An Indian journalist friend came to Dhaka to see the tumultuous change of state power. In course of our conversations, he said that you all have had so many movements and mass uprisings here for the sake of democracy, but democracy still remains a far cry. There is little scope to differ from his observation. There are no mass uprisings in countries where there is democracy. One can't image a mass uprising in Britain to change the government. Power changes hands there by means of elections. Despite many shortcomings, even in India power changes hands by means of elections. But over the past 70 years we have failed to create that trend.
In face of the student uprising on 5 August, Awami League made an ignoble exit and the former prime minister Sheikh Hasina's leaving the country surely pained and dismayed the party leaders, activists, supporters and well-wishers. They had so long being enjoying all state facilities and built up a bastion of power, only to see it shatter before their eyes.
How did Awami League, the party which came to power in 2008 with the mandate of all sections of people (particularly the youth), become so isolated from the people? It is because they did not fulfill most of the commitments they had made to the people before the election. And the little that they did fulfill, only benefitted a small group.
Bangladesh's misfortune is that all parties become true democrats when out of power. They launch movements for democracy and fair elections. They strongly speak in favour of media freedom. But they forget all about this once they attain power. Awami League leaders have proven this once again.
No country in the word considers a caretaker government or an interim government to be an ideal. This is a method to teach democracy to leaders who are uninitiated in democracy. It is an alternative arrangement. Awami League and BNP jointly fought for this during the rule of Ershad.
And when BNP was in power, Awami League, Jatiya Party and Jamaat-e-Islami along with the left parties, launched a movement and forced the government to acquiesce to their demand for a caretaker system. This led to a two-party system in the country. I will not delve into the debate of whether that was good or bad, but the fact remains that the four elections held under the caretaker system were relatively fair. Many will agree that these elections reflected the public mandate.
Stories of corruption like that of Benazir, Matiur and the likes, emerged one after the other, but the government paid no attention. How did Benazir leave the country after carrying out such massive corruption? How has Matiur managed to go into hiding? There is no answer to these questions
Coming to power in 2009, the Awami League government revoked the caretaker system by force of its absolute majority. This perhaps was the last nail in the coffin of democracy. Awami League is now paying the price for shutting the doors on democracy, the universally recognised system to change power.
There has been much visible development that took place during the Awami League rule. Padma Bridge, metro rail and the elevated expressway were constructed. The people benefitted from this. On the other hand, though the government had declared zero tolerance on corruption and politicisation, this spread extensively. They skillfully implemented their project to tame the press. There are allegations against all governments of influencing the administration. But the Awami League government completely erased the line between the party and the administration.
The ruling passed by the court in 2011 under which the caretaker system was abolished, had provision for elections to be held under the caretaker system for two more terms. The majority of the people were unable to cast their votes in the three elections held since the abolition of the caretaker system. In the election of 2014, there was no competition. In 2018 the votes were cast on the night before. And in 2024, they came up with the new innovation of dummy candidates. In doing so, Awami League not only destroyed the election system in the country, but also created deadly conflict within the party itself.
It was this being deprived of their voting rights that also drove the people of all walks of life to the streets to join the quota reform movement. They took to the streets to protest against the government's forceful use of power and its corruption. They took to the streets to give an answer to the 15 years of repression by the leaders and the petty leaders of the ruling party, to protest against the rampant exploitation and extortion.
Another reason that caused the people to be enraged is that if anyone criticised any unjust decision of the government, they were immediately accused of belonging to the BNP-Jamaat camp. Even the students quota reform movement erupted into a revolution because they were derogatorily called "razakar".
BNP and Jamaat leaders and activists may have joined this movement, but it was led by students. The government failed to understand the pulse of the youth. Rather than bringing the situation under control through dialogue, they opted to use excessive force and kill huge numbers of people. They thought that they would be able to silence the students just as they thwarted BNP with batons and brute force.
When in power, the Awami League leaders thought that they alone were Bangladesh. Anyone opposing them, were enemies of the state, of the nation. Such perceptions can only exist in countries where autocracy is in place. Awami League may have come to power by fighting against corruption and misrule, but all these vices simply increased during their rule.
Stories of corruption like that of Benazir, Matiur and the likes, emerged one after the other, but the government paid no attention. How did Benazir leave the country after carrying out such massive corruption? How has Matiur managed to go into hiding? There is no answer to these questions.
Awami League used the spirit of the liberation to conceal all its corruption and misdeeds, but the younger generation was having none of that. To them, the liberation war means having a free environment on campus. It means the domination and torture carried out by the ruling party organisations must come to an end.
When Awami League was in power, I asked many of its leaders where they had gone wrong. They said without hesitation, they had not gone wrong. Their biggest mistake was that over 15 and a half years in power, they imagined that their innumerable mistakes were all correct. If those who will come to power in the near future and those already in power, learn from those mistakes, then the people will get the true taste of democracy. If not, the rulers will change, but not the rule.
Awami League would think they alone were Bangladesh. But the Students against Discrimination movement proved that there was a Bangladesh outside of Awami League too. As for those dreaming of power changing hands and a Bangladesh free of Awami League, I would tell them too, read the writing on the wall.
* Sohrab Hassan is joint editor of Prothom Alo and a poet
* This column appeared in the print and online edition of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten for the English edition by Ayesha Kabir