Hasina’s Troubled Legacy

On Monday, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina reacted as she had so many other times when faced with anti-government resistance: She vowed to use a heavy hand, undeterred by the officials who insisted it was no longer tenable for police to use force against protesters after a day in which nearly 100 people had died in civil unrest.

ProtestThe night before Hasina resigned, Bangladesh’s army chief told her that he would no longer implement her lockdown orders. Soon afterward, Hasina’s son convinced her to step down. She boarded a helicopter with her sister and flew to India. It’s fitting that the final act of Hasina—once a global democracy icon—was to double down on the autocratic policies that defined her final years in power.

In a 1975 coup, Bangladesh’s military assassinated Hasina’s father, independence hero Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and killed most of her family. Hasina, who was abroad at the time, vowed to pursue a political career. In 1981, she returned to a country under military rule as the newly elected leader of the Awami League, the party that fought for Bangladesh’s independence.

As opposition leader, Hasina advocated forcefully for the restoration of democracy while condemning the military’s excesses. In November 1990, she helped draft a multiparty declaration calling on Bangladesh’s last military leader, Hussain Muhammad Ershad, to resign; he stepped down the next month.

Hasina lost national elections in 1991 to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which intensified a growing rivalry between the Awami League and the BNP.

Khaleda Zia, the head of the BNP, is the widow of Ziaur Rahman, a military officer who played a role in the 1975 coup and ascended to the presidency in 1977; he was assassinated in 1981. Hasina won elections in 1996 and lost again to Zia in 2001. Both politicians spent time in jail in 2007 and 2008, when a military-backed interim government held power. On Tuesday, Zia—who was convicted on corruption charges in 2018—was released from house arrest.

Hasina won national elections in 2008 and took office in January 2009, where she remained until Monday. In those 15 years, her party ultimately cracked down hard on the political opposition, and increasingly on dissent more broadly, using arrests, enforced disappearances, media censorship, and digital security laws to suppress criticism of the government.

Hasina was reelected three times after that, but the polls were often seen as not free or fair. Still, she retained a large support base, thanks to patronage but also real governance successes—including Bangladesh’s much-ballyhooed economic growth story.

Many of Hasina’s backers pointed to democratic achievements, but most warrant caveats. Women’s economic empowerment helped fuel Bangladesh’s growth, but the overall status of women remained shaky in the country, which has one of the world’s highest child marriage rates. Hasina cracked down on extremists who attacked religious minorities and free speech advocates, but her scorched-earth counterterrorism tactics drew concern from human rights groups.

Ultimately, Hasina’s mission to implement her father’s democratic vision was eclipsed by something very different: a vow, borne out of her tragic past, to become the strongest possible leader and to protect herself from all perceived threats. She amassed immense power, and that led to autocratic tendencies and brutality.

On Tuesday, Bangladesh’s president announced that Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus will lead an interim government; he is perhaps the country’s most famous citizen. Leaders of the movement that ousted Hasina hope that democracy can now be restored, but that may be a tall order. The BNP, which will likely play a prominent role in the future, has a poor track record on rights and democracy.

Furthermore, Bangladesh’s army, which has largely stayed out of politics since 2008, is now overseeing the formation of the interim government. Emboldened Islamist extremists, exploiting the unrest, staged attacks against the Hindu community this week. Democracy in Bangladesh may be tough to resuscitate.

By Michael Kugelman,

Foreign Policy, South Asia Brief


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