Bangladesh’s revolutionaries await real change 1 year on

SYFUL ISLAM

DHAKA — One year since a landmark moment in the revolution in Bangladesh that ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the protestors that drove the movement have seen little progress on the reforms that brought them out onto the streets. Political parties remain at loggerheads over how to proceed on contentious issues like constitutional reform and the timing of an election.

While the students party wants the next national election to be held after thorough reforms and the trial of Hasina, who fled to India, and supporters of her Awami League, the other major political groups have been putting immense pressure on the interim government to hold the country’s first election since the revolution in the near future.

Last July, students in Dhaka and across the country took to the streets to protest against a quota system for civil service jobs, leading to fights with security forces and Awami League supporters. An early flashpoint came on July 16, when police shot dead the unarmed student Abu Sayed, sparking protests across the country. The date of his death is now marked as July Martyrs’ Day.

The United Nations estimates that as many as 1,400 protest-related deaths occurred between July 15 and Aug. 5.

The present government, led by Nobel laureate Mohammad Yunus, has not been able to publish a so-called July Charter due to large disagreements among political parties. The document is meant to outline a road map for the future of Bangladesh and reform measures, as well as act as a guideline for the next national election.

“We dreamed of signing the July Charter on the day of the anniversary of Abu Sayed’s martyrdom … but it depends on the [cooperation of] political parties,” Ali Riaz, vice chairman of the National Consensus Commission, which has been tasked with deliberating on reforms, said ahead of the anniversary.

Michael Kugelman, a senior fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation, said that the motivation to carry out reforms remains strong, “but the implementation is lacking — or at the least, not happening at the speed that an increasingly impatient public would like to see.”

Still, Kugelman cautions that momentum could be lost in the coming months as the election timing comes into focus.

The delay has irked student leaders, and they are now threatening to prepare a charter of their own while requesting other political parties to do the same.

The student-led National Citizens Party (NCP) is demanding a new constitution, the restructuring of the Election Commission, the declaration that all national and local elections held during the Hasina regime were illegal, a specific road map on the trial of Hasina and her supporters, as well as reforms to the police, civil service and judiciary.

Saleh Uddin Sifat, a spokesperson for the NCP, said achievements over the last year have been “negligible.”

“None of the core demands have been met so far,” Sifat said. “A demand for the formation of a new constitution by abolishing the existing one did not make any progress.”

However, Salahuddin Ahmed, a member of the Standing Committee of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), said political parties are in the process of implementing the demands of the July revolution.

“We have been able to implement some small reforms so far, but we have to implement medium- and long-term reforms to meet all the expectations,” he said.

Ahmed said a “politically and democratically” free and fair election is essential to paving the way for the implementation of protestors’ demands. “The establishment of an effective democracy is a top expectation of this nation, and also of the July martyrs.”

Still, Ahmed said there have been some achievements, namely the consensus on allowing lawmakers to vote against their own parties, with some exceptions; judicial reforms and actions, such as the appointment of judges without government interference; and the fact the Election Commission is now functioning without interference (the NCP maintains that members are still partisan).

However, he acknowledged that almost no reforms to the civil service have been carried out.

A man holding a Bangladeshi flag stands in front of a burning vehicle at the Ganabhaban, the Bangladeshi prime minister’s residence, in Dhaka on Aug. 5, 2024, after the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.   © Reuters

Mia Golam Parwar, secretary-general of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamist political party, said meeting all the expectations of the July revolution will take time, and that strong pressure on the government is actually hindering the pace of reform.

“To accomplish these [reforms] we need to hold a free, fair and acceptable election. This will be major instrument to meet the expectations of the July revolution,” he said.

Parwar also said the government is making “sincere” efforts to hold trials in relation to the revolution, pointing to the formation of a second tribunal, the completion of investigations and the issuing of warrants.

Looming over the question of the speed of reforms is a lack of consensus between the political parties. For example, Jamaat-e-Islami and other political parties are seeking a proportional representation voting system in national elections, something the BNP regards as a tactic to delay a vote despite Jamaat-e-Islami saying an election is needed.

“The reforms and other development works could have been much faster had the political parties reached consensus on the election, tenure of the prime minister and other political issues,” said Mohammad Sohrab Hossain, a professor of political science at the University of Dhaka.

Jon Danilowicz, a retired U.S. diplomat and independent foreign policy analyst, said that the timing of the election cannot be the most important factor in determining the pace of reforms.

“What is most important is that all parties commit to continue reforms past the election,” he said. “While the extent of reforms prior to elections may not be as ambitious as many had hoped, what is most important is the consensus that the system needs to change.”

The article appeared in asia.nikkei