How Bangladeshi youths forced out leader who ruled for much of their lives

Jannatul Prome aspire to leave Bangladesh to study more after complete her university degree in order to find employment, displeased with a system that she says doesn't reward merit and provides little chance for young people.

We have minimal scope here,said the 21-year-old, who would have left sooner if her family had the resources to pay for both her and her older brother's tuition at overseas colleges at the same time.

Yet, recent events have provided her hope that she might be able return to a Bangladesh that has evolved in the future: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and left the nation last week after 15 years in the presidency. Young protestors, including Prome, drove her out, claiming she had stifled opposition, benefited the wealthy, and deepened inequality with her increasingly dictatorial leadership.

In June, students first flocked Bangladesh's streets to demand an end to laws that reserved up to 30% of government employment for veterans' ancestors who had participated in the nation's 1971 war of independence from Pakistan. Protesters claimed that helped those who were already in the elite and supported Hasina's Awami League, which spearheaded that struggle. Due to the quota and other policies affecting underprivileged groups, just 44% of the civil service jobs were given out on the basis of merit.

It was not by coincidence that these positions were at the core of the movement; in a nation where the economy has recently expanded but has not generated enough steady, well-paid jobs for its educated middle class, these are some of the highest paying and most stable jobs available.

Furthermore, it was not surprising that Generation Z spearheaded this uprising since, while they are not constrained by the outdated taboos and narratives that the quota system reflected, young people like Prome are among those most impacted and disappointed by Bangladesh's lack of opportunities.

When Hasina disparaged their requests in mid-July and questioned who should receive government positions if not the independence warriors, it was evident that they were ready to move past the past.

"Who is going to? The Razakars' grandchildren? In her response, Hasina used a highly derogatory term to describe people who worked with Pakistan to put a stop to Bangladesh's independence movement.

But the phrase was worn as a badge of honor by the student protestors. Marching over the campus of Dhaka University, they chanted, "Who are you? Me? Who am I? Razakar. Who made this statement? The autocrat.

After protestors were killed in clashes with police forces the next day, the demonstrations gained momentum and expanded into a larger uprising against Hasina's administration.

Many of the demonstrators are so young that they are unable to recall a time before Hasina was prime minister, according to Cornell University professor Sabrina Karim, who specializes in political violence and Bangladesh's military history.

Like the generations before them, they grew up hearing tales of the freedom movement, with Hasina's family at its core. Her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was slain in a military coup after serving as Bangladesh's first independent leader. However, Karim stated that compared to their grandparents, the younger demonstrators found far less significance in this story.

"It no longer has the same impact on them as it once did. They also desire something fresh," she remarked.

Hasina's comparison of the student protestors to traitors opened Nourin Sultana Toma's eyes to the difference between what the government could offer and what the young desired. Toma is a 22-year-old student at Dhaka University.

She said that she had seen firsthand how people in Bangladesh lost hope that things would ever get better and gradually grew numb to injustices.

The longest-serving prime minister in the nation took great delight in increasing per capita income and making Bangladesh's economy competitive on a global scale, turning rough roads into winding freeways and fields into textile factories. However, Toma said she witnessed the daily struggles people faced while attempting to get employment or buy necessities, and that she was confronted with abuse and violence when she demanded fundamental rights.

Toma declared, "It could no longer be tolerated."

Youth in Bangladesh were particularly affected by this economic hardship. In a nation of 170 million, 18 million youth do not have a job or attend school, according to Chietigj Bajpaee, a South Asia expert at the Chatham House think tank. Moreover, employment in the private sector shrank much more following the pandemic.

In an attempt to find good employment, many young people attempt to study abroad or relocate abroad after graduating, which is devastating the middle class and causing a brain drain.

Jannatun Nahar Ankan, a 28-year-old Dhaka resident and employee of a nonprofit remarked, "The class divides have grown."

None of the demonstrators appear to have genuinely thought that their movement would be able to overthrow Hasina in spite of these issues.

When he learned that Hasina had resigned and left the nation, 24-year-old Rafij Khan was in the streets getting ready to participate in a demonstration. He kept trying to confirm the news by calling home.

He claimed that over the final days of the protests, individuals from all social backgrounds, faiths, and occupations had joined the students in the streets. Some merely sat there in shock, but now they were hugging each other.

He remarked, "It's impossible to express the happiness people felt that day."

Now that the enormity of the task at hand has set in, some of that enthusiasm is wearing off. Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus took power as the country's acting leader on Thursday. He and his Cabinet, which also includes two leaders of student protests, will need to establish institutions, bring about calm, and get prepared for new elections.

The majority of students hope that while a new political party led by someone other than one of the traditional political dynasties forms, the interim administration has time to fix Bangladesh's institutions.

Khan responded, "I don't know who I would vote for if you asked me to vote in elections right now." "We don't want one dictatorship to be replaced by another."

It is common to refer to the group of young people that took to the streets as the "I hate politics" generation.

However, it is a misconception, according to 26-year-old digital security professional and recent Dhaka University graduate Azaher Uddin Anik.

It is the polarizing politics of Bangladesh that they despise, not politics in general.

And for the first time in a long time, he is optimistic, even if he acknowledges that the structural changes the nation urgently needs might be more challenging than toppling the prime minister.

"What I've learned from my last experience is that anything is possible," he remarked. "And perhaps there is still time."