Martyrdom, Sure, But What’s The Damn Rush?
by sarabeth at 12:28 pm on December 30th, 2007 in GeneralBilawal Zardari is apparently his mother’s heir but he’s not sounding much like his mother’s son. Either that, or he doesn’t care overmuch for the martyr’s role his mother embraced so eagerly, and that he feels she has now pushed upon him. Or maybe his sense of filial piety just requires him to allow his father first crack at martyrdom, and Bilawal is more than willing to take his turn?
Political turmoil in Pakistan deepened on Sunday as Benazir Bhutto’s son Bilawal, a 19-year-old student at Oxford, was surprisingly chosen to succeed the slain opposition leader as chairman of Pakistan’s largest party.
But the teenager will initially be only a figurehead, with his controversial father, Asif Ali Zardari, set to lead the Pakistan People’s party as co-chairman into elections expected to be delayed beyond the planned date next month.
[…]
Bilawal addressed a press conference for less than a minute, saying he would leave the running of the party to his father while he finished his studies.“The chairmanship of the party is a position often occupied by martyrs and we do not know how long my father will be able to keep this position,” he said. “When I return I promise to lead the party as my mother wanted me to.”
In related news, there are some branding issues when a political dynasty runs from father to daughter to son:
Mr Zardari Sr said that Bilawal, like his two younger sisters, would henceforth take his mother’s name, styling himself Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. A first-year history student, the teenager has lived outside Pakistan since 1999. He is to return to his studies and it is not clear when he will return to an active role in Pakistan.
This is designed to overcome a branding problem: up until now, Bhutto’s three children have used their father’s name.
vineeta anand wrote:
In a rather desperate attempt to extend the Bhutto dynasty in Pakistan, Benazir’s son Bilawal is being reluctantly forced into politics, much in the fashion of Rajiv Gandhi, who stepped in after India’s Mrs. Indira Gandhi was assasinated by her bodyguards in 1984. Perhaps Bilawal would be wise to remember what happened to Rajiv, who was blown up by a suicide bomber in 1991.
Posted 30 Dec 2007 at 5:25 pm ¶
sarabeth wrote:
Thanks, Vineeta. You reminded me that in the Nehru/Gandhi dynasty too, political power passed from father to daughter to son (though the first transition did have one intermediate step).
The same branding issues didn’t arise though, because Indira Gandhi’s political identity was not under her maiden name. Somehow nobody felt the need to have her be called Indira Nehru. After all, everyone knew she was Nehru’s daughter. And in a region where who your mother and father are is part of your social identity, there was no need to advertise that fact in her name.
Which makes me wonder now why Benazir felt the need to be Benazir Bhutto and not Benazir Zardari. After all, it’s exactly the same social culture.
Posted 31 Dec 2007 at 12:26 pm ¶