The fall of a dictator is always destined. So it was with Sheikh Hasina, who ruled the country for the last 16 years, destroyed all public institutions, and became an absolute authoritarian.
In the process, she, like all authoritarian rulers, distanced herself and her party from the people and made herself and her party objects of hatred. In the past 12 years, she turned the country鈥檚 democracy into a managed affair, staging three managed elections in 2014, 2018 and 2024. While the opposition bore the brunt of her authoritarian government, the commoners found their rights eroded and denied. The Hasina regime denied people鈥檚 rights to free speech, rights to assembly, rights to dissent and other democratic rights while rampant corruption and social injustices turned the country into a mess. All fronts of her party, especially the student wing, became vicious and unruly and destroyed the academic environment of the seats of education.
If anyone asks what led to the fall of the Hasina regime, the answer will be its authoritarian arrogance, its abuse of power and its reluctance to listen to and address people鈥檚 legitimate concerns. When people have for long been aggrieved by the authoritarian character of the Hasina regime, the pent-up anger transformed into a volcano during the student movement, which peacefully sought reforms to a discriminatory quota system.
Sheikh Hasina, some of her ministers and her party people pushed the peaceful protest into violence, killed about 400 students and people, and, all the while, blamed 鈥榤iscreants and terrorists鈥�, terms that she often used, for the vandalism, which, in most cases, was done by her party cadres.
The regime failed to listen to people鈥檚 voices and concerns and to address people鈥檚 grievances that only mounted. The killing of students and ordinary people was the nail she invited on her coffin. Her regime has fallen.
With this, we enter into a new era where we should focus, as the protesting students and people have always spoken, on reforms to the system, which appears to have become anti-people.
The next government, an interim one, needs to first focus on the law and order situation so that nothing bad happens. It is understandable that there is much pent-up anger among people against some Awami League men. The student coordinators, who are the heroes of this movement, must now speak up so that the country does not descend into chaos. Further bloodshed must be avoided. The country is still wet with the bloods of Abu Sayeeds and Mugdhos. We must remember and honour those who lost their lives in this struggle. Their sacrifices will never be forgotten, and their legacy will inspire us to continue fighting for a better future.
Talks of reforms to the constitution and the system have already been in the air. The university teachers鈥� network has also forwarded a framework for the future Bangladesh. We all need to understand how a prime minister turns into a dictator, as it happened with Sheikh Hasina. It was only because all powers were vested in her and there were no independent institutions of accountability that could restrain her. Similarly, her party did not have any vestiges of democracy in it.
It is necessary to put an end to this. The reforms, therefore, need to ensure that the prime minister, or any other individual, does not hold absolute power and the institutions of accountability can work independently. The judiciary must also be completely free.听
Political parties must also have democratic structure inside the parties. The parties need to ensure that they do not sell party tickets to the highest bidders, the practice that turned the parliament into a businessmen鈥檚 club. We must not forget that a businessman, whose lifelong aim is to make money, is highly unlikely to work for people鈥檚 welfare when they become parliamentarians. The business elite, we need to remember, has over the past two decades come to dominate the parliament 鈥� businessmen accounted for about 17.5 per cent of the members of parliament in the first parliament in 1973鈥�1975 and the figure increased to a whopping 70 per cent in 2024. The takeover of political power by the business elite has resulted in a political settlement that is disproportionately tilted away from democratic values.
It is, therefore, necessary that the political parties ensure the participation of candidates from all professions. We cannot afford to forget that what went wrong in Bangladesh was democracy that shrunk the space for freedom and gravely worsened the rights situation.
We must not also forget the old adage: anything that affects all must be approved by all. People must not be reduced to occasional voters. Democracy is what we want and democracy is what we deserve.
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Monwarul Islam is an assistant editor at 抖阴精品.
