How Bangladesh's Young Generation Forced Out Its Leader Who Had Ruled the Country for Most of His Life
Jannatul Prome hopes to leave Bangladesh to study or perhaps find work after graduating from university, frustrated by a system she says doesn’t reward merit and gives young people few opportunities.
“We have very limited options here,” said the 21-year-old, who would have moved sooner if her family had enough money to pay for her and her brother’s overseas university tuition at the same time.
But recent events have given her hope that she may one day be able to return to a changed Bangladesh. After 15 years in power, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country last week, hunted by young protesters, including Prom, who say they are fed up with her increasingly authoritarian rule, which has crushed dissent, benefited the elite and exacerbated inequality.
Students took to the streets in Bangladesh in June to demand an end to a rule that bars children of war veterans who fought in the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan from getting 30 percent of government jobs. Protesters say the law benefits supporters of Hasina's Awami League, which led that struggle, and who are already part of the elite. Quotas and other quotas for marginalized groups mean only 44 percent of government jobs are awarded based on performance.
That such jobs are at the center of the movement is no coincidence: they are among the most stable and well-paying in a country that has seen its economy boom in recent years but has yet to create enough stable, professional jobs for a well-educated middle class.
It’s no surprise that Generation Z are leading this uprising. Young people like Prome are among the most frustrated and affected by the lack of opportunity in Bangladesh, and at the same time, they are no longer bound by the taboos and myths that the quota system embodies.
Their willingness to break with the past was evident when Hasina flouted their demands in mid-July, asking who, if not freedom fighters, should be given positions in the government.
“Who will do it? The children of Razakar,” Hasina shot back, using highly offensive language referring to those who collaborated with Pakistan to suppress Bangladesh’s independence struggle.
But the protesting students wore the slogan as an honorific. They marched to Dhaka University and chanted: “Who are you? Who am I? Razakar? Who said this? Dictator.”
The following day, a protester was killed during clashes with security forces, which escalated the protests into a violent uprising against Hasina's rule.
Sabrina Karim, a Cornell University professor who studies Bangladesh's political violence and military history, said many of the protesters were so young they could not remember a time before Hasina became prime minister.
Like their predecessors, they grew up with stories of the freedom struggle, centered around Hasina's family. Her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was the first leader of independent Bangladesh and was later assassinated by a military coup. But Kareem says the story means much less to the young protesters than it did to their grandparents.
“They don’t feel that way anymore, like they used to, and they want something new,” she said.
For Nourin Sultana Toma, a 22-year-old student at the University of Dhaka, Hasina’s view of student protesters as traitors made her realize the gap between what young people need and what the government can provide.
She said she had watched as Bangladesh gradually eased to near-elimination of inequality and people lost hope that things would improve.
The country's longest-serving prime minister prides himself on raising per capita income and transforming Bangladesh's economy into a global competitor, where fields turn into garment factories and rough roads into winding highways. But Thoma says she has seen the daily struggles of people trying to buy necessities or find work, and her demands for basic rights have been flouted and savaged.
“I can’t take it anymore,” Toma said.
Bangladesh's youth are feeling the brunt of this economic hardship, with 18 million young people in the country of 170 million people neither working nor studying, according to Chietigj Bajpaee, who researches South Asia at the Chatham House think tank. And private sector jobs have become even harder to find in the wake of the pandemic.
Many young people are trying to study abroad or move abroad after graduation in the hope of getting a good job, resulting in a shrinking middle class and brain death.
“The class gap is widening,” said Jannatun Nahar Ankan, 28, who works for a non-profit in Dhaka and joined the protests.
Despite these problems, none of the protesters truly believe their movement can topple Hasina.
Rafij Khan, 24, was on the streets preparing to join the protests when he heard Hasina had resigned and fled the country, so he called home several times to see if he could confirm the news.
He said that towards the end of the rally, people from all walks of life, religions and professions joined the students on the streets. They are now hugging each other while some sit on the ground in disbelief.
“I can’t describe the happiness people felt that day,” he said.
That sense of elation has begun to fade as the monumental task ahead takes on a new role. Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus became interim leader on Thursday and will be tasked with restoring peace, building institutions and preparing the country for new elections, alongside a cabinet that includes two student protest leaders.
The hope among most students is that the caretaker government will have time to repair Bangladesh's institutions while also forming a new political party that is not led by the old political dynasty.
“If you ask me to vote in the election now, I don’t know who I would vote for,” Khan said. “We don’t want to replace one dictator with another.”
Youth who take to the streets are often called the “I hate politics” generation.
But Azaher Uddin Anik, a 26-year-old digital security expert and recent graduate from Dhaka University, said that was the wrong term.
They do not hate all politics, but only the politics that create division in Bangladesh.
While he admitted that the structural reforms the country needs now may be more difficult than removing the prime minister, he is hopeful for the first time in a while.
“My last experience taught me that the impossible can happen,” he said. “And maybe it’s not too late.”
