In the year since the violent, military-backed overthrow of then-Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s government, Bangladesh has descended into chaos. The economy is reeling, radical Islamist forces are gaining ground, young people are becoming increasingly radicalized, lawlessness is taking hold, and religious and ethnic minorities are under siege. The country’s future has never looked bleaker.
Many had hoped that Hasina’s ouster would open the way for Bangladesh to transition to democracy following an authoritarian lurch under the “iron lady.” After all, they reasoned, it was a student-led uprising that toppled her regime.
However, this narrative downplayed the decisive role of the powerful military, which had long chafed under Hasina’s attempts to curb its influence and ultimately forced her into exile in India. Similarly, Islamist forces — who provided much of the muscle behind the student protests — viewed her overthrow as an opportunity to end the marginalization they faced under her secular rule.
The illusory promise of Hasina’s overthrow was further enhanced by the installation of Bangladeshi Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus — the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize laureate celebrated as a savior of the poor for pioneering microcredit through his Grameen Bank — as the nominal head of the interim government. Again, the headline misrepresents reality.
In fact, the Nobel Committee’s choice was less about the Grameen Bank’s actual impact than it was about geopolitical signaling. In presenting the award, the committee chair invoked Yunus as a symbolic bridge between Islam and the West, expressing hope that his selection would counter the “widespread tendency to demonize Islam” that had taken hold in the West after the US terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It is no coincidence that former US president Bill Clinton had lobbied for Yunus.
As the leader of Bangladesh’s interim government, Yunus has promised sweeping reforms and democratic elections, which have been repeatedly postponed. Meanwhile, despite lacking constitutional legitimacy, the interim government has launched sweeping purges of independent institutions, ousting the chief justice and the next five most-senior Supreme Court justices, and outlawing Hasina’s Awami League, the country’s oldest and largest political party, which led Bangladesh to independence.
The government has also presided over proliferating human rights abuses and intensifying repression. Those identified as Hasina’s supporters — including lawyers, academics, journalists, artists and opposition figures — are being jailed in droves, with thousands reportedly detained since February. International media watchdogs have sounded the alarm over escalating attacks on journalists, many of whom are charged with bogus crimes, from murder to abduction. Reports of extrajudicial killings and torture in custody have become commonplace.
Perhaps the most alarming development is the rehabilitation of Islamist extremists. The military-mullah regime that Yunus nominally leads has reversed bans on jihadist groups previously linked to terrorism and has freed notorious Islamist leaders. Several extremists now occupy ministerial or other government posts and mobs affiliated with them openly terrorize perceived opponents.
Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, tribal communities and members of Islamic sects that Islamists consider heretical are being attacked with impunity. Women dressed “immodestly” face public shaming and assault. A culture of Taliban-style moral policing is rapidly taking root. The situation has gotten so bad that even the pro-government Bangladesh Nationalist Party, long the Awami League’s archrival, has decried the erosion of basic freedoms, the “madness that erupted in the name of religion,” and the “terrifying violence” on the streets.
A collapsing economy would only exacerbate these problems. GDP growth has tumbled, foreign debt has ballooned and inflation has soared to a 12-year high. With investor confidence plummeting, the stock market has fallen to its lowest level in almost five years. Job losses and declining living standards create fertile ground for continued radicalization and social unrest.
Bangladesh once embodied the promise of secular democracy in a Muslim-majority country. Until the COVID-19 pandemic, it was making impressive progress on economic development and social stability, but now it risks slipping into the kind of military-sanctioned dysfunction that has long plagued Pakistan, the country it fought so hard to break away from.
The consequences would reverberate across the region. India, which borders Bangladesh on three sides and is home to millions of undocumented Bangladeshi migrants, would be hit particularly hard. Under Hasina, Bangladesh was one of India’s closest partners, especially on counterterrorism and regional connectivity. Her departure thus dealt a blow to India’s strategic interests. India’s government is now scrambling to manage the fallout, such as by stepping up border security to prevent infiltration by extremists.
Whereas India immediately recognized the risks posed by Hasina’s overthrow, the US endorsed the regime change. If Bangladesh continues on its current trajectory, it would significantly complicate US-led efforts to ensure a free, open, prosperous and stable Indo-Pacific. Some have warned that Bangladesh could become another global flashpoint that draws in even faraway countries.
If the international community is serious about defending democratic values, religious freedom and regional stability, it can no longer turn a blind eye to Bangladesh’s downward spiral.
Brahma Chellaney, professor emeritus of strategic studies at the New Delhi-based Center for Policy Research and fellow at the Robert Bosch Academy in Berlin, is the author of Water, Peace, and War: Confronting the Global Water Crisis.
Copyright: Project Syndicate
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