Sheikh Hasina, ex-Prime Minister of Bangladesh at the Olympic hunger summit in Downing Street, London, UK on 12 August 2012. (Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) (formerly, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO)), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of the United Kingdom © Crown Copyright)
RA ZAKARs – is a word one must think twice about before casually throwing it around in Bangladesh today, especially against students, who are tired of the iron grip imposed by now ex-PM Sheikh Hasina, the daughter of Sheikh Mujib, who liberated Bangladesh from Pakistani-rule in the 1970s.
Following the 1971 Liberation War, Bangladesh imposed a quota system for jobs in the public sector. Bangladeshi students felt that this limited their options for employment in government service. Leaving the 44% of so-called merit based seats aside, 10% each belonged to people who were from poorer regions and women, 5% for minorities and a tiny 1% for the disabled, whereas an astounding 30% was reserved for the children and the grandchildren of freedom fighters who fought during the 1971 independence war.
The latter remains the most controversial aspect of the quota debate as the Jatiyo Maktijoddha Council (Jamuka) still struggles to “prepare an accurate and full list of freedom fighters” in the country after almost 50 years of independence, as understood from a 2023 report published in the Prothom Alo. However, “according to the gazette branch of the liberation war affairs ministry, a total of 235,467 people have been designated as being freedom fighter(s)” or their descendants, the Bangla newspaper report adds.
This indeed brings to fore the belief amongst many Bangladeshi people, that the government has designated too large a share of jobs to too small a community of so-called freedom fighters, in a country of almost 170 million people – whether the freedom fighter’s kin deserve this privilege or not remains an equally contentious debate. Ex PM Hasina had herself recognized this when she abolished the quota system and overturned the decision of her father, Sheikh Majubur Rahman, first head of state and honorary “father of the nation” of Bangladesh, who introduced the quota system for government jobs in 1972. But on June 5, 2024, a High Court ruled against Hasina’s decision of 4 October 2018 as “illegal” – to scrap the quota system and demanded the reinstatement of the quota and indeed also the 30% quota for freedom fighter’s families in government jobs. This sparked fury within the country, which would only somewhat subside after the Supreme Court – the highest judicial institution in Bangladesh, announced amendments to reduce the quota to 7% on 21 July.
The “Students Against Discrimination” (SAD), a group leading the student protests, have long advocated for reform of the current status quo in job allocations, albeit they have stopped short of advocating the complete abolition of the quota system altogether. In an interview with the Dhaka Tribune, Sarjis Alam, the national coordinator for SAD said: “Our protest is not against the constitution (of this country). If we look at the distribution of seats in our parliament, we see that of the 350 seats, 50 are reserved, amounting to 14%. If the quota were 56%, there would be 196 reserved seats”. “When our parliament, representing the entire country, has a 14% quota, why should government jobs have a 56% quota?”, he added.
Hence, when the Supreme Court ruling happened and freed up more jobs for merit-based candidacy, the students seemed happy, as gathered from several local news reports. Although as we now know, the attention of the masses had by then moved away from just a reform of the quota system to holding the Hasina administration accountable for the wider brutality of her government and governing style. Before the week starting on 22 July, law enforcement had cracked down violently on protests, international outlets were reporting a gruesome toll of at least a hundred deaths, which according to some estimates has now reached around 300. Hasina inflamed the opposition against her government, when she stated “Why do they (anti-quota protesters) have so much resentment towards the freedom fighters? If the grandchildren of the freedom fighters don’t get quota benefits, should the grandchildren of Razakars get the benefit?”, exclaimed Hasina on July 14 – as reported by The Daily Star, a Bangladeshi-English daily.
Little did she know that this would spark fury and a counter-slogan for the protesting crowds: “Tui ke? Ami ke? Razakar, Razakar!” (Who are you? Who am I? Razakar, Razakar!) The coming weeks would result in pictures of protests circulating the globe, with crowds tearing the capital apart to finally walk into the halls of the Ganabhaban, the official residence of the Prime Minister in Dhaka, forcing Hasina to resign and flee the country.
That afternoon
On Monday, “at around 1.30 PM Hasina’s security team told her that she must leave Ganabhaban”, reads a Facebook post by Shafiqul Alam, the bureau chief of Agence France-Presse in Bangladesh. A front-page story in the Prothom Alo from the next day was quoted by Nazmul Ahasan, a reporter at Bloomberg, in a tweet hinting at Hasina’s insistence to “using brute force” against the approaching mob. At which point the army changed sides remains unclear, but “She reminded the chief that she picked him as the chief over others and he should reciprocate”, wrote Ahasan. General Waker-Uz-Zaman, the army chief, is said to have concurred over talks with his generals that the army should not fire upon civilians, but should instead “enforce a curfew”, Reuters report reveals.
The curfew and internet shutdowns were all part of a plan to suppress the protests brewing since the past weekend. However, the failure to suppress the protests only infuriated Hasina further, as her aides pleaded her to leave. “The unspoken understanding was that the military would not turn against her”, stated Ahasan. “Even her sister, Sheikh Rehana, couldn’t convince her to give up.”
It is understood that the final call before Hasina stepped down was from her US-based son, added the Bloomberg reporter. According to Alam, who spoke to a key aide of Hasina that witnessed her last minutes as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh: “She wanted to record an address to the nation. She wanted to pack up. But the security officers did not give her any time. She and her sister were taken to a motorcade. They came to the Planning Commission building in Agargaon at about 1.45 PM. There she was told that a crowd of people have already gathered nearby. She must not waste her time. Immediately, the security team took her to the Second World War era airport at Old Tejgaon which is now used by army aviation. She and her sister were brought to the airstrip, and they boarded an air force helicopter. (And) they flew out of the country.” Since flying to Delhi, the capital of neighboring India, reports reveal further uncertainty about what’s next for her, as the United Kingdom has refused her asylum, and she is exploring other options such as Finland and Russia.
Sajeeb Wazed Joy, Hasina’s US-based son, appeared on several broadcaster networks following his mother’s escape, confirming he had no future no political aspirations, but also telling of how his mother turned Bangladesh around from being a poor, corrupt and failed state. “After this, we are done! We are tired of saving Bangladesh! Bangladesh can handle its own problems now, it’s not our problem! I see this as the people of Bangladesh being very ungrateful(…)and they deserve the leadership they get (now)”, he stated to Wion – an Indian broadcaster. The following day, the President Mohammed Shahabuddin dissolved the parliament, and engaged in a late evening discussion with anti-quota student movement leaders to discuss the way forward. Others present in the meeting included two Dhaka University professors and three army chiefs, according to The Daily Star. The conclusion of the meeting brought a new actor into the story to possibly add some order to the chaos. Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel laureate and banker-economist, took over the interim government as its “chief advisor” until the next elections take place. As for Sheikh Hasina, she has remained tight lipped since fleeing the country.
Can university students bring down a government?
Well before Hasina’s exit, Historian Iftekhar Iqbal argued in The Diplomat magazine that Gen Z is “moving beyond the ‘traitor’ and ‘freedom fighter’ binary”. The traitor or Pakistani collaborator in the 1971 War of Independence for Bangladesh is called a “Razakar”, and the freedom fighter is the “Muktijoddha”. Like the Muktijoddha(s), the Razakars are believed to have been a small group of people, of some 40,000 men then paid by Pakistan, who were partly responsible for an inhumane genocide of anywhere between 300,000 to 3 million civilians. After independence, the Bangladeshis succeeded in catching most of the Razakars, however only 1000 or so served jail time. Those behind bars were soon granted amnesty in what came to be welcomed by international community, and was seen as a good decision by then PM Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
As for the freedom fighters, they were – as we know – rewarded with a permanent, 30% place in the employment scheme of the public sector. But they were like now only a tiny fraction of the population- no more than 0.27%, according to a paper by a Dhaka university professor. Whatsoever was the logic behind this disproportionate quota system, it is only plain to see that it happened with the justification of the independence war, which was further extended to the children of the freedom fighters in 1997, and then to the grandchildren in 2009. According to Iqbal, “over the years, these quotas have been overwhelmingly filled by Awami League (Hasina’s party) supporters”. “This injustice and marginalization appeared increasingly untenable in recent years, especially as the unemployment rate soared from 2.9 percent in 2009 to a conservative estimate of 5.1 percent in 2023”, added the historian.
Hence, it becomes evidently clear that these quotas were being used for political benefit by Hasina’s party, to appoint corrupt cronies and friends to state jobs- at the same time as she continued the repression of all opposition in the country throughout her 15 years as the head of state. Which is why, “The quota system (for the students) epitomizes systemic, institutional injustice and discrimination, further dividing a nation already strained politically and economically”, wrote Iqbal. In conclusion, he said that: “The binary and divisive labels of ‘Razakar’ and ‘Muktijoddha’ will not deter youths from pursuing an inclusive, fair and just society”.
Who strikes while the iron is hot?
On Monday, the Council on Foreign Relations, an American think-tank stated: “It will now be a struggle to normalize democratic politics (in Bangladesh)”. “Democrats in Bangladesh, supported by regional powers like India and Japan, as well as the United States and Europe, must work to rebuild the country’s once vibrant democracy and civil society. This work should start by ensuring the army keeps to its promise and holds elections soon, rather than clinging to power”, the comment on the in-progress coup added. It seems that, for now, the army is remaining in the background as the Nobel laureate Yunus, 84, takes charge of the country. “I fervently appeal to everybody to stay calm. Please refrain from all kinds of violence”, Yunus told Reuters.
On 7 August, a lower court revoked a corruption case against the banker-economist, which could have led to him serving 6 months behind bars if the charges were upheld. However, he told Reuters that this and the many other corruption cases against him and his Garmeenphone company – one of the largest phone service provider companies in Bangladesh – are all bogus and Hasina’s doing. “His (Yunus) public profile in Bangladesh earned him the hostility of Hasina”, an AFP report states. Another corruption case target from Hasina’s years is her main political opponent, the leader of the opposition BNP, Khaleda Zia – the opposition leader was freed from house-arrest by the President following Hasina’s exit. The two have been the only two Prime Ministers that Bangladesh has seen since 1991 and whose decades-long fierce rivalry came to be known as the “Battle of the Begums” (Queens) in Asian lingo.
Hasina may retain the crown as Bangladesh’s iron lady, but the first woman to ever lead the nation was Zia, with her BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party). Khaleda Zia is the widow of Ziaur Rahman, a former President of Bangladesh, who like Hasina’s father was assassinated while in office. Zia took charge of the BNP soon after and went on to prove her leadership skills by standing up to the military dictator Hussain Muhammad Ershad, helping to lead a movement towards democracy through the late-1980s.
After Ershad’s fall in 1990, Zia served as the Bangladeshi PM from 1991 to 1996, after-which Hasina took over before being defeated by Zia to come back in power in 2001 and stay in office until the winter of 2006. After 2009 when Hasina came to power as the PM, Zia and her party were progressively suppressed by the government, to the point where BNP was forced to start boycotting elections. However, the post-Hasina era has indeed opened new possibilities for the BNP, but for the sons of the Begums –
opportunity remains tricky.
Hasina’s son has already cleared the air on his future, or anyone from his family, in Bangladeshi politics through his vocal rants on television since Sheikh Hasina fled the country, where Tarique Rahman, Zia’s son, and his future in the country’s politics remains controversial. Rahman, the acting chairman of the BNP, has been a fugitive since 2011 following his self-imposed exile in London. He was a key suspect in the 2004 Dhaka grenade attack, which had left 24 dead and over 500 people injured – including Hasina. Following the accusation, Rahman was later convicted with 37 others and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2018 – where Hasina’s efforts to extradite him from the UK failed. However, the BNP’s Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in a late evening press briefing on Monday announced the return of Zia’s son. “You all know that our leader, Tarique Rahman, has been unjustly exiled abroad due to false cases. He has fully supported this (student) movement, and we have taken steps to bring him back to the country immediately. Insha’Allah, we will be successful”, stated the BNP leader – as reported by The Business Standard.
Only time will tell if Tarique, who has largely remained out of the public eye – except for his video calls into party meetings, has a future in Bangladeshi politics. However, the BNP via both Rahman and Alamgir have pronounced their desire to have elections as soon as possible. “The interim government must arrange election within three months”, said Alamgir at a BNP rally – adding that the efforts of the anti-quota student movement to overthrow Hasina have brought the BNP great joy and they have the BNP’s complete solidarity and support. The Business Standard report also quoted the 76-year-old former agriculture, civil aviation and tourism minister appealing to his party workers to be enduring in the near future. “We need to utilise this victory and have to be patient”, he urged.
