Khaleda Zia entered politics at a time when democracy in Bangladesh was in its deepest crisis. She departed physically at a moment when a new dawn of democracy was emerging. When she first stepped into politics, she was a symbol of courage; when she left, she did so with an image of steadfastness.
Her political life spanned more than four decades. She entered politics in response to the call of her party and her country—an act that was personally a very courageous step. At the time, General Ershad’s military rule was strangling the country’s democratic future, and the then-illegal regime was also determined to dismantle the BNP.
It was through the struggle to protect the party and restore democracy that Khaleda Zia truly became a politician. Under her leadership, the BNP expanded its grassroots presence significantly. The young generation that joined the BNP under her shadow at that time has now become the backbone of the party across the country.
From 1982 to 1990, the anti–military rule movement included parties, leaders, and student and labour organisations from the left, right, and centre. At the outset, the BNP itself was quite disorganised. Even after Ershad’s fall, very few political analysts believed the BNP could defeat the 15-party alliance. Remarkably, it did—largely due to the force of Khaleda Zia’s singular political persona.
Her firm pledge not to participate in any election held under an illegitimate regime established her image nationwide as an honest and courageous leader. Such unwavering principled commitment to her own words made Khaleda Zia uniquely distinctive in the country’s history. That straightforward firmness provided vital strength to campus-based resistance against military rule. Even over the past two decades, we have seen how she endured imprisonment and repression while pledging never to leave the country; in the end, she emerged victorious, while the oppressors were forced to flee.
In politics, one often hears the slogan of “turning grief into strength.” Khaleda Zia’s life is perhaps a striking example of this.
Having lost her husband and a child, she undoubtedly lived with immense sorrow, yet she rarely expressed that pain openly. Even in the face of personal loss and direct persecution, her steadfastness in pursuing political goals and upholding principles was epic in scale.
We know of the brutal imprisonment she endured under the previous government, during which her health deteriorated severely. Even while isolated from loved ones, her decision not to participate in elections orchestrated by the ruling authorities stands as an extraordinary example of resolve.
It is commonly said around the world that politics is the art of compromise. Khaleda Zia demonstrated through her life that steadfastness, too, can be an alternative art of politics. The fact that she never lost a parliamentary seat in her political career may well be attributed to this image. The people of Bengal seemed to admire this uncompromising nature—perhaps because it was rooted in principled integrity.
While uncompromising on matters of principle, Khaleda Zia was culturally and personally inclusive. In private conversations, she preferred listening over speaking—an uncommon trait among politicians in this country. Because of this quality, many politicians, intellectuals, and writers from ideological camps opposed to the BNP were nonetheless impressed by her. She respected pluralistic cultural spaces beyond politics and disliked the culture of personal attacks against opponents.
Under her leadership, the BNP experienced both rises and falls within the country’s centre-right political spectrum. While in power, it accommodated right-wing allies, drawing criticism then and now from centrist and leftist quarters. Yet it is also true that she did not promote the expansion of right-wing ideology within the BNP itself. Her inclination was toward modernity. In choosing the party’s second- and third-tier leadership, she placed her trust in figures from the centre-left.
One of her famous remarks was: “The BNP stands to the left of the right and to the right of the left.” This faith in centrism reflected her political wisdom. She had a keen understanding of Bangladesh’s social psychology, while never losing sight of the fact that without the institutionalisation of democratic values, the country would inevitably descend into chaos.
Amid the global rise of populism and right-wing politics, it is not easy to govern a country successfully for a long time through a balanced blend of nationalism and democracy. Khaleda Zia’s tenure as prime minister was not above criticism or free of flaws. Her government faced extensive criticism for interfering in the caretaker government system and for failing to ensure proper investigations into attacks on opposition politicians.
Political critics also see significant past responsibilities of the BNP in the current rise of right-wing politics across the country. However, in exploiting these mistakes, the BNP’s ideological opponents reduced politics to a tribal game of enmity, culminating in the disgraceful act of evicting her from her own residence.
In politics, the proper remedy for any mistake lies only in the court of the voters. In the final phase of her life, Khaleda Zia witnessed Bangladesh’s return to the electoral path as a basic prerequisite of democracy. If Bangladesh truly moves a step forward on the path of democracy through the upcoming elections, a significant share of the credit must also go to Khaleda Zia.
Beyond her unwavering commitment to democracy and elections, another message she leaves for Bangladesh may be that, given the country’s distinctive geographical position in South Asia, strong leadership is essential here. She opposed diplomacy that leaned excessively to one side in international relations. This, too, was a major reason why people admired her. Those who wish to see Bangladesh as a friend must understand this Bangladesh.
Khaleda often said that she had no address outside Bangladesh. The political ideals, courage, and strength reflected in that statement, in effect, embodied Bangladesh itself. Like Bangladesh, she was a symbol of courage in South Asia. Such courage is the very condition for Bangladesh’s existence.
#Altaf Parvez is a researcher.
#The views expressed are those of the author's own.