It has been nearly two months since the resignation of Sheikh Hasina from the Prime Minister’s Office of Bangladesh. The months since have been a tumultuous time for the country, as protestors have been demanding equality in job recruitment. This has culminated in a new interim government created by Army Chief General Waker-uz-Zaman.
Student demonstrations that erupted earlier this July called for an end to a quota system set in place for civil service recruitment that particularly benefited the children and grandchildren of war veterans from the Bangladesh War of Independence. University students, struggling to find jobs as a result of this partiality, pushed for the abolition of quota systems within employment to establish a more objective and democratic system of job recruitment.
“People thought this was unfair because students are studying hard and paying money for college, so jobs should be given based on skill instead of relationships,” commented Avanti Islam, a first-year Bengali-American student at NJIT.
Angered over this discrimination, the students took to strikes and sit-in protests that affected traffic flowing in and out of Dhaka, the nation’s capital. A few days later, Prime Minister Hasina made comments about the students’ demands to get rid of the quota, which sparked outrage among the students. Though the leading political party, the Awami League, called on their student wing to offer a ‘fitting’ reply to students, it would only be a day until clashes and violence broke out between the party’s student wing and anti-quota protestors.
What followed next was a period of continued violence between the pro- and anti-quota factions, leading to 200 deaths and many more injuries. Though security and law enforcement in the form of the police and army were ordered to maintain a curfew, it only incited further violence. By the time most of the quotas were lifted, it was too late – students demanded the resignation of Hasina who, by this point, had been in power for 15 years. Following a march in July of this year — one so powerful that even the army couldn’t sequester it — towards the prime minister’s residence, Hasina resigned and fled to neighboring India.
In response, Army Chief General Waker-uz-Zaman assembled a multitude of political parties to form an interim government in an attempt to stabilize the country’s political climate. This reaction has caused many to contemplate the future of the nation as it sits at a crossroads looking into the future. “They can stop the corruption and return money that was stolen and make it so that everyone has to abide by the laws,” Avanti explained as one of the government’s potential responses to the uprisings. “Another possibility is that they are also greedy, and they care more about keeping their newfound power than about reforming the country.”
First-year Computer Science major Alyssa Cristobal, commented that “it might be better for Bangladesh in the long term.” We can expect either a continuation of authoritarian rule in Bangladesh or the resurgence of a democratic procession. But one thing for certain is that this event will leave its mark in the nation’s history.
When asked about their thoughts on Hasina’s old government, students explained that “the old government was very corrupt and very selfish” and that “the government was making [Bangladesh] even poorer by wasting so much money.” Regarding democratic freedom, Islam commented that “it was pretty strict because they would arrest people who disagreed with them.” With such agendas, the country has slowly shifted away from democratic ideals to a more authoritarian autocracy over the last 15 years. However, with the “revolution”— as some people have called it — citizens and foreign spectators alike look on with high hopes for a new age for the country.
