After weeks of antigovernment protests, on August 6, Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stepped down and fled the country in a spectacular flip of occasions. Till the final moments of her rule, her grip on energy appeared all however absolute even after the deaths of hundreds of students who hit the streets demanding first reform of civil service job allocations after which her resignation.
Hasina’s cussed refusal to compromise, overreliance on state violence, and deep patronage ties to a privileged clientele class had lengthy disconnected her from the Bangladeshi public. She maybe didn’t see the extent to which she had misplaced the help of the bulk till the very finish, leaving her with no selection however to flee the nation. The collapse of her 16-year rule renders each a cautionary story to dictators worldwide and a proof of the sheer willpower of a nation’s disillusioned youth.
The irony is that Hasina herself rode the wave of younger folks’s help when she returned to the nation in 2008 to guide the Awami get together in contesting the elections, which it gained with a landslide.
Throughout her first time period, she capitalised on youth sentiments to be able to go after political leaders accused of committing battle crimes throughout Bangladesh’s battle of independence in 1971. She began executing opposition leaders whereas sparing the responsible of the identical sin in her get together. In 2013, she ordered a brutal crackdown on a sit-in by spiritual faculty college students whom she had labelled radical Islamists, leading to dozens of deaths.
In hindsight, that ought to have been a warning signal to the Bangladeshi public. However they selected to maintain religion in Hasina, who promised shiny new infrastructure and extra employment.
She didn’t spare any alternative to trumpet her household tragedy and assaults on her life. Her household, together with her father, Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of the nation, was slain in a army coup in 1975. That she had nobody however the folks of Bangladesh to serve turned her rallying cry; and it was too uncooked, too highly effective to defy.
Drawing on the wellspring of household lores and legacy, she relentlessly assailed her detractors, usually calling them spawns of “razakars”, a derogatory time period used to explain the abettors of the Pakistani army throughout the battle of independence. Final month, she resorted to her time-tested rhetoric once more, which provoked outrage among the many protesters and calls for for an apology from her. She, in fact, discovered it too beneath her to apologise for and even acknowledge the hurt her phrases had prompted.
Hasina’s refusal to hearken to what folks wished stemmed from her long-held perception in her personal political invincibility. Because the scion of Bangladesh’s founding father, she had cultivated a picture of herself as an unassailable, virtually deity-like determine – the undisputed daughter of democracy.
Compromising, in her thoughts, would have been an unthinkable signal of weak point that might have undermined the cult of persona she had constructed round herself over her 15 years in energy. Whilst her grip on the nation slipped, Hasina remained satisfied that her legacy and the loyalty of her core supporters would finally defend her from having to make such a humbling concession.
Hasina’s fall from shame is of her making solely. In pursuit of complete energy, she alienated her allies each at house and overseas. She went after these she held grudges towards, from the ailing former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia to the nation’s solely Nobel Laureate, Professor Muhammad Yunus, placing them underneath home arrest.
Numerous political activists, writers, and intellectuals have been both imprisoned or disappeared throughout what can justifiably be known as a “reign of terror”. Even sympathisers who tried to supply her good-faith counsel weren’t spared from her wrath.
Below Hasina’s management, Bangladesh was as soon as seen as a mannequin for these international locations struggling to straddle competing powers of their neighbourhoods. However that balancing act imploded, too, as she absolutely entrenched into India’s orbit, unnerving China.
Western international locations additionally grew pissed off with Hasina’s flagrant violation of democratic and human rights ideas. The US began to point out its displeasure along with her authorities, sanctioning in 2023 authorities officers discovered answerable for impeding the democratic course of or concerned in corruption.
However a defiant Hasina wore the American reprimand as a badge of honour and repeatedly mocked Washington for falling brief on points like public security. Her bloody crackdown on the coed protests from their begin solely deepened the diplomatic rift.
Hasina assumed extreme pressure would do its work because it had achieved earlier than. However she couldn’t fathom the depth of discontent among the many folks over myriad points, over the system of which she was the face. Pupil protests quickly morphed right into a mass motion, a Era Z revolution.
Hasina was inclined to use much more pressure in a determined try to cling to energy, however her closest advisers warned towards it, fearing the potential for even larger bloodshed. Her personal son later revealed that she didn’t wish to depart, however finally determined to take action on the insistence of her household, maybe saving her from an much more humiliating finish.
Certainly, her authoritarian rule had alienated not simply the general public, but in addition key worldwide allies and fleeing the nation to India was her best choice.
Sheikh Hasina’s precipitous downfall in Bangladesh represents a pivotal second, not only for the nation, however for the broader international wrestle between democracy and authoritarianism. The Bangladeshi youth have delivered a putting rebuke to these looking for to snuff the democratic aspirations of the folks. Their victory serves as a strong rejoinder to dictators who imagine their grip on energy is unassailable.
Because the world watches the unfolding occasions in Bangladesh, leaders throughout the globe should heed this cautionary story. The lesson is evident: Underestimate the ability of your residents at your personal peril.
This triumph for democracy in Bangladesh provides a glimmer of hope at a time when the forces of autocracy look like on the march. The Bangladeshi youth have confirmed that even essentially the most entrenched of dictators are susceptible to the collective energy of a mobilised citizenry. Their wrestle has demonstrated that the human thirst for freedom and self-determination is a potent pressure, even towards essentially the most formidable political machines.
The views expressed on this article are the creator’s personal and don’t essentially mirror Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.