IN MID-JULY, students in Bangladesh took to the streets to protest an illogical quota system which was meant to restrict their employment opportunities in the public sector. The government response to this peaceful, democratic movement has been brutal and cruel. In order to squelch this spontaneous student mobilisation, it launched a crackdown which is nothing but a euphemism for mass slaughter.
The state鈥檚 security forces opened fire on unarmed students and murdered more than 200 of them in broad daylight in the streets of their own country. Later many bullet-injured students have died while receiving treatment in hospitals, and many of them are still in excruciating pain in healthcare facilities. Innumerable young students have been arrested from hospitals. Needless to say, fearing arrests and police harassment, thousands of protesting students chose not to go to hospitals and are suffering without proper treatment.
Now almost the entire student population of Bangladesh is susceptible to police profiling, police stops and police harassment. Residential areas have been raided and hundreds of students have been snatched away from the laps of their parents and put in detention. Security forces have been entering people鈥檚 houses to nab and harass students indiscriminately. The sight of teenage students being handcuffed and remanded in police custody is unbearable.
Students who are not arrested or hospitalised are hiding to avoid police apprehension and subsequent horrors. At the same time, ruling party musclemen, who left the campuses in the face of resistance, are again in the streets brandishing rods and other weapons to intimidate students and ordinary people.
These students are our little brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, nephews, nieces or neighbours. Given the population size of Bangladesh, here we are talking about tens of millions of high school, college and university going students. In other words, the government is waging a brutal war against the entire population of the country.
After butchering the protesting students, the government shut down communication networks, imposed a curfew on the population, deployed the army and gave security forces shoot-at-sight orders. Resilient Bangladeshis in Bangladesh and in the diaspora seemed to have found ways to share 鈥� through creative ways 鈥� some information about what was going on in the country during the communication shutdown. We 鈥� Bangladeshis living abroad 鈥� felt really concerned about all in Bangladesh. Personally, I have been feeling frozen with fear for the happenings in my beloved country.
Now people in Bangladesh are gradually having access to the Internet and sharing images of what happened during the crackdown. I saw part of a video clip and couldn鈥檛 bring myself to watch more. It鈥檚 gruesome. What is being revealed exposes the ugly face of the government.
But what has inspired students to protest and defy the fear of death in the streets of Bangladesh?
And more importantly, why does this government not hesitate to kill them?
Since it came to power in early 2009, the current Awami League government has been getting away with repressing opposition people and stifling their voices at will. The last three general elections in Bangladesh 鈥� in 2014, 2018 and on 7 January 2024 鈥� were staged and non-participatory and were marked by voter suppression and intimidation as well as nocturnal ballot stuffing and false counting (electronic or otherwise). Millions of young men and women 鈥� most of whom are students 鈥� have observed these malpractices. They have seen elections but have never had the opportunity to cast their votes. They have been robbed of their democratic rights.
Logically, these students have reached the conclusion that their consent or democratic seal of approval via voting does not have any role in choosing their government. Equally, those in the government know well that they lack democratic legitimacy because they have not been voted into power by the people of Bangladesh. They are not accountable to those they rule.
The absence of a contractual relationship between the ruler and the ruled removed the government鈥檚 sense of accountability to the population and thus vitiated the political system. Therefore, killings in the streets make the government unpopular, but it still feels safe because people鈥檚 votes are not deemed necessary for it to remain in power. Given the absence of electoral democracy in present-day Bangladesh, people are not able to demonstrate their resentment through free and fair elections.
These students have seen that in the name of price hike, the government has been extorting money from citizens. Even though prices of daily necessities are beyond the reach of most Bangladeshis, an audacity to protest is met with heavy-handed government responses. While people struggle to make ends meet, they hear stories of massive corruption involving powerful people and how funds leave their country through capital flight.
Students in Bangladesh have grown up seeing the weaponization of the legal system and how the government has been using false lawsuits to harass and imprison thousands of people belonging to the opposition. They have seen how the police and the ruling party leaders have been wallowing in corruption and amassing ill-gotten wealth, while others are silenced or languish behind bars.
What has been affecting these students more directly is the mistreatment they receive at university campuses and dormitories from the members of the student wing of the ruling party. Named Chhatra League, this so-called student organisation creates a toxic environment at campuses and induces terror in ordinary students who are regularly victimised both physically and psychologically. Ordinary students from underprivileged backgrounds rely on university dormitories, as they cannot afford to stay in private accommodation. Here they face two main problems.
First, many of them find their rightful seats in dormitories occupied by Chhatra League members, some of whom are not even students. Second, ordinary students in most cases need the 鈥榖lessing鈥� of Chhatra League leaders, known as 鈥榗adres鈥� in local parlance, to access their legitimate seats. The privilege of 鈥榖lessing鈥� comes with the ignominy of 鈥榙uties鈥�. They have to do the bidding of BCL activists which includes attending political programmes at the expense of their studies and showing complete allegiance to the ruling party. Any defiance or non-compliance has dreadful consequences.
BCL activists hang around the entrance of dormitories. Next to the entrance is a guest room which is synonymous to a 鈥榯orture cell鈥� to most students. When BCL activists want to castigate or chastise ordinary students, they take them to the guest room for punishment. You may not find many Bangladeshi university students/graduates who have not experienced or heard of beatings of ordinary students by BCL activists. What is more, sexual harassment of women at the hands of ruling party men is common knowledge in present-day Bangladesh.
The conditions in which these students live and the conditions in which they see their country seem to have robbed them of any future. Eventually, they could not take it any more and took to the streets to fix their country. They have chosen to lead the way to a better Bangladesh.
The quota system in government jobs that triggered this ongoing movement is simply the tip of the iceberg.
听
Dr Md Mahmudul Hasan is professor of English language and literature, International Islamic University Malaysia.