International
Sheikh Hasina's exit marks end of decisive political era in B'desh history (IANS Opinion)
The fall was swift. It had not been expected that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, having played a pivotal role in the restoration of democracy in Bangladesh, would someday be forced not only to leave office in disgrace, but make her way out of the country.
The story of Sheikh Hasina’s rise and fall merits detailed analysis. But, it is the incidents of the past one month which are today regarded as instrumental in her fall from power.
It all began with a rather innocuous movement by students against a quota system for government services which, earlier abolished in 2018, was recently restored by the High Court. Briefly, the quota system reserved as much as 30 per cent of government jobs for the children and grandchildren of Bangladesh’s 1971 freedom fighters.
Overall, 56 per cent of jobs under the quota system went to the descendants of freedom fighters as also to other groups such as women and indigenous communities.
Once the quota system was restored by the judiciary, protests began to be voiced by students on the ground that reservations of government jobs for particular groups in such high numbers precluded the possibility of merit being taken into consideration in examinations for recruitment to the civil service.
The protests were peaceful, but the mistake committed by the government was to go for a knee-jerk reaction.
Sheikh Hasina’s abrasive comments on the students’ protest left the young angry. Worse, it was the comment by Obaidul Quader, General Secretary of the ruling Awami League and a senior minister in the Cabinet, to the effect that the Chhatra League, the student’s wing of the ruling party, was enough to tackle the protests which further inflamed passions.
Of course, the government went for damage control with the Supreme Court rescinding the High Court move and reordering the quota system in favour of an assessment of merit at civil service examinations and other government jobs.
The move came rather late in the day.
The protesting students refused to back down and instead began to make other demands, the last one of which was the resignation of the Prime Minister and her government.
The authorities, unwilling to acknowledge the rising tide of public dissatisfaction against the government, opted for increasingly harsh measures to quell the protests. The security forces, including the police, the Rapid Action Battalion, and Border Guard Bangladesh were deployed against the protesters.
The consequences were grave. No fewer than 200-plus people died when the security forces went into action. Students were picked up at random and placed on harsh police remand. Disorder intensified on the streets.
From there on, it was clear that the protests were no more in the hands of the students but had proliferated into a wider campaign against all the accumulated grievances of the general public against the massive web of corruption which had only widened in the past many years.
Besides, rising prices and the pernicious role of syndicates in the manipulation of the market were good reasons for very large sections of the population to identify themselves with the students’ movement.
Neither a later imposition of curfew and a calling in of the army to restore order helped. Add to that the long-held public grievance over the three ‘flawed’ elections the Awami League government had presided over since 2014.
It was clearly a storm gaining in intensity and waiting to sweep across the country. The government’s refusal to see it coming, together with its arrogant response to the students, clearly was indicative of its growing inability to stem the situation.
The final straw for the government came on Sunday when its student and youth wings went into violent action against the protests, which led to more than a hundred fresh deaths. As many as 13 policemen were lynched by infuriated mobs.
The protests apart, it also needs to be borne in mind that when Sheikh Hasina spoke in those final days of a concerted campaign by Islamist forces and other opposition groups to overthrow her, it was food for thought.
Add to that her public references to what she believed was the aim of the United States to have her government fall. She was never apologetic about those remarks, which again are a subject for analysts to study now that she has fallen.
The sadness in Bangladesh today is the ignominious manner in which Sheikh Hasina had to flee the country. Once a leading voice in the struggle to restore secular democracy in the country, being the daughter of Bangladesh’s founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, her style of governance progressively dwindled into a system where she relied more and more on sycophants.
That was the ultimate in the tragedy, given that her government in these past 15 years had led Bangladesh to enviable economic prosperity to a point where the country is now poised to graduate from LDC status to that of a middle-income country in 2026.
Her foreign policy was a fine balance, the focus being on maintaining close ties with India and correct relations with China, Russia, and the European powers.
At home, she initiated constitutional moves that paved the way for the trial of her father’s assassins and the ageing collaborators of the 1971 Pakistan occupation army.
Sheikh Hasina’s exit is the end of a decisive political era in Bangladesh’s history. The future is now uncertain, despite the country’s army having engineered her safe exit from Dhaka and initiating moves to have an interim government take charge.
For Bangladesh, which is today an embarrassing reminder of Sri Lanka as it was a few years ago when its leadership was forced from office by public protests, the imperative will be to ensure that the principles of secular democracy which underpinned the War of Liberation – principles which were undermined by successive military and quasi-military regimes after August 1975 – are maintained and that the country is not pushed back into the communal darkness from which it was retrieved by the Awami League under Sheikh Hasina.
(Syed Badrul Ahsan is a Bangladeshi political analyst and political biographer who divides his time between Dhaka and London. The vies expressed are personal)
–IANS
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Lee Hsien Yang, the youngest son of Singapore’s founding father, the late Lee Kuan Yew, announced on Tuesday that he is now a political refugee in the United Kingdom after seeking asylum from the British government “as a last resort.”
“I remain a Singapore citizen and hope that someday it will be safe to return home,” Lee stated in a Facebook post, as reported by Channel News Asia (CNA).
Citing what he described as the Singapore government’s “attacks” against him, Lee, who is the younger brother of former Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, revealed that he sought asylum protection in 2022.
Lee Hsien Yang and his late sister, Lee Wei Ling, who passed away earlier this month, have been in conflict with their brother Lee Hsien Loong over the fate of their father’s home following his death in 2015, resulting in a public dispute that has estranged the siblings.
In an interview with the UK-based newspaper The Guardian, Lee alleged that a “campaign of persecution” compelled him to seek asylum in Britain.
In response to his claims, the Singapore government stated that there is “no basis” for his allegations of “a campaign of persecution” or other assertions regarding political repression in the country.
“Singapore’s judiciary is impartial and makes decisions independently. This is why Singaporeans have a high level of trust in the judiciary,” a government spokesperson remarked.
The spokesperson added that there are no legal restrictions preventing Lee and his wife, lawyer Lee Suet Fern, from returning to Singapore. “They are and have always been free to return to Singapore,” the spokesperson said.
Lee and his wife have been outside of Singapore since 2022, having opted not to attend a scheduled police interview regarding potential offenses related to providing false evidence in judicial proceedings concerning their father’s will and the family home.
Lee and his late sister, who had been living at the property, alleged they felt threatened while trying to fulfill their father’s wish to demolish the house. They also accused their elder brother, former Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, of abusing his governmental influence to advance his personal agenda.
Kazan, Russia: Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the 16th BRICS Summit.
During the meeting, President Putin remarked, “I recall our meeting in July, where we had productive discussions on various issues. We’ve also spoken over the phone several times. I am very grateful you accepted the invitation to come to Kazan. Today, we will attend the BRICS Summit’s opening ceremony, followed by dinner.”
PM Modi responded by expressing his appreciation, saying, “I sincerely thank you for your friendship, warm welcome, and hospitality. It’s a great pleasure to visit such a beautiful city as Kazan for the BRICS Summit. India shares deep historical ties with this city, and the opening of our new embassy here will further strengthen these connections.”
Vientiane (Laos), Aug 22 (IANS) Representatives from the Lao government and development partners have attended a conference here titled “Climate Change and Nutrition in Laos: Intersections and Interventions” to discuss the impact of climate change on nutrition in the Southeast Asia country and potential solutions.
Speaking at the conference, deputy director general of the Department of Hygiene and Health Promotion under the Lao Ministry of Health Viengkhan Phixay, said, “We gather to address a critical and interwoven issue: the impact of climate change on nutrition and how we can work together to tackle these challenges,” Xinhua news agency reported.
The Lao government is actively engaged in this endeavor, with numerous policies and initiatives aimed at addressing both climate change and nutrition, Lao National Television reported on Thursday.
“By leveraging the Scaling Up Nutrition network in Laos, which is led by the government, and supported by civil society, donors, and the United Nations, we have a robust platform to tackle the negative impacts of climate change while improving nutrition and overall health for everyone in Laos,” Viengkham said at the conference held on Monday.
The conference featured a series of presentations that not only detailed evidence-based research but also introduced innovative tools for measuring and enhancing nutrition under the impact of climate change.
The conference stressed the critical need for integrated approaches to tackle the intertwined challenges of climate change and nutrition, and setting the stage for impactful future collaborations.
–IANS
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Baghdad, Aug 22 (IANS) A civilian was killed while seven others were injured on Thursday in a tribal shootout in Iraq’s holy Shiite province of Najaf, according to a local security source.
The shootout erupted in the early hours between armed men from the local tribe in the al-Zarga area in northern Najaf, some 160 km south of Baghdad, a local police officer told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The clash resulted in the killing of an Iraqi civilian and the injury of seven others, including three Iranian Shiite pilgrims, the source added.
A joint force from the Interior Ministry’s emergency response division and Najaf provincial police arrested 53 gunmen from both sides of the shootout and seized weapons and ammunition, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
It added that search operations are ongoing to locate additional gunmen and weapons, with more details to be released later.
The incident took place as numerous pilgrims traveled to the city of Karbala to observe Arbaeen, which marks the end of a 40-day mourning period for the killing of Imam Hussein, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad, in the Battle of Karbala in 680 A.D.
Typically, these pilgrims also visit Najaf as part of their journey to Karbala.
–IANS
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Dhaka, Aug 22 (IANS) Bangladesh’s interim government has sought $1 billion from the World Bank as budgetary support.
The call came from the country’s Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Adviser Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan’s meeting with Abdoulaye Seck, the World Bank’s Country Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan, in Dhaka on Wednesday.
He made the plea as the ministry owes more than 2 billion dollars to suppliers in import costs of power and energy, Xinhua news agency reported.
Khan mentioned that the interim government, which was formed with many pressing mandates, is due to settle a $2 billion debt left by the previous government in the power sector.
He said they have already suspended activities under the much-criticized Quick Enhancement of Electricity and Energy Supply Act 2010 and abolished the government’s power to set energy prices without any public hearing.
On August 5, the former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, was ousted from her country and power, ending her rule since January 2009.
This event was seen as a massive escalation, with what initially started as student’s protests and resulted in a major crisis in Bangladesh.
Earlier on August 8, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus took oath as the head of Bangladesh’s interim government.
–IANS
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