Economic challenges, rising inflation, repression of political opponents and journalists, manipulation of elections, and a crackdown on dissent fueled anger against authoritarian Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, forcing her to resign and flee the country in the face of protests
On August 5, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled Bangladesh after resigning, as her crackdown on protesters left hundreds dead. The protests began against job quotas before snowballing into a movement for her ouster. In a dramatic turn of events, protesters climbed atop a statue of Hasina’s father and Bangladesh’s founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The protesters chiseled away at the head of the statue amid celebrations over the end of Hasina’s 15-year rule. Hasina ruled for 20 of the last 30 years as leader of the party she inherited from her father, who was killed with most of her family in a coup in 1975.
In a televised address, Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman announced the formation of an interim government after breaking the news of Hasina’s resignation. Hasina, 76, was reelected in January 2024 for a record fifth term. She was already the world’s longest-serving female leader, whose supporters credited her for Bangladesh’s transformation from a poor nation to one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies.
In the run-up to the polls, Hasina faced a growing pushback over her focus on mega infrastructure projects and misplaced priorities amid rising inflation that took the shine off what was once described as Bangladesh’s economic miracle. In August 2023, food inflation hit a decade-high of 13% even as it cooled globally. Bangladesh, meanwhile, accumulated debt, and Hasina ignored education, health and clamped down on freedom of expression, and presided over rights abuses. The foreign debt doubled since 2016, forcing Bangladesh to take a $3.3bn International Monetary Fund loan in 2023. Bangladesh’s foreign reserves declined, prompting credit rating agency Fitch and financial market indices creator S&P to revise the outlook on Bangladesh’s debt negatively.
Question marks remained over Bangladesh’s ability to maintain its growth rate. The country remained dependent on imports amid a failure to diversify the economy. Bangladesh’s over six percent annual gross domestic product growth was largely achieved on the back of the garment sector. Accounting for about 85% of Bangladesh’s exports, the sector was the world’s second-largest after China. The garment sector generated millions of jobs, helping reduce the poverty rate by half to about 20% since 2008.
Exclusion From Development
In August 2023, an Asia Foundation survey confirmed brewing public discontent. Only 25% of respondents felt Bangladesh was heading in the right economic direction. Soaring prices angered the poorer sections of society for whom mega-projects made little sense as they find it difficult to make ends meet. The projects increasingly came to define Bangladesh’s growing inequality. Sheikh Hasina’s showpiece 11km elevated Dhaka expressway, which soars over a slum near its start, was, for instance, off-limits for an average citizen’s mode of transportation—motorbikes and auto rickshaws. The country’s poor felt excluded from the country’s development.
Corruption fuelled anger and led to previous anti-government protests. In July 2024, students took to the streets against public sector quotas amid high youth unemployment and stagnant job growth in the private sector. Tens of thousands of students joined the nationwide protests, the first major ones since Sheikh Hasina won a fourth straight term in January, blocking highways and rail links. Riot police barged into university campuses to quell protests.
Prolonged repression under the authoritarian regime since 2009 was the underlying reason for the protests that ultimately led to Hasina’s downfall. The quota issue was the spark that lit the fires of discontent with economic and political roots. The quotas were seen to be unfair. They guaranteed jobs to the descendants of freedom fighters, a euphemism for the loyalists of Hasina’s Awami League.
Sullied Legacy
Rising inflation, the poor job market for educated youth graduates, and corruption exacerbated anger against the party that led Bangladesh’s fight for independence in 1971. The lack of participatory and transparent polls since 2008 compromised the legitimacy of Hasina’s government. A generation of young Bangladeshis have seen just a single-party rule. All frustrations were directed at her Awami League in the absence of accountability, fair elections, and widespread graft.
In 2012, the World Bank withdrew from a $1.2bn loan agreement for a bridge over the Padma River over allegations of corruption. Asian Development Bank and Japan International Cooperation Agency followed suit, prompting Hasina to announce the self-funding of the bridge despite Bangladesh’s lack of experience in executing mega projects without the backing of multilateral donors. The project cost rose to almost three times the initial estimate of $1.2bn amid the devaluation of Bangladeshi currency Taka.
Apart from faltering economy and misgovernance, Hasina continued to unlevel the political playing field. Her crackdown on political opponents ahead of the 2024 polls followed a pattern of unfair electoral processes. The economic mismanagement coincided with the weakening of democracy and institutions. Hasina increasingly resorted to repression against journalists, rights activists, and political opponents.
Opposition Locked Up
The leaders of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) were slapped with cases on flimsy grounds and arrested. Sheikh Hasina refused to hand over power to a caretaker government for free and fair elections and promoted the BNP to boycott the polls. In 2011, Sheikh Hasina amended the constitution to abolish a provision for a non-partisan caretaker government to supervise fair elections despite the BNP’s opposition. BNP boycotted the election that followed in 2014. In the run-up to the 2018 polls, BNP leader Khaleda Zia was jailed for five years for corruption.
Like the previous polls, Sheikh Hasina appeared adamant about winning another term by hook or by crook. She effectively turned Bangladesh into a one-party state. Low voter turnout and allegations of manipulation marred the polls in 2014 and 2018 when Hasina was reelected for the second time.
Geoffrey Macdonald, a United States Institute of Peace visiting expert on South Asia, wrote Bangladesh lost dignity and credibility at home and abroad. He added Bangladesh’s diplomats became increasingly busy fending off criticisms from international groups over the human rights record instead of securing foreign investment and negotiating deals to for Bangladesh’s progress.
The opposition now needs to rise to the occasion and promote reconciliation learning lessons from Awami League’s missteps and help Bangladesh’s return to democracy. This may not be easy as Sheikh Hasina accelerated Bangladesh’s slide towards authoritarianism plunging BNP into disarray through relentless slapping of cases.
Undoing The Damage
Ahead of the 2018 polls, Bangladesh’s parliament approved a bill to regulate online publishing and social media. The vague clauses of the legislation provided for prison terms of up to 14 years for those spreading ‘propaganda’ about the 1971 war, which led to Bangladesh’s creation. Another clause outlawed what was described as ‘aggressive or frightening’ content.
Sheikh Hasina justified the legislation saying it was important to prevent radicalism and pornography amid fears that it could be weaponised against journalists. Newspaper editors who published unfavourable articles were charged repeatedly with sedition and defamation. One of the editors faced over 80 cases at one point.
In August 2018, photographer Shahidul Alam was arrested for ‘spreading false information’ after he supported students protesting against Dhaka’s unsafe traffic. Facebook asked some users to delete the ‘offending posts’ even as the social media company said it should not have happened. This came after the Hasina regime orchestrated complaints to Facebook about posts criticizing its handling of the protests.
Hasina forced Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha to resign while he was abroad in 2017 accusing him of corruption after the Supreme Court nullified a 2014 constitutional amendment that made it easier for the government to dismiss judges. Sinha’s autobiography published a year after his unceremonous ouster accused the ruling Awami League of attempting to intimidate judges.
An ‘anti-drugs campaign’ in 2018 claimed around 200 lives. The government claimed most of the deaths were caused by resistance to arrests or crossfire. A recording by the family of one of the victims suggested police shot him with his hands tied in custody. The opposition accused the government of using the crackdown to kill opponents.
Global Concern
Growing global concern over Sheikh Hasina’s authoritarianism prompted American visa restrictions on an unspecified number of Bangladeshis for undermining the election process. The US said the move reflected ‘concerns where we see actions that undermine democracy and human rights in Bangladesh’. In 2021, the US slapped sanctions on a Bangladesh police unit accused of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.
The authoritarianism has sullied Bangladesh’s image which improved significantly thanks to the global attention it drew for its seeming rapid economic growth and sheltering of over a million refugees from neighbouring Myanmar. The country appeared to be scripting a success story after embracing electoral democracy in the 1990s following military rule.
The return to democracy coincided with the pulling of 15 million people out of poverty between 2006 and 2021. The overall poverty rate was cut in half since 2000 as manufacturing flourished in the world’s eighth most populous country, whose slide into authoritarianism threatened to reverse the gains and spawn unrest with ramifications for the wider region.
