Bangladesh’s Interim Govt Struggles To Stem Nation’s Long-Held Grievances – Analysis

By Ahammad Foyez

In the three weeks sinceSheikh Hasina fledBangladesh, prompting euphoria in the student-led movement that ousted her, the country appears to be tipping toward anarchy, with the daunting task of mapping a return to democracy stymied by ongoing protestsand score-settling.

Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel laureate appointed to lead an interim government on Aug. 8, has asked Bangladeshis to rein in their frustrations and give him time to address their grievances, amid an unsettling deterioration of law and order.

“You have accumulated many sorrows and troubles over the last 16 years. We understand that. But if you don’t let us work, we cannot heal your sorrows,” he said in an address to the nation on Sunday.

Government offices, police stations, courtrooms, and universities – institutions deeply politicized during Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year tenure – are scenes of near-daily mayhem in the nation’s capital.

Bystanders have thrown shoes and rotten eggsat ex-ministers and former officials of the Hasina administration brought in for court hearings after being arrested for various charges, including murder linked to the hundreds killed in civil unrest in July and August.

Elsewhere, groups of people have been barging into local government offices and forcing workers to resign, said Faruq Faisel, who heads the country’s leading civil rights group, Ain-O-Salish Kendra. The marauders slap office workers who resist them and indulge in vandalism while they are at it.

It’s unclear if the agitators are student activists, members of opposition parties, or mere opportunists. Regardless, their actions are intolerable, Faisel said.

“Such harassment of detainees is unacceptable. It shows a clear violation of human rights,” he said. “There are many incidents of forcing heads of different institutions, including educational institutions, to resign from their posts. These incidents are not acceptable.”

Meanwhile, many police are still absent from duty, evidently fearing reprisals for their role in bloody civil unrest that accompanied Hasina’s downfall.

Apreliminary reportby the U.N.’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights put the number killed at “more than 600.”

Nearly 400 were killed in the three weeks before Hasina fled on Aug. 5, just hours before an angry mob invaded her official residence. Another 250 people died in the following 24 hours, according to the report.

“The number of reported killings in revenge attacks since that time still remains to be determined,” it said.

Yunus urges to stop harassment

Yunus, the microfinance pioneer chosen by students, political parties and other stakeholders to head the interim government, on Sunday urged citizens not to harass or force university teachers and others to resign and to stop attacking people on the court premises.

“The glory and potential of the student revolution will be dimmed with these activities, and the efforts to build a new Bangladesh will also be disrupted,” Yunus, whose title is chief advisor, said in an address to the nation.x

Yunus also appealed to various groups to stop protesting in the streets and near his office, and instead submit their demands to his administration in writing.

“Since our assumption of office, rallies are being held every day in the secretariat, around my office, in different parts of the city,” he said.

“Give us your demands in writing. We are not your opposition party. We will do whatever is lawfully required. But do not surround us on these important days and hinder our work.”

Last week, Yunus had to apologize to foreign diplomats after arriving two hours late for a meeting because, he said, protesters surrounding his house had prevented him from leaving.

On Sunday, at least 30 people were injured in clashes between students and members of a paramilitary group called Ansar in the capital.

Following the clash, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police banned all meetings, rallies, processions and protests near the chief adviser’s government residence and offices until further notice.

‘Expectations from us are high’

Last week, catastrophic floods battered eastern Bangladesh, adding to the challenges the interim government is facing. Up to 4.5 million people were affected, according to the Associated Press news agency.

“I am saying today’s words in memory of those who have died, those who have fallen ill or those who have lost everything, who are living in misery due to the terrible floods,” he said.

Yunus sought public support in the nation-rebuilding process, adding that his administration had taken the reins only a little more than two weeks earlier.

“We understand that your expectations from us are high. We are determined to fulfill this expectation,” he said.

“Despite the long absence of democracy, 15 years of fascist rule left us with a mountain of challenges in almost every area. But we are ready to accept this challenge.”

Hasina resigned as prime minister on Aug. 5 and fled the country following a student protest that became a mass movement demanding she step down.

What began as peaceful protests against extensive quotas in civil service jobs disintegrated intodeadly clasheswhen police and supporters of 76-year-old Hasina’s Awami League party joined the fray in an attempt to quell the student demonstrations.

Analysts had said the protest movement had broadened into an indictment of Hasina’s nearly 15 consecutive years at the helm of the South Asian nation, a reign marked, they said, by the crushing of dissent in a bid to consolidate power.

Since the interim administration took power, more than 50 cases of murder have been filed against Hasina, her family, party leaders and ex-government officials.

The ex-PM had also damaged state institutions such as the judiciary and the bureaucracy by politicizing them and appointing party loyalists to positions within these bodies, analysts said.

Corruption was widespread amid the top echelons of the armed forces and the ministries, several investigative agencies said.

Three days after Hasina decamped to India, the nation’s presidentswore inthe interim government, which included citizens from diverse fields and two students who had become familiar to Bangladeshis during the weeks of protests.

According to the country’s constitution, an election must be held within 90 days of parliament being dissolved. But few expect the country to be ready for elections by early November.

Timing of election

Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, secretary-general of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, on Monday said the party had expected Yunus during his address a day earlier to say when general elections might be held, but he did not.

“We expected that the government would give the election roadmap, but it is not easy for them to give it in such a short time,” he said.

Yunus could not say whether elections would be called by November either.

“Everyone is interested to know about one thing: when our government will leave,” the 84-year-old microcredit pioneer said.

“The timing of the elections is a political decision, not ours. It is up to the people to decide when we should go. We will leave when they direct us to do so,” he said during his address on Sunday.

Restoring law and order and reforming the Election Commission was an essential part of his administration’s work, he said.

In addition, a “free, fair and participatory election” also required reforms to the judiciary and the electoral system more broadly.

One civil society group leader said that Bangladesh had never faced a situation such as the current one.

“What actually happened was unprecedented and no one was prepared for it. So it is very normal that the administration will take some time,” said Badiul Alam Majumdar, who is with a Dhaka-based civil society group.

Hasina had “ruined” all the democratic institutions in the country, Badiul said.

“The new government has started and has already taken several good initiatives. The government needs time for these reforms, but how much time and how these reforms are being considered should be discussed [with all stakeholders],” he said.

Among the Yunus administration’s first actions was the removal of the governor and other top officials of the country’s central bank, Bangladesh Bank.

Ahsan H.Mansur, the new bank governor, told Bloomberg News on Friday that Bangladesh had begun talks with the International Monetary Fund for an additional U.S. $3 billion as it recovers from recent political turmoil, and to repay debt.

“We’re in crisis management,” the governor told Bloomberg. “We’re only paying what we’re asked to – the minimum.”

Bloomberg said that according to Ahsan, Bangladesh has an immediate payment obligation of about $2 billion to foreign suppliers of critical services.

The country’s anti-graft commission, meanwhile, although not seeing any personnel changes, has been able to initiate action it couldn’t before, officials said.

It has launched more than 50 investigations over the last week, an Anti-Corruption Commission official told BenarNews.

“Work that could not be done due to various reasons is now easier to do under the changed circumstances,” ACC Secretary Khorsheda Yasmeen said.

“Complaints are coming about hundreds of ministers, MPs, bureaucrats, police and businessmen, and we are investigating.”