Bangladesh: Then and Now

In July/August 2024 a violent anti-government movement led by the students toppled and ended the decade and a half long autocratic and kleptocratic government of Shiekh Hasina. In the immediate aftermath of the revolt and at the request of the movement’s leaders, a new government, an Interim Government (IG), led by Bangladesh’s Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammed Yunus was formed on August 8, 2024 to among other things, research, find and rectify past wrongs and more importantly, lay foundations for a democratic and a just Bangladesh.

On 30^th April this year, the IG has completed little less than nine months in the government. Although these are early days, this may also be a suitable time to do a bit of stock taking of accomplishments and failures/challenges of the IG, a comparison between, ‘Then’ (the Hasina period), and ‘Now’ (the IG period) and this is important for two reasons – the comparison would help us to understand the differences between the two periods, and more importantly, what’s been achieved and what more needed to be done.

Let us begin with, ‘Then.’

Then (Hasina period)

During the Hasina regime (2009-August 2024) Bangladesh experienced impressive infrastructure development and significant reduction of poverty but at the same time, the regime gained notoriety for its brutalities against the opposition, suppression of freedom and rampant corruption and much worse, malicious political othering that divided the nation. These negatives for example, rampant corruption that became more of an entitlement than an exception for the ruling party loyalists made the economic gains made by the regime more of a bubble than real and secondly, by dividing people along political affiliations and by putting them at daggers drawn, Hasina regime fractured the nation, within.

Furthermore, during the Hasina regime public institutions including the education institutions were aggressively politicised where loyalty took precedence over quality in the selection and recruitment of public officials where public services including the judiciary became in reality, ruling party institutions, devoid of any semblance of transparency, accountability, and efficiency.

Again, during the Hasina period, syndicates with ruling party connections controlled the market and manipulated the prices of essentials. They also routinely extracted protection money from the small traders, which hurt them in terms of loss of income and the consumers, in terms of paying higher prices for their daily needs, respectively.

Furthermore, the ruling party oligarchs posing as entrepreneurs emptied the banks and laundered with impunity billions of dollars, overseas.

Then there is evidence that Hasina government bartered Bangladesh’s sovereignty to an external entity to secure latter’s backing to keep the regime in power and which they did until last August 2024 when the mass upheaval toppled the regime and untangled Bangladesh from the shackles of external entity’s hegemonic control of the country.

As a result of these aberrations – autocratic and kleptocratic governance – , a shadow of gloom and doom descended over Bangladesh which deepened in recent times and yet no one dared protesting and seethed in discontent and a few who dared either disappeared, and murdered, or were tortured in government-run secret torture cells.

In these conditions of doom and gloom, Hasina regime’s much touted ‘Unnoyon’ (development accomplishments, in infrastructures) appeared more as reminders of repression and corruption and not progress.

Now (the Interim Government period)

This is the backdrop of the July/August 2024 student/mass uprising, the unseating of the autocratic and kleptocratic Hasina regime and formation of the Interim Government (IG), under the leadership of Professor Muhammad Yunus.

IG is not an elected government. It was formed at the request of the uprising’s leaders with unwritten expectations that the new government would rescue and recover Bangladesh from the political, institutional and economic morass that Bangladesh has fallen into and more importantly, there was the expectation that the IG would guide Bangladesh to march to a democratic, just and a corruption free sovereign state.

On 30th April 2025, the IG has completed 9th month in governance.

These are early days, and the problems the IG has inherited are not just monumental but deeply entrenched within the political and social fabric of the society. Therefore, the task of rescuing and remedying the deep-seated ills is going to be anything but easy but people are impatient. They want change, overnight and then there are the antagonists, the losers, within and abroad who are working overtime in bad mouthing and criticising the IG saying that the government is either doing things wrong or not doing much. How valid are these allegations?

Let us do a stock taking of IG’s success and failures or in other words, let the facts speak!

Let Facts Speak

Let us begin with few positives. A key achievement of the IG which shines like a daylight is that this may be the first time in the history of Bangladesh if not the world, that you have a government, made up of Advisers (Ministers) of men and women who are of highest professional calibre and of impeccable moral standing and more importantly, these Advisers did not seek these high positions, they joined the IG at the request of the student leaders/the Chief Adviser, Prof. Yunus with one goal – serve the nation. This by itself is a gain, a dramatic difference between Then and Now.

However, as they say, proof is in the pudding, let us do a fact check on IG’s accomplishments as well as slippages.

Accomplishments

The most outstanding achievement of the IG, has been that they succeeded in pulling a collapsing nation up on its feet, mended somewhat the raptured institutions and converted a self-seeking malfunctioning public administration, into a reasonable functioning accountable and transparent governing entity.

IG’s least understood and yet a significant if not a game changing accomplishment has been in foreign relations.

Thanks to the towering global stature of the Chief Adviser, Professor Muhammad Yunus, which mirrored the new emerging face of Bangladesh, a face of dignity, pride, and determination, the IG quickly received moral and material support of the international community, helping the IG to consolidate its grip on governance that kept the country together while averting threats, both within and outside.

IG’s other more tangible accomplishments include but not limited to: (i) completion of four out of eleven reform commission reports; (ii) publication of a White Paper on corruption of the previous government that has revealed the extent, areas, and modalities of corruption of the cronies of the deposed regime, helping to track the corrupt, recover the stolen money and prosecute and punish the corrupt and the good news is that the processes are already underway. Furthermore, by exposing the institutional loopholes of corruption the past regime used, the White Paper has also offered information on means and tools to prevent  corruption in future; (iii) thirdly, law and order has been restored to a reasonable level though more need to be done; and (iv) fourthly, macroeconomic imbalances have been stabilised and fractured banking system has been rectified, accruing a number of benefits such as improvement in foreign exchange reserves, streamlining debt servicing including reduction of external debt, boosting exports, increased the flow of remittances etc. These accomplishments especially the increased flow of remittances are indicators not just of improved functioning of the economy but also increased trust in the government.

IG’s recent investment summit that has attracted a great deal of interest among the foreign investors, promises greater flow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the country in the coming days, which in recent years had come to a near halt.

The Table below presents vital time data, between ‘Then and Now,’ on corruption, rule of law, happiness, freedom, Global Start up etc.

Table: Vital Data: Then and Now

Considering that the IG has been in place for only eight months and that it inherited a broken and a deeply politicised and a corrupt system and also the fact that it has been under constant threats from adversaries, within and across and counting, the ‘Then’ and ‘Now’ Table above is a testimony that the IG under the leadership of Prof. Yunus has achieved visible and measurable milestones in key governance and in the economic aspects and differences between Then and Now, is dramatic.

While IG no doubt deserves much kudos for these remarkable accomplishments, we would fail in our duty if we do not mention the key role that another important institution, the Bangladesh Army played, from behind the scenes in facilitating the end of the Hasina regime and the support the Army lent to the IG in restoring the deteriorating law-and-order situation, the institutional space the IG needed to pursue its mission of reforms and reconstruction of the economy.

In sum and based on the empirical evidence it is safe to say that the IG together with the people and important institutions such as the media, the civil society, the civil administration, and the army, between Then and Now, Bangladesh has progressed in most aspects.

Indeed, if social media which is awash with appeals to the IG and especially to Prof. Yunus to stay longer and the personal accounts of people who report that these days they encounter less hassles to  get jobs such as those relating to the issuance of passports, land registration works etc. done, which until recently were unthinkable, are any guide it can be said with some measure of confidence that the IG is moving in the right direction.

However, this is not to suggest that everything is hunky dory. They are not. For example, corruption remains a problem though mega corruption at high offices of the government are no more. The Judiciary is slow dispensing justice and there are huge backlogs; law and order has improved but not fully, and even though rule of law is better than before, more work is needed and finally, uncertainties regarding reforms and concerns about democratic transition and good governance persist.

The Way Ahead

These are valid concerns and must be addressed, albeit progressively and the fact that the IG cannot be around forever, people have to decide on the minimum the IG should do and more importantly, people themselves must change to bring change.

The minimum the IG should do must include measures that guarantee free and fair elections, prevent corruption, improve checks and balance in governance, and more importantly, provisions that help protecting politics from degenerating into a domain of crooks and ensure that the politicians, elected and non-elected continue supporting and implementing reforms, and journey Bangladesh to a democratic, corruption free, just, and a sovereign state.