Freedom lost: A journey to regain what was taken

What manifested on the first Saturday in August this year at the capital's Shaheed Minar overwhelmed the senses. For anyone on the grounds or virtually watching (sans AL or pro-AL), the mass gathering of people from all walks of life heeding the call of the Anti-Discriminatory Student Movement organisers initially eased the angst and perpetual fear from the previous weeks – and then decimated it. 

Tens of thousands packed the Minar premises to the brim. With it, they inspired collective hope. The gathering outnumbered countless other peaceful demonstrations, primarily led by students, throughout July — which first called for reforms in the government job quota system and then justice for the killings of unarmed student protesters at the hands of the government starting on 16 July.  

On 3 August, while the Central Shaheed Minar was the focal point of the mass gathering, other large pockets sprouted across Dhaka, Chattagram and elsewhere. 

It was unprecedented, and the Movement announced a single-point demand: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's resignation. In approximately 48 hours, Bangladesh will see a historic feat—the fall of the 15-year-old autocratic Awami League regime on 5 August. 

Sketch: TBS

The right to assemble and peacefully participate in processions has been considered a cornerstone of democracy since time immemorial, a right that is protected in many constitutions worldwide – including ours. 

But this right of the people had been violently denied by the Hasina-led government. Its latest track record is the killing of Rangpur's Abu Sayeed and weeks of violence, which left over 1,600 killed and thousands injured at the hands of the state machinery. The now-ousted legacy of the Awami League is also marred with decades of hardline responses, policies and laws to suppress people's freedom of expression. 

As more and more evidence of enduring kleptocracy and crippled institutions surface in the post-Hasina era, it has been ushering in new sets of challenges for the current Dr Yunus-led interim government. 

And, perhaps, more importantly, it also ushered in discourse on what allowed Awami League's cataclysmic, autocratic rule. This also begs the question of the journey of democracy in Bangladesh's history — for instance, when was the last time Bangladesh, a country dominated by a two-party political system for over three decades, enjoyed 'democracy'?   

For a country born out of largely student-led and pro-democracy movements, it is curious to recognise the lack of  "democratic" rule in its 53 years of independence.      

A 15-year-old chokehold  

There have been only two years which saw large-scale protests led by apolitical students. 

The 2018 Road Safety Movement (29 July to 10 August) by the students met the government's heavy-handed violent response and was ultimately and wholly curtailed. Two things surfaced through the crackdown on this movement – the country's youth at large is yet to become wholly submissive to the regime's suppressive and violent tactics; it offered a glimmer of hope, perhaps, that not all is dead.  

At the same time, the way 'helmet bahini' (aka Awami-League's student wing called Bangladesh Chhatra League) along with the police pounced and cornered unarmed students with impunity was surely telling; for anyone who followed the events including the jailing of photojournalist Shahidul Alam for speaking to AlJazeera about the student protests, it was clear as day, 'democracy' is already six-feet under. 

The Awami-League regime also holds a rich track record of crackdown on political opposition and extrajudicial killings. For example, remember the 2018 drug war? "Bangladesh started a Philippines-style war on drugs" according to an Aljazeera report. Reports of the secret prisons – more commonly known as Aynaghor – run by Bangladesh's military intelligence DGFI also surfaced in the recent past; and "enforced disappearance" also became a common occurrence. 

But mega projects and development "statistics" soared, of course.  

Bangladesh's elections in 2014, 2018, and 2024, a marker for democracy, have been widely criticized as "rigged." Many believe the BNP's (the main opposition party) decision to boycott these elections allowed the ruling Awami League (AL) to tighten its grip on power.

In February this year, just a month after the country's 12th parliamentary elections ended in yet another "landslide" victory for AL, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) released its Democracy Index 2023. 

In it, Bangladesh slipped two notches to rank 75th among 167 countries from 73rd in 2022, hitting a 5-year low. According to the annual report, the EIU has continued to list the country among "hybrid regimes" (meaning a mix of autocratic and democratic 'features') since 2008. 

2001-2008: Chaos, corruption and a caretaker government  

For the Bangladeshis in their early 30s or younger – the infamous 1/11 in 2007 is a distant, murky memory. Mass arrests — reportedly 15,000 in 10 days, military intervention and a changeover.  

On 15 January 2007, the editorial of one of the largest national dailies said:  "For the first time in 16 years, The Daily Star received a call from the press information officer (PIO) of the information ministry very gently reminding us of the state of emergency declared by the government and also that caution in publishing news was in order. On being asked what "caution" precisely meant, he was vague and non-committal and requested us to "understand" the situation."

A military-backed caretaker government was installed under the former Bangladesh Bank governor Fakhruddin Ahmed as chief adviser in January 2007 and ruled Bangladesh under a state of emergency for the rest of the year. 

This heavily clamped down on freedom of expression and assembly — including Dhaka University's Professor Anwar Hossain and the Daily Star's reporter Tasneem Khalil being picked up by DGFI and later released after coercion and torture, among others. More extreme reports include extrajudicial killings. 

1991-2001: Much to do with Justice Shahabuddin 

The three elections – 1991 (BNP comes to power), 1996 (Awami League comes to power) and 2001 (BNP comes to power) – comprise the decade widely regarded as the most democratic period in Bangladesh in the post-Liberation era. 

While the leadership changes were not without political violence (and emboldening of a two-party political system abetted by frequent changes in political allegiance), the period saw fair and free elections take place — a mark of the democratic process.

Unanimously, one man is credited for this achievement: Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed. 

One uprising and 15 years of military rule

Remember Abu Sayeed, the first martyr of the 2024 July uprising? The killing of the 26-year-old Nur Hossain on 10 November 1987 during Ershad's military regime bore a similar ripple effect. 

Nur was killed when the police fired on a Jubo League rally. He was one of the protesters, now a famous historical photograph, with the words "down with autocracy" painted on the front of his bare chest.   

It was not until 1990 that a mass uprising – starting in October and rejuvenated by Dr Shamsul Alam Khan Milon killing in November — would topple the military dictatorship of Lieut. Gen. H. M. Ershad, who took power in 1982. 

After Ershad was toppled in 1990, "Bangladesh's second chance at democracy" became a resounding call.  

Among other violations of human rights, Ershad's regime (1982-1990) was marred by restricted press freedom and government intervention. It was a period marked by several closures or "muzzling" of newspapers. 

In 1981, president Ziaur Rahman — who founded BNP – was assassinated by army officers in a failed coup. However, it was in the following year that a successful and "bloodless" coup will remove Ziaur's government from power.  

Although a military rule, media freedom fared better from 1975-1982 when Bangladesh saw "gradual liberalisation of the media from state control" wrote Netra News' Kamal Ahmed in "Long struggle for press freedom." However, even then, "the government's interventions into editorial freedom did not end."

Ershad's regime put democratic functions under a tighter leash. 

1971-1976: Liberation, BakSal, assassination and a failure to launch democracy

In the aftermath of the nine-month-long Liberation War, Awami League's Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (one of the pivotal figures behind the Liberation movement) was sworn in as the prime minister on 10 January 1972. 

"Democracy" soon came under threat. Especially from 1973 to 1975, Bangladesh's leadership took a turn towards autocratic tendencies – which saw the killing of freedom fighters with differing views, among other tools of suppression, leading up to the formation of BakSal (Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League) in January 1975 — a one-party state-based government. 

All but four newspapers were banned, Mujib led the parliament to adopt an amendment to the Constitution to make him the President of Bangladesh, effectively for life, merged two other political parties and Awami League into one, and obligated others to join —- BakSal was the antithesis of democracy. 

In August 1975, a military coup ended the Awami League leadership. 

The lead-up to 1971

Commonly dubbed as the Great Divide, the 1947 Partition left lasting wounds on the subcontinent when the colonial British left. It divided the people based on religion between West and East Pakistan (Muslim-majority) and India (Hindu-majority).  

After the British colonial rule, the people of Bangladesh (erstwhile East Pakistan) met another repressive regime — the neo-colonial Pakistan state rule.  

The hegemony of the West Pakistani ruling elite over Pakistan, martial laws and a demeaning attitude towards Bengali culture and the Bengali population bittered relations between the two provinces; and economic disparity coupled with the West's refusal to accept Bangla as East Pakistan's state language did not help the case

Prominent figures like Bengali nationalist Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, A.K. Fazlul Huq, Muhammad Ali Bogra, and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman played pivotal roles in shaping the nation's destiny. 

Key milestones such as the 1952 Language Movement and the 1969 East Pakistan Uprising, sparked by Sheikh Mujib's Six-Point Program of 1966, set the stage for the historic 1970 East Pakistan general elections, where Mujib's party emerged victorious. What followed is etched in history — a nine-month-long bloody war for freedom that ended with Bangladesh's independence.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, a central figure in this journey, was a leader of the Awami League, a political party founded in 1949 as the East Pakistan Awami Muslim League by Bhasani and others. However, the road to democracy after independence has been anything but smooth, marked by political turbulence and numerous setbacks.  

Although Bhasani severed ties with AL and formed a separate party by the late 1950s, he led the mass uprising in 1969 and called for the jailed Mujib's release. Many consider Bhasani's political legacy unparalleled, one which consistently fought for the people from British colonial rule to the post-1971 Liberation War; or as Nurul Kabir puts it in his essay titled The Red Moulana, he was a name which embodies "the ever-oppositional democratic spirit."

That "spirit" in leadership and governance, as liberated Bangladesh's history shows, was scant at best, or absent, at worst in the last 53 years.

When did you last feel free?

Despite liberation movements, military coups, assassinations and autocracy under the guise of a "hybrid regime," democracy continues to elude Bangladesh.

The country has seen three significant mass uprisings: in 1969, which forced the resignation of Pakistan's President Ayub Khan; in 1990, which ended Ershad's military dictatorship; and in 2024, which ousted the autocratic Hasina-led Awami League. Each of these movements underscores a glaring disconnect between the people and their leaders, showing how democracy is often hijacked by those in power — whether through election or force.

For a nation now 53 years old, with at least 33 of those years spent under military rule, post-liberation authoritarianism, or the last 15 years of autocracy, can democracy truly take root?

Bangladesh's democratic record, as assessed by Freedom House, paints a bleak picture. Over the past 50 years, the country has been classified as "Free" for just two years, while the rest of the time it has been deemed "Partly Free" — and even "Not Free" in one instance. These findings highlight the persistent challenges in establishing democratic stability since independence.

In response to these struggles, the Dr Yunus-led interim government has launched several reform initiatives, including a constitutional reform committee, to pave the way for a more democratic future. However, scepticism remains. In a recent column, Kabir criticized the proposed reforms, arguing that the lack of diverse representation risks creating a "patriarchal, Bengali Muslim-majoritarian" constitution. He warned, "If this approach extends to other sectors, Bangladesh stands no chance of breaking free from its old political, economic, and legal order."

The road to democracy in Bangladesh remains as complex as it is fraught with challenges.

While the interim government has been facing a new onslaught of challenges ever since taking office on 8 August and the Chief Advisor has said "criticize us to your heart's content…for media freedom will not be hindered" — the scope for democracy seems to have become visible, sure, but would it be attainable is the bigger question. 

Time will tell. Whilst we wait, institutions – be it the media, regulatory bodies, civil society organisations and beyond – must put their best foot forward, hold the interim government accountable and refrain from falling back on age-old undemocratic practices. After all, this might as well be Bangladesh's third chance at democracy.