this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2024
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Since 1981 you've had power going back and forth between Sheikh Hasina's Awami League party (social democrats who figured prominently in the war for independence but have been thoroughly compromised by neoliberalism) and Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh National Party.
The recent student protests could probably be characterized as Sheikh Hasina being left holding the bag when the chickens of corruption came home to roost, and then doubling down on an unpopular but not very consequential policy. After ~250 died at the hands of police and the protest movement kept growing to a point where it could threaten the operation of the political apparatus, the army did a coup- for the first time in 45 years or so. Then they installed an interim head of state who was a pioneer of microfinance, and were in talks with "all the opposition parties" to form a new government.
There's plenty more going on underneath the surface that our bulletin bears can embellish.
The policy was not popular, but fairly consequential, assuming you mean the portion of jobs reserved for the descendants of freedom fighters
She also, like a total nutjob, claimed anyone against the policy was a "Razakars", effectively calling them traitors to the country
People finally had enough of her and her bullshit
I agree this sub makes it seem orchestrated by outside forces, which do meddle, but she did herself in
It's not like she conjured the policy out of thin air this year. It had stood for a while, there was just a big push this year.
Pushing bioessentialism on veterans in people's ancestry is cringe, but it's far from the worst thing that a head of state can do. It's pretty clear that she had the support of around 40% of the population.
It's not good though
And when it lead to mass protests they could have relented and said it would be corrected, instead of fighting with a bunch of students worried about their futures
Student protests happen all the time.
Why did Bangladesh experience a full government capitulation, whereas Indonesia a couple years ago did not?
There are external factors that play a huge role here.
Students had tried doing small tasks like organizing traffic a few years ago, they were cracked down on and it worked in Bangledesh
The fear was that they would go from volunteering to correct the flow of traffic to organizing for something political
This time the students were successful
I'm not saying there are no external forces at play, but the domestic desires appear to have been the major force here
Sadly now, there are numerous groups attempting to manage the chaos and come out on top, while the poor and weak suffer