In one of his first few speeches, the head of Bangladesh’s interim government, Muhammad Yunus, said that “the cruel, ousted autocratic regime” had maintained its grip on power by manipulating state institutions. We’ll bring back the lost glory of these institutions…”
Indeed all the major State institutions are in tatters. The country hasn’t witnessed a fair election since 2009 as the Sheikh Hasina regime rigged one general election after another. The democratic institutions have been destroyed and generations of young people grew up without exercising their voting rights.
The police under the previous Awami League government went through politicisation at a large scale—the total number of members of Bangladesh police is 2,13,000, of whom at least 1,17,425 were appointed by the Awami League government. Not only the police, the civil administration, under Hasina’s watch, reached a level where a senior secretary, Khaja Miah, publicly declared that he wanted to take part in the upcoming national election as a candidate of the Awami League. And he is not the only one.
Not only the police and the civil administration, the previous government also handpicked judges and even sacked a Chief Justice for not towing the line— Surendra Kumar Sinha, the first Hindu Chief Justice in the Muslim majority country, was forced to resign by the country’s military intelligence, the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), for giving a verdict that nullified a constitutional amendment.
In this background, it is crucial that the interim government is allowed to finish the initiatives it has taken to reform the public administration, Anti-Corruption Commission, judiciary, police, and the electoral system.
There is also a growing demand for a new Constitution. The Yunus administration, to its credit, has set up a Constitutional Reform Commission to draft a document that will “reflect the aspirations” of the ordinary Bangladeshis. Reform commission chair Ali Riaz, also a political science professor at Illinois State University said, “Under the current constitution, the Prime Minister holds immense power, and this centralisation of authority paves the way for fascism.”
Under Article 70 of the present Constitution, floor crossing is illegal: any MP engaging in floor crossing loses their membership, making a mockery of the Westminster form of democracy. Instead of becoming first among the equals, the present Constitution has made the Prime Minister act like a President in the presidential form of government.
Bangladesh needs a new Constitution to make sure the head of the State doesn’t become an autocrat again. And there is the question of recognising the rights of over 36 linguistic communities. The country will also have to guarantee the constitutional rights of women and ethnic minorities. Even though for the last 34 years, Bangladesh only has had female Prime Ministers, the present Constitution, refers to the PM as ‘he’. That is just one anomaly in a line of many.
A new political settlement is needed to reboot the country that has witnessed years of tyranny and dysfunctional democracy. Many have also called for a proclamation of the Second Republic that will be inclusive and will allow all religious and ethnic identities flourish in the country.
It is also important that local government body polls are held before the general election. It’ll be a trial run for the interim government’s ability to run a fair, credible, and impartial general election. The country is still reeling from the total breakdown of police and the civil administration after the ouster of Sheikh Hasina. The local body elections will prove Yunus’ ability to hold general election before all the major stakeholders. On top of it all, a free and fair local body elections will help democracy take a firm foothold at the grassroots, something Bangladesh badly needs now.
Also read: BNP chain of command is breaking down. It isn’t fighting culture of thuggery in Dhaka
BNP’s goons
Last month, Jahammad Ali, a broomstick seller and an Awami League supporter, was extorted by goons belonging to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in Gazipur, on the outskirts of Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka. The party activists threatened to burn down his house if he didn’t sell his cow to them. When Ali finally gave into their demand, they took away his cow and gave his wife Taka 6,000 (USD 50) in return, which is around 10 times below the market price. Ali is known in the area as a supporter of the Awami League.
Since Hasina fled the country in a mass upsurge on 5 August, incidents like this have kept repeating themselves. An intelligence report leaked on social media shows that hordes of BNP leaders have become busy with extortion and land grabbing. Till date, the BNP hasn’t protested the report. Some party activists, out of power for a decade and a half, appear to have grown an appetite for extortion and thuggery.
Bus terminals, oil depot, fighting with general students at universities— some BNP leaders and the party’s student activists evidently can’t want to wait to grab power to loot everyone and everything. One is allegedly involved in the murder of a journalist in Dhaka. It took four days for the party to suspend the said executive member.
The BNP leadership has indeed tried to chastise some of its members for such crimes, but, as it turns out, the problem is so widespread that the party is finding it increasingly difficult to put a leash on the thugs and goons in its fold. Its failure is evident by the party’s stance on institutional reforms that the Yunus Administration has started. The BNP wants elections to be held soon, the sooner the better. Reforms can wait.
Anti-India sentiment
The BNP doesn’t want constitutional amendment. It wants elected representatives to make those reforms. The party’s stance is understandable as its popularity is plummeting by the day, if not by the hour, because of widespread thuggery prevailing in its rank and file. And if a new alternative force presents itself before the voters with a clean, honest leadership, it will give the BNP a run for its money.
The day before yesterday, students of Dhaka University took to the streets en masse to protest the BNP’s student wing’s presence on the campus. They want all educational institutions to be free from politically affiliated student organisations.
The BNP needs to do some serious housecleaning.
Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, the party’s second man, is holding his position for the last 13 years. The BNP has not held a central council in years. Its leaders are all greying in a country in which the median age is around 26. This doesn’t bode well for a party that wants to come to power in an election where 63.7 per cent of the population is under the age of 35.
A Gen-Z revolution toppled a 76-year-old Prime Minister in Bangladesh. The BNP joined the uprising rather late— just 10 days before Hasina’s fall. Even then, its Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said none of his party members was involved in the student movement. In a press release, he also mentioned the killing of hundreds of students. Alamgir’s comment shows how out of touch the BNP leadership is and to the extent it has failed to read the pulse of the people.
To begin with, the BNP and its affiliated organisations need to hold councils at different party units. This move should inject fresh blood into the party. These democratically elected leaders will understand the hearts and minds of the masses better and it’ll also clean the party of the thugs who appear to be scaring its prospective voters off.
The BNP should keep in mind that over 1,000 people killed in anti-Hasina protests didn’t lay down their lives just to bring the BNP to power. The party’s movement between 2012 and 2024 were unsuccessful because it failed to woo people, and it is the collective leadership of the politically non-affiliated group of students who were able to bring the masses to the street to “dismantle the fascist political settlement” in the country.
The BNP will also have to clear its stance regarding Indian investments in Bangladesh and the bilateral treaties that the Hasina government has signed over the last few years. During the BNP’s last term in office, Bangladesh’s relationship with its next-door neighbour was far from pleasant. How a populist party like the BNP will handle an ever-pervasive anti-India sentiment in the country is an issue still unresolved.
The BNP has to give the Yunus administration the time necessary to carry out the reforms. It must not be afraid of democratic values taking a firm foothold in Bangladesh.
Ahmede Hussain is a Bangladeshi writer and journalist. He is the editor of the anthology “The New Anthem: The Subcontinent in its Own Words” (Tranquebar Press; Delhi). Hussain has just finished writing his first novel, which is set in the background of Bangladesh’s Independence War. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @AhmedeHussain. Views are personal.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)