The head of Bangladesh’s army has announced plans to help form an interim government after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted from office due to widespread protests that resulted in over 100 deaths over the weekend.
Reports from Bangladeshi media indicated that Hasina fled the country as anti-government protesters defied a curfew and ransacked her official residence in the capital city of Dhaka.
Tensions in the country began to rise in late June when student leaders demanded an end to the government job quotas. Although the Supreme Court addressed most of the quotas, the protests continued as demonstrators shifted their focus to the broader issue of youth unemployment.
This is the backdrop to the violence that led to the premature end of Hasina’s fourth term in office.
What’s behind the unrest in Bangladesh?
Students began marching in late June to demand an end to a system of quotas for government jobs. When opposition parties swung behind the demonstrations, it swelled the number of protesters and widened the list of grievances. Hasina’s opponents accuse her of mismanaging the economy and pushing the country down a path toward authoritarianism. Her party won elections in January after opposition parties boycotted the vote, with most of their leaders behind bars. Hasina said the protesters were anarchists and terrorists seeking to destabilize the country. While her government has overseen one of the fastest economic growth rates in the world, lifting millions out of poverty, many Bangladeshis feel left out of the boom. Bangladesh has an official policy of encouraging its citizens to go overseas to find work, and the economy has come to depend heavily on money sent home by its citizens working abroad.
Why did the protesters want to end the government job quota system?
The government reserved as much as 30% of jobs in the Bangladesh Civil Service for family members of war heroes who fought for independence from Pakistan in 1971. Protest leaders said the quotas have excluded new job seekers and have been used to reward supporters of Hasina, whose party led the movement to separate from Pakistan. The Supreme Court decided to roll back most of the quotas on July 21 after the protests turned violent. Competition is fierce for civil service jobs that are seen as more stable and better paid than work in the private sector. More than 400,000 graduates compete for some 3,000 government jobs each year.
What happens now?
Army Chief Waker-Uz-Zaman said he’d held a meeting with political leaders and would also meet with President Mohammed Shahabuddin. The army expects to reach a solution tonight, he said. It wasn’t clear which opposition groups, if any, might be asked to take part in the temporary administration. During a brief lull in the protests last week, Hasina’s government banned an opposition Islamist group from all political activities, accusing it of fueling instability in the country.
What does the political instability mean for Bangladesh’s economy?
Curfews and internet blackouts are likely to have dealt a blow to Bangladesh’s $455 billion economy. The country was already in a precarious position, with its foreign reserves dwindling. The country went to the International Monetary Fund in 2022 for help to rebuild those reserves and it is currently in talks with China for a loan of about $5 billion. Many Bangladeshis are suffering from a cost of living crisis, and the government is under pressure from the IMF to raise interest rates to tame inflation that’s held at 9% since March last year.
