Students toppled the prime minister, but what next for Bangladesh?

Bangladesh’s student protesters are celebrating victory in the so-called ‘Gen Z revolution’. After just over a month, they have managed to topple prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who critics say has ruled the country with an iron fist for the past 15 years.

Hasina has resigned and fled to neighbouring India, in an exit that seems abrupt to many. Her initial response to the protests was one of repression and police violence – typical of her autocratic leadership – which led to the deaths of almost 200 people in recent weeks.

The protests began last month after the High Court reinstated a quota system for government jobs, which meant less than half of roles were assigned on merit alone, with a third reserved for relatives of freedom fighters in the 1971 war for independence from Pakistan. The quota system had previously been scrapped in 2018.

Now that the country is in the hands of the opposition, students and an interim caretaker government, Bangladeshis are daring to imagine what the future looks like in one of the largest democracies in the world.

But how did they get here? Why were the students so angry – and so organised? And what’s next for them? To better understand, openDemocracy spoke with Md. Shafiqul Islam, a researcher and a former student of the University of Dhaka, and Farah Kabir, director for ActionAid in Bangladesh, who have been following the events on the ground. 

These interviews have been edited for length and for clarity.

openDemocracy: To help our international readers understand better, please can you explain this controversial quota system that seemingly sparked these protests? Why is it so disliked and what is the longer history and context? 

Shafiqul Islam: Some 56% of government jobs were reserved for certain quotas. The breakdown was 30% reserved for descendents of freedom fighters, 10% for women, 10% for people living in poorer districts, 5% for ethnic minorities, and 1% for people living with disabilities. 

Our education system has improved over the past decade and more graduates are now coming to the job market. Many of these young people aspire for government jobs for various reasons, including supposed financial stability and long-term employment opportunities. Some would even spend years preparing for a series of annual exams in the hopes that good results would help them to secure a role with the government.

In 2018, there was a considerable amount of agitation against the quotas system. After some attempts at suppressing protesters with moderate force, the government scrapped the quota system for upper-level government jobs, which are higher paid and higher ranking, and are usually called ‘first- and second-class jobs’. It still applied for ‘third- and fourth-level’ jobs. 

But then this year, that decision was overturned by the High Court in response to a petition from ex-freedom fighters and veterans. This created a fresh problem, and a fresh round of protests. There were new faces on the streets, a new generation, and more energy. 

The government again deployed repressive tactics. Almost 200 protesters were killed – and the protest movement soon morphed into a revolution, a fight for justice and accountability.

Farah Kabir: Young people considered the quota system discriminatory and politically motivated, particularly the 30% reserved for family and friends of freedom fighters. Meanwhile, the education system produced hundreds of thousands of general graduates, failing to meet the demands of the job market and creating expectations of white-collar jobs. 41% of young people are not in education, employment, or training. 

In addition, students and common people were frustrated because of the highly corrupt practices in public service, shrinking spaces for freedom of speech and expression, and growing economic hardship with a high inflation rate. All these aspects created a background for the outburst and toppled the government.

openDemocracy: Prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s government has often been credited with overseeing vast economic progress in the country, lifting Bangladeshis out of poverty. It even seems like she even started her political career as a pro-democracy icon. But in recent years, she’s been accused of becoming an autocrat, cracking down on all opposition and violating human rights. 

What went wrong exactly? Why did she become so controversial? 

Farah Kabir: Absolute state structures and undemocratic practices of state institutions, including the political parties, made her an absolute ruler. There were examples of gross violation of human rights, particularly when her government was accused of suppressing free speech and opposition voices. 

She has been accused of curtailing democratic practices even though she launched a few social protection programmes for the people living in poverty and exclusion and is credited for restraining extremist militant groups and extremist ideology. Gradually suppression of opposition voices inside and outside of her party made her an absolute ruler often disregarding the issues of common people.   

While under her leadership Bangladesh made significant economic progress, reporting 7.2% GDP growth in 2022, it primarily benefited the wealthiest 10% of the population, who now control 41% of the total income. 

Shafiqul Islam: As a growing economy, Bangladesh saw the expansion of a kind of state that has considerable resources and strength at its disposal, which inevitably included technologies of surveillance, lethal forces, and other forms of persecution. She kept a close-knit circle, approved political positions for a few close allies and cracked down on opposition, with people increasingly feeling that the quota system fed into this corruption. 

Society was split into two groups of people, with huge differences between them: a vast underclass and a growing urban middle class. The new surveillance and control tactics were a source of concern for both the middle class and the working class, so the main radical impulse of this movement was against authoritarian tendencies of the government. At least, this was the rhetoric that united the middle class that provided a bulk of energy for the movement. That impulse should be preserved. 

But also, this movement is much more than a Gen Z revolution. The ‘new generation’ of people that we are celebrating goes beyond Gen Z and encompasses a new kind of time and politics. For instance, a lot of investment has been put into IT, manufacturing, and other industries in the last decades, creating a new class of people. A complicated unity has now formed between various factions, including some popular intellectuals and people of all walks of life that went out on the streets to fight the police force. 

While demographics changed and new communication technologies emerged, providing a different kind of public space for people to organise, politics and the government remained somewhat old and repressive. There was no meaningful way to address any of this injustice, so the street often became the place to contest some key tenets of Hasina’s government.

openDemocracy: Now that the prime minister has fled the country and the students have won, what’s next for this revolution? Are you concerned that there might be a caretaker military government and what does this mean for human rights and democracy going forward?

Shafiqul Islam: This is the most important question right now. There have been some developments in the past 48 hours. Students met with government leaders yesterday and were assured that Mohammad Yunus, Bangladesh’s Nobel laureate, will head an interim government. Further good news for the students is that the panel of individuals they proposed to help in this interim period are now also being appointed to work alongside Yunus. 

But important questions remain what kind of activities or reforms will be undertaken by this new government. Corruption, mass unemployment and climate crisis all remain issues for the new government to deal with in the now unstable nation.

Governance is a complicated phenomenon for a country of this scale and we will need all of our efforts to keep it together, especially with remaining in touch with the large groups of people outside the capital who’ve long been excluded from local politics. 

When we are thinking about the future, we also need to think about the continuous nature of any revolution and how it must keep responding to the will of the people. 

In the past few unstable days, sadly there has been some sporadic looting and vandalism, and some violence targeted at those loyal to Hasina’s government, but on the whole, the streets look more peaceful. 

Citizen groups are forming novel kinds of activism including neighbourhood watch groups based on phone apps to ensure a sense of security and to curb misinformation in this crucial moment of politics. I have just seen a small clip of a video where many more people are on the street celebrating, those from ordinary working class backgrounds, mostly women, keen to protect their shops and houses at this transitional moment. A descent to ordinary from extraordinary moments is a crucial part of social life as anthropologist Veena Das would say. 

Farah Kabir: The likelihood of a caretaker military government appears to be low as the army has not given any such indication and has been working closely with the president and the leaders and organisers of the student movement in forming an interim government. The last military-backed caretaker government in Bangladesh was from 2007-2008 and was a result of a direct takeover by the then chief of army staff. 

It is unprecedented in the history of the country, and perhaps in most parts of the world, that representatives of students and young people are directly deciding who will be the members of the interim government of our country. They have made it abundantly clear that they will not accept any other proposition from any entity, whether the military or the president. 

Currently, power and leadership are held by the coordination committee of Anti-Discrimination Student Movements on behalf of the people. They are providing updates to the public through social and other media statements. As the situation improves, students and people are managing the situation by ensuring the security of people and assets, controlling traffic, and providing other emergency services through voluntary activism. 

The beauty of people’s power and democracy is being unleashed. We hope the human rights situation will improve very quickly as the interim government takes power today or tomorrow. Democracy and democratic rules will soon be established with a major reformation of the constitution and institutions. 

The mass uprising has brought about a transformation in the mindset of the masses and students. This transformed mindset will be the main spirit in building the new Bangladesh of the future, ensuring human rights and democracy.