I understand that family relationships and lineage can be very powerful elements in the societies (yes, I made it a plural) in Pakistan, but there is a point when culture becomes a mask for corruption. As you may have guessed by now, I am definitely against Bhutto's 19 year old son becoming a successor to her position in the PPP. My gut also tells me her husband is not a very good man, not a bad one, mind you. Just not a good one. Of course, I have no proof of that, but I'm sure the proof exists.
Someone needs to explain this to me. I'm an optimist, I WANT to think there's a truly progressive party in Pakistan with a reasonably uncorrupt leader. I really want someone to point out a bright side, so where is it?
If it were the case that her son, Bilawal, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, were to hold temporary positions in the party until the time comes to elect a new chairman, that would be fine with me. But that's not what's happening. As Witte from the Washington Post points out:
The selections mean that the Pakistan People's Party, which casts itself as the voice of democracy in Pakistan, will stay in family hands for a third generation.
What I don't understand is how the PPP can be so pro-democracy and yet almost acts like Bhutto was a queen nominating an heir to the throne. Apparently she had even put it in her will that her husband would succeed her. And the heirs seem to be jumping at the chance to create a dynasty, more so her husband. The PPP has to wait for Bilawal to complete his studies before he can become the new chairman.
I also find Bilawal's comment, from the same Post article, about the position fairly interesting, and a little fatalistic:
The young man representing the newest generation of Bhuttos -- who added the famous name for the first time Sunday -- noted that chairmanship of the party is a position "that often is occupied by martyrs."
Speaking briefly but forcefully at the press conference, he said he would strive to honor his mother's legacy. "The party's long and historic struggle will continue with renewed vigor," he said. "My mother always said, democracy is the best revenge."
Oh and, btw, the kid hasn't even grown up in Pakistan, and he's studying at Oxford. As if he wasn't going to have a hard enough time being so young and in charge of such an important organization, he has to deal with the fact that he's pretty much an outsider.
He's younger than I am too, which makes it even more crazy. Way to make other people feel over the hill, no one has died and left me a political organization. =-(
2 comments:
When political parties in untransparent authoritarian countries say they want democracy, they mean "We want to be in power." It's no suprise that the PPP will continue to maintain that they want democracy because they are not in power and lack the resources or public support to do it through other means (i.e. force). When your in a region that lacks any democratic political culture to speak of and has a far longer history of not only accepting but endorsing authoritarianism, then painting political figures as monarchs tends to give them some credibility.
I mean just look at how Bhutto expressed in her will that she wanted dynastical succession of power in the party. That isn't the commitment to democracy you would expect from someone who claims to value political freedom. Family and tribal bounds are stronger then any ideological commitment in much of the Global South.
-Mike
You make a very good observation. I think because of the conditions of the Global South, family and tribal bonds are stronger because that is the best system to look to for protection. When states fail, local identities become more powerful. Its not that their culture is so closed minded that they cannot accept anything else, its just that their social and political conditions combined with culture have encouraged this system.
For myself, as an American and as a Westerner (for that is how those in Pakistan would describe me, for instance), I believe it is our duty to help the global south eliminate the obstacles to democracy. Poverty, disease, security, development. Its useless to push democracy on a society that can't even sustain it. I am coming to believe that such is Pakistan.
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