IIn early August, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned amid deadly student-led protests, bringing to an end a political dynasty that had ruled the country since its founding.
On the other side of Asia, students took to the streets this week to protest changes to electoral laws that they say will encourage the establishment of new dynasties. In just a few weeks, Prabowo Subianto will be sworn in as Indonesia’s president, with Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the 36-year-old son of current president Joko Widodo, as his vice president.
The rise and fall of leaders, carried to the roar of protesters across the continent, is both a testament to the resilience of Asia’s political dynasties and a warning to a few powerful families that have seen power pass from one to the other for decades.
“Democracy is a virtue, but it cannot function properly when social and economic inequalities are too great and opportunities for influence too unequal,” said Professor Bedi Hadiz, director of the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute.
Political dynasties are by no means exclusive to Asia: November’s US presidential election will be the first since 1976 in which a Bush, Clinton or Biden trio is not running, but at least seven Asian countries are governed by former ruling families.
Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines, Laos and Brunei are all led by children of former leaders. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is the brother of former leader Nawaz Sharif, who is in coalition with a party led by the son of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, while Indonesia’s next president, Prabowo Subianto, is the son-in-law of former dictator Suharto.
Dr Ken Setiawan, senior lecturer in Indonesian studies at the University of Melbourne, said the longevity of Asian political families could be attributed to the weakness of political parties, the cost of election campaigns and the closed nature of political networks.
In the Philippines’ 2022 presidential election, the eventual winner, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (son of a former president), spent more than $11 million on his campaign, most of it from donations, local media reported.
“It’s easy to promote or appoint family members,” Setiawan said, “so it’s very difficult to get talent at the grassroots level.”
Pancakes and allegations of nepotism
In 2014, Indonesia broke away from years of dynastic rule, electing its first president, Joko Widodo (known as “Jokowi”), who was not from the military or political elite.
Jokowi rose from humble beginnings in his grandfather’s furniture factory to senior positions in local politics and eventually to become governor of Jakarta, where he garnered widespread support as a political outsider.
A decade on, President Jokowi’s image has gone from the cover of Time magazine to the hands of protesters, who accuse him of nepotism and the subversion of democracy.
Last week, thousands of Indonesians took to the streets to protest proposed changes to the electoral law that would allow President Jokowi’s youngest son to run in this November’s elections by tweaking age requirement rules.
“There’s a lot of anger,” Setiawan said. “Jokowi was the hope of democracy 10 years ago.”
A similar scandal erupted in November when an Indonesian court overturned a rule that only candidates over 40 could run for president, allowing President Jokowi’s eldest son to run for vice president.
Setiawan said Jokowi has sought to secure his own political influence beyond his two terms as president.
“It has a lot to do with his own political priorities and his push for massive infrastructure development. Many projects have been started but not completed,” she said.
In addition to allegations of nepotism, there are also widespread doubts about the competence and experience of Jokowi’s son, Gibran, who ran a chain of pancake shops before being elected mayor of Solo in 2020.
Before the election, Gibran denied accusations that he had performed poorly in university, and some questioned the authenticity of his degrees. He eventually presented a diploma from Britain’s University of Bradford, unintentionally opening up a new line of attack for opponents of his candidacy.
Hadiz said political dynasties help perpetuate high levels of inequality in Asia, with educational opportunities often only available to a few powerful families.
“By doing so, you can further strengthen your position in society,” he says.
It’s an accusation that’s evidenced by the resumes of a generation of political scions.
Like Gibran, Thailand’s new leader, Pathontar Shinawatra, the fourth prime minister from the Shinawatra clan, also studied in Britain, earning a degree in hotel management from the University of Surrey.
Cambodia’s longtime leader Hun Sen will hand over power to his son Hun Manet, who studied at the University of Bristol, in 2023. Philippine President Marcos attended Worth School in West Sussex and Oxford University but did not earn a degree.
“Leadership Vacuum”
Despite voter anger in some countries, genuine political opposition to dynastic politics remains fragmented and disorganized, Hadiz said.
The Philippine Congress, which has elected four presidents from descendants of political families since 2001, recently blocked a bill that would have defined and banned family participation in politics, and a 2022 study found that about 80% of the country’s members of Congress come from political families.
“Protests may erupt, like those that occurred in Indonesia a few days ago,” Hadiz said, “but once the dispute dies down, the group will disband.”
The student movement that helped oust Sheikh Hasina when she fled Bangladesh celebrated the end of one of the world’s longest-running political dynasties, which began when her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, led the country to independence in 1971.
As the country welcomes new interim leadership, Hasina’s son, who serves as an adviser to his mother, called the students “very ungrateful”. Sajeeb Wazed Joy said his mother would retire to spend time with her grandchildren.
A few days later, Joy told Indian media in an interview that he did not have “any political ambitions” but that the country was facing a “leadership vacuum”.
The grandson of Bangladesh’s founding father said he would do anything to save his mother’s party and is ready to enter politics.