After mass protests pressured long-term Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee the nation in early August, Bangladesh discovered itself in a novel second of alternative to chart a path in the direction of true democracy.
The interim authorities that was put in place to cope with the legacy of Hasina’s 15-year authoritarian rule is led by Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus and contains civil society leaders.
Yunus, a celebrated civil society activist, is well-equipped to put the foundations for a brand new, really democratic Bangladesh. He can draw on the experiences of Bangladeshi civil society to allow social cohesion and convey a couple of much-needed reckoning with the nation’s tortured previous. There are various methods by which he can defend and develop civic areas. He can, for instance, disband safety items chargeable for enforced disappearances and torture, reform the much-maligned NGO Affairs Bureau to make sure it helps civil society, or amend the International Donations Legislation which creates a bureaucratic maze for civil society to obtain worldwide funding.
He ought to, nevertheless, act quick, as historical past tells us moments of alternative and optimism like this may be fleeting. After a dictatorial regime is eliminated by means of revolution, democratic constructions can fall prey to a rotation of elites. Within the absence of a plan for what’s subsequent, pro-democracy parts may be overwhelmed and derailed by fast-moving occasions.
In such situations, nationalist and authoritarian forces, who proceed to carry energy as a result of their alliances with the clergy and navy, usually fill the rising energy vacuum. At occasions, the navy itself takes over. In different cases, leaders introduced in as representatives of democratic forces flip to repression themselves to try to maintain all the pieces collectively.
In Sudan, for instance, the 2019 overthrow of strongman President Omar al-Bashir was adopted by a number of failed makes an attempt at a democratic transition and finally a navy coup in 2021. Years later, civic area violations proceed unabated and the nation remains to be devastated by battle.
In Pakistan, an preliminary navy coup in 1958 supposedly aimed toward creating area for a extra steady democracy was adopted by a number of a long time of navy rule and protracted assaults on civil society. Authorities within the nation proceed to silence dissent with crackdowns on activists, protesters, and journalists.
In Ethiopia, when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed acquired the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for lastly securing a peace cope with Eritrea, hopes had been excessive for regional peace and stability. Since then, nevertheless, he has presided over a bloody civil struggle by which mass atrocities had been dedicated. The nation is in turmoil, with human rights teams urging authorities to cease their crackdown on civic area and respect the rights of political opponents, journalists, and activists.
If Professor Yunus’s authorities fails to embrace civil society in determination making and shore up democratic establishments, post-Hasina Bangladesh also can fall into these pitfalls. However these are, in fact, not the one attainable situations. After a revolution, pro-democracy forces also can keep agency and allow the emergence of extra complicated, but in addition infinitely extra constructive, realities.
Sri Lanka, the place widespread protests pressured President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign and flee the nation two years in the past, is one instance. Though issues had been removed from good, a transition of energy occurred by means of established methods of democracy within the nation. Final month, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who ran on a promise of higher governance and stability, received Sri Lanka’s presidential election.
Chile is one other instance of how democratic forces can persevere within the face of elite clawback. Regardless of vital resistance from institution forces, Chile’s in style protests in 2019-2022 towards financial inequality led to a collection of reforms in training, healthcare and pensions. Guatemala, the place in January the elected president was inaugurated regardless of repeated makes an attempt by the outdated regime to scuttle a peaceable switch of energy, also can provide helpful classes for Bangladesh’s nascent authorities. In each these cases civil society teams performed a key function.
Whereas revolutions and in style uprisings didn’t produce civic utopias and ideal democracies in any of those international locations, in addition they didn’t lead to a return to sq. one.
Bangladesh’s interim authorities ought to take note of these examples the place civic society secured necessary victories in troublesome and complicated circumstances. It ought to, nevertheless, additionally study from circumstances the place democratic forces failed to forestall the strongmen they helped topple from finally being changed by equally corrupt, anti-democratic leaders.
It’s unrealistic to anticipate any new authorities to provide passable reforms in all areas and an ideal democracy in a single day, particularly after a long time of authoritarian rule. However numerous examples around the globe present that constructing a greater future on the ruins left by long-term authoritarian leaders is feasible – so long as the brand new management acts with dedication, continues the dialogue with civil society, and stays on a democratic course.
If the interim authorities of Yunus will get it fallacious, and the brand new management begins to try to stifle democratic dissent by suppressing civil society and clamping down on protests – whether or not these protests are by those that help the earlier regime or others who’re impatient for change – errors made throughout previous transitions elsewhere may find yourself being repeated in Bangladesh. In such a situation, the sustained protests that eliminated Hasina, and Yunus’s tenure as chief, could be decreased to footnotes in a protracted historical past of authoritarian rule.
But when Professor Yunus will get it proper, attracts from the profitable expertise of different international locations, and lays the foundations for a strong democracy in Bangladesh, he may turn into a Mandela-like inspirational determine, and supply different international locations in South Asia, the place civic freedoms are extensively repressed, with a regional instance of a profitable post-revolutionary transition. Many within the worldwide group stand able to help him.
Bangladesh is at a crossroads, and how Yunus and his advisors are capable of navigate present political dynamics whereas respecting human rights and civic freedoms will decide the way forward for its democracy.
The views expressed on this article are the writer’s personal and don’t essentially mirror Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
