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The Scene
After weeks of deadly student-led protests against the government, Bangladesh is at a turning point.
Embattled prime minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled Dhaka on Monday, leaving the country facing an uncertain future. Nobel-winning economist Muhammad Yunus is set to head a new interim government. Yunus called Hasina’s overthrow a “second liberation” for Bangladesh, and lauded student protestors as the next generation of leaders in an article for The Economist — promising to “enthusiastically” support their new vision for the nation.
The many young people who spearheaded the protest movement have heeded the call.
“We won’t betray the blood shed by martyrs for our cause. We will create a new democratic Bangladesh through our promise of security of life, social justice and a new political landscape,” Nahid Islam, the coordinator of the student movement said in a social media post on Tuesday.
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The View From Bangladeshi Gen Z
Muhtarizah Ebnaat, 19, told Semafor that Gen Z Bangladeshis had woken up to the “true face” of the government as the protests unfolded. But Hasina’s abrupt exit after enacting a crackdown on students represented an injustice, she said.
“I heard from my father about how previous prime ministers and important people fled the country without getting their punishment,” she said. “So her fleeing, after doing all of this, was simply not right.”
“I personally don’t know very much about [Muhammad Yunus],” Ebnaat said, referring to the incoming interim leader, “but if something doesn’t go the right way, then I’m pretty sure the whole nation will rise again.”
Another student who spoke to Semafor on condition of anonymity said he believed younger generations will determine the nation’s future, but added that he worried the power vacuum left by Hasina could be exploited by “outside actors [looking] to manufacture consent for their interventions.”
“My hope is that we’ve just gotten rid of a very dangerous government that would have led to Bangladesh’s ruin… [Student leaders] are preparing themselves for a long struggle of institutional reform, and changing the fate of the country to a better future,” he said.
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The View From Bangladeshi millenials
Bangladesh has witnessed “absolute chaos” since Hasina’s resignation, and there are reports of looting and attacks on minorities, Arpeeta Shams Mizan, 35, who is an associate law professor at the University of Dhaka told Semafor.
She said she had heard from some of her Hindu friends that they were being vigilant in their villages, with the men guarding over their families all night for fear of being attacked.
Mizan said the students who led the movement had not anticipated “this level of anarchy” and that it was premature to celebrate the idea that this was the “second liberation” of Bangladesh, as some have declared.
“I’m wary of any kind of romanticization,” she said.
Mizan suggested that some factions of the protesters who were “less politically sensitized” could back the party of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, who was freed from prison after Hasina’s ouster, instead of supporting the young people’s calls for a new political order.
“The work we need to do is not just about removing the dictator in government,” she said. It’s about reforming the country. And that can’t be done in one day, or even a week.”
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The View From The diaspora
Many young Bangladeshis living in New York City have celebrated Hasina’s departure, Ashfia Alam, co-founder of nonprofit Children of 1971, told Semafor.
“This is extremely historic for us, because a lot of people didn’t think it would happen in our lifetime,” Alam, 31, said. “Students have always been at the heart of revolution, and when the government started killing students, no one was for that.”
“The fact that there are people who literally earn only enough to eat for the day, mothers coming out to feed students, the army coming out to support them… it’s really telling of the community in Bangladesh and the Bangladeshi mentality,” she added.
Some reports have suggested that Hasina could seek political asylum in the UK. If so, it could alienate Bangladeshis living there, Saiba Haque, a 24-year-old London resident, told Semafor. Hasina’s niece, who is a member of parliament for the ruling Labour Party and a government minister, has been criticized in the past for her perceived silence on alleged human rights violations during Hasina’s tenure.
A Home Office spokesperson told Semafor that it would not comment on individual cases when asked about Hasina potentially seeking asylum.
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Notable
- Having cultivated close ties with Hasina, India is now in a tricky spot, a South Asia expert argued in The Indian Express, as the “mounting hatred against [Hasina] is bound to rub off.”
- Student protesters sought to break with Bangladesh’s past and overcome “the restrictive legacy of the 1971 liberation war,” a columnist argued in The Diplomat.