Tedla Asfaw
Today the Bhuttos are gathering to pick a successor for the late Benazir Bhutto according to BBC news hour and this is also compared by some to the Kennedy's, Bushes and Clinton's and however this comparison is not correct.
In USA no one inherits power from their families rather elected to represent their party by the Democrat or Republican caucuses. What we have seen in Bhutto's family in Pakistan is a feudal power transfer since the independence of Pakistan.
The possible inherits of the power are the nineteen year old son of Benazir Bhutto, her husband or her sister and I am surprised the Pakistan Peoples Party(PPP) has no role to pick the leader of their party and how can an organization bring democracy to its people without electing democratically its own leader?.
Such transfer of power is now become a norm also in undemocratic countries and we saw it in Jordan and in Egypt the son of Mubarak is now groomed to rule Egypt. Such practice will give an ammunition for Islamic extremists to wage war in the name of Islam and the disenfranchised masses will be left out of the power game..
Without democratic institution and transparent deliberation within parties it is impossible to bring accountability and fight neptoism and corruption and people are going to worship leaders and that is bad for democracy.
On this first anniversary of Saddam Hussein execution nothing bright has come for the Islamic world and still most Islamic countries are run by dictators and that will not bring peace and stability in any region of the world and inherited power is neither different.
It is sad a woman who preaches democracy and accountability while alive her death is not hope for Pakistani democracy rather an excuse to keep Bhutto's legacy and the winners on all these will be the undemocratic forces led by Musharraf and Islamic extremists..
