DHAKA — From rickshaw drivers angry over new fines and businesses lashing out at tax hikes, to jobless teachers hitting the streets, Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka has become a city of protest.
Rarely a day goes by without demonstrations breaking out in the teeming megalopolis of nearly 24 million, triggering traffic snarls and sometimes drawing the unwanted attention of police once loyal to ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Hasina fled to neighboring India in the wake last summer’s bloody uprising, which has given way to regular unrest in the capital, as a caretaker government retools Bangladesh’s democracy.
“This is a sign of an expanding democratic space, though initially it’s unfolding in a somewhat disorganized way,” said Bangladeshi lawyer and constitutional expert Shahdeen Malik. “What’s the alternative? Is it better if no one can raise their demands?”
Hasina has been accused of running an iron-fisted regime, her rule punctuated by murder, rights abuses, kidnappings and corruption on an eye-watering scale. Dhaka is seeking the 77-year-old’s extradition from India on a string of charges.
Critics say Hasina’s police and security forces, accused of killing hundreds of protesters last summer, routinely cracked down on freedom of expression since she returned to power in 2009.
One recent demonstration saw dozens injured in the summer uprising leave their hospital beds to demand faster and higher-quality medical care. The group poured out into Dhaka’s central Shahbag district, blocking key transport arteries for the city.
Demonstrators injured in Bangladesh’s summer uprising block traffic in a bid for better medical treatment in Dhaka on Feb. 2. (Photo by Mohubar Rahman)An adviser to the interim government, led by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, quickly promised a monthly stipend of up to 500,000 taka ($4,100) to the critically injured, while those with lesser wounds would get priority for jobs and rehabilitation.
“The accumulated frustrations of various sections of society, deprived of both genuine and often perceived rights, are now being voiced urgently, sometimes with a sense of empowerment marked by impatience and intolerance,” said Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of Transparency International Bangladesh.
“It seems they [the interim government] haven’t developed a professional, morally strong law enforcement framework to rely on, which contributes to the persistent instability,” he added.
There are no official figures, but some estimates have put the number of protests in Dhaka at more than 120 since Hasina’s fall.
The new government, which includes students who led the protests against Hasina, faces a Herculean task restoring order and getting the economy on track as the country of 171 million eyes fresh elections, possibly by year’s end.
Among the challenges is maintaining a police force long seen as an extension of Hasina’s Awami League.
Last month, primary school teachers who lost promised jobs learned that heavy-handed policing was still present in the new Bangladesh. Security forces battered the teachers with batons, water cannons and sound grenades in a bid to disperse crowds assembled not far from where injured protesters had gathered a day earlier.
“We have no other alternative but to continue [to] protest as we have been made subject to injustice,” one angry teacher told Nikkei Asia.
The government has since moved to address the teachers’ grievances, although rickshaw drivers protesting the sudden imposition of fines for charging above metered rates may be left out in the cold.
“We are unable to meet all demands during our tenure, but we are trying to address some crucial ones, including [those of] primary school teachers,” said Salehuddin Ahmed, finance adviser to the government.
A month earlier, a wave of protests from businesses erupted in response to tax hikes on more than 100 products and services, including hotels, restaurants, telecommunications and the internet, medicine, soft drinks and cigarettes.
Dhaka has been the scene of repeated protests since demonstrators ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina last August. © Getty ImagesBut not everyone is happy about this newfound enthusiasm for protest in a city where residents already struggle with rising prices, severe traffic congestion, unemployment and monsoon flooding.
“Commuting has become difficult these days with protesters everywhere in the city,” said Dhaka resident Rowson Ara, a mother who drops off and picks up her third-grade son from school.
Tensions peaked in early February, when thousands of protesters demolished the former home of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh’s independence leader and Hasina’s father, a move that triggered mob violence nationwide.
The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) expressed alarm over the lawlessness during a meeting with Yunus, who called for an end to retributive violence. “The government cannot evade responsibility for the recent incidents of vandalism, arson and unrest across the country,” the BNP said.
Asif Nazrul, a legal adviser to the government, expressed optimism that the wave of protests and violence would be temporary. “Mob rule will automatically decline when the rule of law is established in the country,” he said.
The article appeared in the asia.nikkei