After a month of demonstrations in Bangladesh, prime minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted by a protest movement with levels of violence not seen since the country won its independence in 1971. In addition to failing to resolve mass youth unemployment, the so-called Iron Lady of Bangladesh paid the price for muzzling the political opposition for the past 15 years.
After 15 years in power, Bangladesh's prime minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled to India on August 5 as anti-government protesters stormed her palace in the capital Dhaka. "She has fled the country, she has fled," chanted the protesters before entering the residence and leaving with televisions, chairs and tables.
The streets of Dhaka appeared calmer on Tuesday, but government offices remained mainly closed a day after chaotic violence in which at least 122 people were killed.
"The country is going through a revolutionary period," said General Waker-Uz-Zaman, who took over as army chief on June 23, in a televised address on Monday.
"Please don’t go back to the path of violence and please return to non-violent and peaceful ways," he added in an appeal for calm.
Monday was the deadliest day since protests against civil service job quotas began in early July, with a further 10 people killed on Tuesday, taking the total toll overall to at least 432, according to an AFP tally based on police, government officials and doctors at hospitals.
"This upsurge in violence is perhaps due to the fact that the most politically motivated demonstrators sensed that power was about to waver," said Philippe Benoît, a lecturer at the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilisations and a Bangladesh specialist.
Public sector jobs in high demand
Student protesters, led by the collective Students against Discrimination, initially peacefully demonstrated against the reinstatement of civil service job quotas.
The protests intensified when the government refused to meet the students' demands and escalated into wider calls for Hasina, who was accused of rigging elections in January, to step down.
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"It wasn't the government per se, but a court decision that reinstated the quotas," said Benoît. Bangladesh’s High Court ordered the government on June 5 to reinstate the 30% quota on government jobs reserved for relatives of "Freedom fighters", the soldiers who fought against Pakistan for the country's independence in 1971. Introduced in 1972 by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina’s father, the quotas are also believed to give preferential treatment to those close to Hasina's Awami League party.
"We suspect that the government is using this quota system to favour party supporters," said Benoît.
After huge opposition in the streets, the Supreme Court of Bangladesh decided on July 21 to lower the quota to 5%, compared with 93% of posts awarded based on merit and 2% to ethnic minorities, transgender people and disabled people.
Back in 2018, the government abolished the quota after massive student protests. But it seems that little will quell the anger of Bangladesh's youth today.
Nearly 18 million of them are unemployed in a country with a population of 170 million. "The number of unemployed young people is so high that government entrance examinations are attracting crowds of applicants. In addition to the matter of quotas, there is the question of corruption and the growing suspicion that you will only succeed in these examinations if you buy your place," said Benoît.
The quota system appears to have been the last straw for the country's youth. "It's no longer just about job quotas," Sakhawat, a young demonstrator in Dhaka, told AFP. "We want future generations to be able to live freely."
A political transition in limbo
In the wake of Hasina’s resignation and departure, the country now faces an uncertain political transition. General Zaman, who wants to form an interim government, said he had been in contact with the main opposition parties and members of civil society, but not with the Awami League.
"The ruling party seems doomed to disappear for a while. The problem is that the well-organised political opposition is the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), whose president [Khaleda Zia] is [imprisoned and] in poor health, and whose heir is in exile abroad," said Benoît.
The BNP boycotted the parliamentary elections in January, denouncing "a sham election" and the mass arrests among its ranks. "What unfolded was not an election, but rather a disgrace to the democratic aspirations of Bangladesh," said party leader Tarique Rahman at the time from London, where he lives in exile.
Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s main Islamist party and other main opposition force, was recently banned by Hasina’s government, as was its student branch, the Shibir, after the deadly riots in July. "The most likely outcome is that a government is formed in which the military, the BNP and the Jamaat share posts," said Benoît. Although the two opposition parties have formed coalitions in the past, their leaders still need to be able to move freely.
General Zaman announced Zia’s immediate release on Monday evening, while the BNP declared that its exiled leader Rahman would be returning imminently.
Bangladeshi President Mohammed Shahabuddin dissolved parliament on Tuesday, paving the way for the formation of an interim government. Student protest leaders have called for Nobel laureate and microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus, 84, to lead the temporary government.
Yunus, who is currently in Paris for the Olympic Games, said on Tuesday he was ready to head a caretaker government and called for "free elections".
"If action is needed in Bangladesh, for my country and for the courage of my people, then I will take it," he told AFP in a statement.
(With AFP)
This article has been translated from the original in French.
