The unprecedented plan comes as a political vacuum gives sidelined Islamist parties a new lease on life, raising eyebrows in the U.S. and India, where Hasina took refuge after a violent uprising ended her 15-year rule in August.
Last week, the interim government led by Nobel laureate and microcredit pioneer Muhammad Yunus banned the student wing of Hasina’s party, the Bangladesh Chhatra League. It described the influential group as a “terrorist organization” whose members took part in attacking and killing anti-government protesters during this summer’s clashes, which saw more than 700 killed and many more injured.
Days earlier, Yunus’s right-hand man Mahfuj Alam vowed that the government would block the Awami League and its allies from contesting polls tentatively set for the end of 2025.
“Those who participated in the last three elections and entered parliament through deception have misled the public, and the interim government will certainly hinder their political involvement,” Alam told reporters, in an apparent reference to voting fraud that hung over Hasina’s successive victories.
He gave few details, saying only that the measures “will have both legal and administrative dimensions, and this will become clearer as the election process begins.”
Post-Hasina Bangladesh has seen the interim government launch a major reform drive and recall diplomats appointed by the old government. Hasina is being tried in absentia for crimes against humanity, killings and enforced disappearances. Scores of her former ministers and close aides have fled or are being tried on similar charges.
A mural of Hasina in Dhaka, which was vandalized by protesters a day after her Aug. 5 resignation. © ReutersA top Awami League leader, now in hiding, slammed plans to sideline a party that long dominated Bangladeshi politics as “not only undemocratic but also a crime.”
“There is no such thing as the last word in politics,” the former minister told Nikkei Asia. “The situation might change in a short time and those who are in power now might face the music as well.”
Meanwhile, the country’s biggest Islamist party, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, which was banned by the Hasina government just days before its fall, has seen a surge in activity.
Its leader Shafiqur Rahman has made numerous public speeches and called for the safeguarding of religious minorities, including Hindus who were attacked during the unrest in the Muslim-majority nation of 171 million. He also helped distribute aid after devastating floods struck in recent months.
“If that [political activity] leads to increased popularity for us, then it indicates we’re doing something right, doesn’t it?” said Rezaul Karim, a member of Jamaat’s central working committee.
The party is in talks to establish a broader Islamist coalition ahead of next year’s elections. But its rising prominence has set off alarm bells in Washington and New Delhi over fears about destabilizing regional security in Bangladesh, sandwiched between India and civil-war wracked Myanmar.
Shafiqur Rahman, a leader of Bangladesh’s Jamaat-e-Islami party, speaks during an interview at his office in Dhaka. © AFP/JijiTwo senior government officials told Nikkei that U.S. officials privately expressed concerns about Islamist parties’ increasing popularity.
Media in Hindu-majority India have also expressed alarm over this resurgence, which comes as Jashimuddin Rahmani, a radical cleric and leader of the banned Islamist group Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), was released from prison after serving time for murder. Rahmani’s militant group had previously been accused of plotting terror attacks against India.
Also stirring concerns, a small group of university students marched through Dhaka this month waving a large black flag similar to that of the Islamic State as they called for a strict society based on religious law.
Bangladesh has been roiled by coups and political violence over the decades, with instances of Muslim extremism including a spate of grisly murders of atheist writers and other non-Muslims a decade ago.
Jamaat itself has long been under suspicion in some quarters over claims it took part in mass killings during a 1971 war of independence that saw Bangladesh break away from Pakistan.
But Islamist parties have never fared better than low double digits at the polls in Bangladesh, and Jamaat has publicly shown little interest in establishing a hardline religious state similar to the Taliban in Afghanistan, observers said.
“A more likely outcome is the emergence of a government led by ruling parties that are not Islamist, but that includes Islamist actors in a coalition, or a government that depends on religious actors for other political reasons,” said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the U.S-based Wilson Center.
Members of a Bangladeshi Islamist party protest in Dhaka on Sept. 27 over an Indian politician’s remark about the Prophet Muhammad. (Photo by Faisal Mahmud)Some voters see supporting Islamist parties as a way to turn the page on decades of autocratic and corrupt politics, with billions of dollars alleged to have been funneled out of the country during Hasina’s tenure.
“We’ve seen the governance of the Awami League and the [opposition] Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). Now, I’m willing to give Jamaat a chance, as I believe they would be significantly less corrupt if they were in power,” said Hasan Habib, a Dhaka-based real estate businessman.
Growing support for Islamist parties has little to do with a conservative religious shift over the past decade, said Abdullah Al Mamun, a freelance IT professional.
“It’s not about making Bangladesh an Islamist state; I don’t think Jamaat will pursue that,” he told Nikkei. “It’s about empowering those who are less likely to engage in corruption.”
Others are looking to students who led the uprising against Hasina — which had initially started as a protest against public-sector job quotas that favored the Awami League — to fill the political void.
“I will definitely vote for a new party created by the students who led the revolution,” said Dhaka-based doctor Sazzad Hossain. “They will help us build a new Bangladesh.”
source : asia.nikkei