Stephen Kinzer: Dictators' Sons, From Egypt to Libya, Are Doomed
[Stephen Kinzer is an award-winning foreign correspondent. His new book is Reset: Iran, Turkey and America's Future.]
Hosni Mubarak is falling from power in Egypt partly because he refused to heed one of history’s hidden lessons: Dictators shouldn’t have sons.
Most do. That often hastens their downfall or that of their nations.
Egyptians might have been willing to accept their lot for a while longer if the ailing Mubarak had not made it clear he intended his son, Gamal, to succeed him in power. Of all his arrogant acts, none insulted his people more than his insistence that of the 80 million Egyptians, Gamal Mubarak was best qualified to lead the country. The plan was for him to rise to power not by popular vote, but only because his father wished it that way.
Barely a week after protests exploded in Egypt, President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen publicly promised that he would stop maneuvering to place his son, Ahmed, in the presidency after he departs. At the same time, King Abdullah of Jordan, who succeeded his father on the throne, sacked his government in an effort to shore up his regime. His monarchy seems secure for the moment, like that of his namesake in Saudi Arabia, but the idea that sons have the right to succeed their fathers in positions of near absolute power has ever fewer supporters.
A few sons of dictators have managed to hold on to the family business, notably Bashar al-Assad of Syria and Kim Jong Il of North Korea. Most, however, fail abjectly. Africa is especially rich with examples. The sons of Idi Amin, Daniel Arap Moi, and Jomo Kenyatta could not manage the power their fathers tried to give them. Closer to home, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier ascended to the Haitian presidency after his father’s death but could not keep it; his effort to return to power is severely handicapped by people’s memories not only of his corruption and brutality, but that of his father...
Read entire article at Daily Beast
Hosni Mubarak is falling from power in Egypt partly because he refused to heed one of history’s hidden lessons: Dictators shouldn’t have sons.
Most do. That often hastens their downfall or that of their nations.
Egyptians might have been willing to accept their lot for a while longer if the ailing Mubarak had not made it clear he intended his son, Gamal, to succeed him in power. Of all his arrogant acts, none insulted his people more than his insistence that of the 80 million Egyptians, Gamal Mubarak was best qualified to lead the country. The plan was for him to rise to power not by popular vote, but only because his father wished it that way.
Barely a week after protests exploded in Egypt, President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen publicly promised that he would stop maneuvering to place his son, Ahmed, in the presidency after he departs. At the same time, King Abdullah of Jordan, who succeeded his father on the throne, sacked his government in an effort to shore up his regime. His monarchy seems secure for the moment, like that of his namesake in Saudi Arabia, but the idea that sons have the right to succeed their fathers in positions of near absolute power has ever fewer supporters.
A few sons of dictators have managed to hold on to the family business, notably Bashar al-Assad of Syria and Kim Jong Il of North Korea. Most, however, fail abjectly. Africa is especially rich with examples. The sons of Idi Amin, Daniel Arap Moi, and Jomo Kenyatta could not manage the power their fathers tried to give them. Closer to home, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier ascended to the Haitian presidency after his father’s death but could not keep it; his effort to return to power is severely handicapped by people’s memories not only of his corruption and brutality, but that of his father...