comparers him with rahul gandhi's immaturity that may see Congress party in India goes down in memory lane soon. Same may happen to PPP if Bilawal is thrown upon in political arena at his early age. More ever, Anti corruption agitation and sit- ins orchestrated by Qadri and Imran Khan with an aim to incite the emotional fervor in pak's economically deprived population for unsettling Sharif government is being strategically planned by Musharaf in association with pak ISI/army. Musharf is targeting Sharif from all angles through encouraging agitation by Qadri/ Imran khan and inciting of kashmir issue so as to weaken Sharif to take revenge against Musharaf for his alleged involvement the killing of Benazir. Musharaf is very dangerous, ruthless and autocratic army man who had been responsible for the growth of taliban and terrorism in Pakistan and can harm the growth of pak economy for his selfish attempt to regain political power in pak. He along with ISI/Army is attempting to divert the attention of political parties ( PMIL, PPP and PTI etc) from rebuilding the economic growth to raising/inciting kashmir issue and corruption issues of PMIL govt in order to persist on blackmailing the pak people emotionally that would help divert the attention of the Sharif govt and people at large from mushraf's gruesome autocratic action that killed Benazir. All political parties (PMIL PPP. ann PTI etc) should not become musharf's nefarious game plan and rise above the present political chaos created by Musharaf rather help bring peace in pak so that pak economy could be developed through FDI and cross boarder trade
The biggest mistake his handlers are making is to force him to look or sound like his grandfather or his mother..........they should allow him to look and sound like himself.
A big NO to dynastic politics.
Empty words filled with cliches and political slogans. If Bilawal wants to appear as a leader he must distant himself from his father and father's family in Pakistan ppl really don't care about the content of a speech if they are angry and frustrated
Bilawal at this young age speaks better Urdu than ZAB or BB at his age. He is only going to get better while living in Pakistan and dealing with people. The more imp thing is he should be his own man. He should go and visit those lifetime party members that are lost after BB’s death. In particular he should bring all party people back from Punjab and KPK. His number one task should be to restore party on the national level. Bilawal should avoid confrontation and foul language and leave it to the other lifetime leaders of their own parties. Unless Bilawal takes full control of the party and brings all the old faithful and keeps the current leadership particularly Zardari in the background there are no hopes for major revival. Those who hated ZAB, BB and PPP would continue to find fault with his Urdu, Sindhi, accent, manners, cap, and attire. None of the great leaders of Pakistan from Mr. Jinnah to ZAB were good in Urdu which is not a litmus test.
pray that Pakistan can conjure up the inner strength to RID the Nation of these most corrupt and lawless Families!
I have no issued with the teleprompter and do not expect him or anyone to memorize a two hour speech. However there are two issues of note here:
a) Should it not be a prerequisite for a Pakistani political candidate to have the ability to read and understand its national language? If you look at the prompter its all written in roman English, how can he connect with people if he doesn't understand Urdu?
b) He can not deliver a good speech with the required emotions if he doesn't know what he is saying as he is giving or rather reading out his Urdu speech from roman English.
There is nothing wrong in using the Telepromptor. Even without it, he has spoken much better in various occasions, at least much better than PM or the fake revolutionaries. Like Fakhar-e-Alam tweeted, this 26 years old said what others can't even dream of speaking their whole lives.
Does accent make any difference? Further for oration, he will definitely get better with passage of time, not to undermine the fact that even as of now he wasn't particularly bad for starter. But yeah if you hate someone than it's a given you won't be seeing any positives.
too little too late.