The wrong scions

July 16th, 2007 gier Posted in Mentera Moden, Politics | No Comments »

While I was cleaning the lint in my navel in the shower earlier, I got to thinking. There is a tendency for political “dynasties” to happen, even in democracies. In America, we have the Kennedies (which would also include, before long, the Schwarzeneggers), and of course, the Bushes. The Clintons are giving it a try too, crossing from husband to wife.

We know of the Gandhi/Nehru dynasty in India.

In Malaysia, I suppose we also have the dynasties, sort of. It’s a little hard to call them dynasties because:

1. Two generations do not a dynasty make.
2. The Malays don’t use surnames, so calling the dynasty by a name is not usually representative, unless you can trace it all back.

Anyway, the thinking I was doing was that in some cases, we can ostensibly argue that the wrong scion[1] in the dynasty are the ones who are continuing the line. Before we come to the Malaysian scene, we start with the US. Some people are of the opinion that Jeb Bush would have made a much better president than George Dubya Bush.

In India, some Indians argue that Rajiv Gandhi was not the right son of Indira Gandhi to become the Prime Minister. His younger brother, Sanjay Gandhi, would have made a better one, it was asserted. We shall never know, because Sanjay died in a plane crash in 1980[2].

In Malaysia, at the moment we have these 3 2nd generation UMNO politicians in play, i.e. Dato’ Seri Najib Abd. Razak, Dato’ Hishamuddin Hussein and Dato’ Mukhriz Mahathir who are the sons of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Prime Ministers of Malaysia, respectively. Before I go on, I would like to note here that I am aware that there are also non-Malay political dynasties existing and in the making. I’m just concentrating on the three I mention above for reasons that will be clear later. So don’t hantam me because I don’t mention Emperor Kit’s dynasty, ok.

Anyhow, and this is a personal opinion, I sometimes wonder if things would be different if it weren’t them, but their siblings who are the ones making tracks in the political scene. Can’t really say much about Hishamuddin’s siblings because hardly much is written about them, but in the case of Najib and Mukhriz … Well, doesn’t anyone else wonder if Nazir would be the better politician than Najib? Or, and here’s the best one, that Marina would be the better politician than Mukhriz?

Wondering only aaah … don’t mean nothing by it.

[1] Scion — pronounced ’ski-`on, is the word used to describe heirs or descendants. Originating from the words “ski” and “on”, it was used by rich and famous people at ski resorts in Europe and America to describe how their children are doing on the slopes, e.g. “How’s William doing, Charles?” would be replied with: “Doing quite well, thank you Phillip. These kids nowadays, they just ski on, don’t you know.” This is why only rich and famous children are referred to as scions. The rest of us are just usually referred to as “the sprogs”.

[2] I was in Delhi once, and my host there explained to me that Sanjay Gandhi was killed by his mother, because he was causing too much trouble as an MP. I didn’t believe a word he said.