Hamad Bin Khalifa of Qatar: a reformist?

“Other reasons may have prompted Hamad to resign. Now 61, he has long championed reform elsewhere in the Arab world, to the point of generously funding revolutions in Libya and Syria. But he stood out ever less comfortably for failing to practise at home what he preached abroad.” So he abdicated in order to apply what he had preached? The transfer of power from an unelected ruler (father) to another unelected ruler (son) is really viewed as a reform?!