|
South Asia Sinks Deeper Into Dynastic Politics
 |
| Prime
Minister Begum Khaleda Zia |
By IOL South Asia Correspondent
DHAKA, June 29 (Islam Online) - Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia’s appointment of her son Tarek Rahman as joint secretary general of the ruling Bangladesh National Party (BNP) has deepened the South Asian trend of political dynasties entrenching themselves in the region’s power structures.
Since Begum Zia appointed her 35-year old son to the party secretariat (from which come several ministers) last week, this nation of 130 million people seems to have come to accept that they would have to live with another senior politician of the Ziaur Rahman family. General Ziaur Rahman, a military dictator, was killed in a coup in 1981, paving way for his wife Khaleda Zia to step into his shoes.
Former Prime Minister and now main Opposition Party (Awami League) leader Sheikh Hasina Wajid also followed in her father’s footsteps when Sheikh Mujeebur Rahman, the first president of Bangladesh, was assassinated in 1975.
Begum Zia, who already has put close relatives in high positions of power, has made sure that her son is “more equal” among party secretaries, and hence came his appointment as joint secretary general, instead of as secretary.
Begum Zia’s latest move consolidates a clear pattern in the region. Sri Lanka President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s both parents were presidents of the country successively, the mother succeeding the assassinated father.
In India, the most outstanding example is the Nehrus. Patriarch Motilal Nehru was a president of the All India Congress Party. In his lifetime, his son Jawaharlal Nehru became Congress president. When India got its freedom from British rule in 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru was elected its first prime minister. He died as PM in 1964.
Nehru’s daughter Indira Gandhi (his only child) was inducted as minister for information and broadcasting in Lal Bahadur Shastri government that succeeded Nehru’s. By late sixties, Indira Gandhi was the prime minister and remained so till her assassination in 1984, except for a brief period of about three years. Her son, Rajiv succeeded her as PM and remained there till 1989. Two years later he was assassinated by Sri Lankan Tamil extremists and their sympathisers in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu in 1991.
During Indira Gandhi’s rule, her cousin Arun Nehru wielded enormous power as a minister. He continued to enjoy great power in Rajiv Gandhi’s time as well, till he fell in disgrace because he, as the minister responsible for the PM’s security, had failed to prevent an abortive attempt on Rajiv’s life. Arun Nehru went on to join Janata Party of VP Singh and became a minister when Singh succeed Rajiv as PM. However, Nehru soon went into decline and faded from view.
The widow of Indira Gandhi’s younger son Sanjay (who died in a plane crash in 1980), Maneka Gandhi, joined opposition politics after a quarrel with Indira. Over the years, she has been minister at the Centre in several cabinets. At present, she is minister of environment and is preparing her 22-year old son Varun to enter public life.
On the other hand, Rajiv’s Italian wife (an Indian citizen) Sonia holds the prestigious position of Congress Party president. Her party rules in India’s 14 states, and she is widely seen as the future prime minister of the country. Her daughter Priyanka Wadera is expected to succeed her.
Pakistan too has its version of Nehrus in the Bhuttos – former prime minister Benazir Butto of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) succeeded her father as party leader (and later as prime minister) following prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s ouster from power in a military coup by Gen Ziaul Haq and his execution in 1979. She is the main opposition leader in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, in Bangladesh, rumblings of dissent are also audible. As a first indicator of Begum Zia’s firmness to deal with dissent, President Badruddoza was forced to
quit.
|
