Rise, Not Fall!

The photograph of the surrender of Major General Niazi to the Commander of the Indian army on 16th December 1971 is viewed as one of the most humiliating pictures by most Pakistanis who were old enough then to have seen or felt the secession of East Pakistan. The event which gave birth to a new country is often referred to as the Fall of Dacca. For the Bangladeshis, the war thus fought was the Liberation War. Since then, Bangladesh has seen its share of army coups and military dictatorships, perhaps the worst one being the brutal killing of its founder, Mujib ur Rahman, and most of his family. Since the 90s, however, the military decided wisely to step back, and the country has been ruled alternately by Khaleda Zia, the widow of the general who presided over Mujib’s killing, and Sheikh Hasina, one of the two daughters of Mujib ur Rahman, who had escaped the killing because she was out of the country.

Sheikh Hasina consolidated her rule in 2009, imprisoning Khaleda Zia and arresting most of the leaders of her party. This January, she won the elections for the fifth time where there was no competition. While her rule saw the economy grow by 6% annually, the benefits of this growth were unevenly spread, and poverty and unemployment have made the youth increasingly resentful. She has been an oppressive leader, subjecting the country to frequent clampdowns on free speech, the internet, and other media. Hundreds, if not thousands, have disappeared under her government, and she had her opponent, Zia, jailed for 17 years on charges of corruption. A hallmark of her government was its highly pro-Indian policies, wherein she greatly benefited Indian investors in almost every industry. Today, Indians own restaurants, big businesses, and franchises and head prestigious educational institutions. One of the actions she took that damaged her standing nationally and globally was to bring accusations of corruption against Dr. Mohammed Younus, the Nobel Prize Laureate who gave the world its microfinance model and brought millions of women out of the poverty line.

Through the years, public anger has been seething under an “all is well” veneer of a boom in its textile industry and a general social uplift due to the increase of women in the labour workforce. Its people have suffered nepotism, an authoritarian regime, and the silencing of any dissent. Unemployment and inequality have been fueled by her decision to reserve a 30% quota of government jobs for relatives of “freedom fighters.” In the early days, this may have been acceptable, but fifty years down the line, the special status of these relatives has been diluted, not to speak of fake freedom fighters springing up to covet public sector jobs.

Bangladesh is a homogenous country; its people are united through language, culture, and history. It has had a history of strong student unions, and bodies united in agitation and protests over public interest issues. Hasina’s regime has given impetus to a vast student uprising, first against the job quotas, and after having obtained relief from the Supreme Court that reduced this quota to a mere 3%, the students agitated against the government with a one-point agenda: Hasina’s resignation. She responded typically, ordering the police and the army to open fire on protestors, calling them terrorists. More than 300 people, mostly students, died, and then the military decided that enough was enough. Hasina fled the country, taking refuge in her beloved India, leaving behind a country dripping with young blood but undaunted and focused on its demands: bring back Dr. Younus to head an interim government, enable social and political rights, and install a true democracy.