(Bloomberg) -- Nobel Prize-winning economist Muhammad Yunus was chosen to lead a new interim government in Bangladesh after a student-led uprising forced long-serving premier Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee the country.
Making Yunus the government’s chief adviser — equivalent to the rank of prime minister — met a key demand of the students, but tension was still simmering on the streets of Dhaka and other cities on Friday.
With the police on strike, mobs were hunting down the former premier’s supporters and destroying their property, and there were reports of attacks on members of religious minorities. The military said it would ensure security in the country, and President Mohammed Shahabuddin promised that elections would be held as soon as possible.
The uprising began in late June as student leaders took to the streets demanding an end to a system of government job quotas. The Supreme Court later rolled back most of the quotas, but that failed to quell the unrest as protesters turned their focus to the more general problem of youth unemployment.
Who is running Bangladesh now?
Yunus heads an interim government made up of 16 other advisers. They will be in charge of the day-to-day running of the country and their priority is to bring back law and order. The interim administration is backed by the military, which played a pivotal role in getting Hasina to step down. A key question is when the country of over 171 million people will hold elections, or if Yunus will reveal a timeline for the national vote. The opposition wants elections in the next 90 days, though judging from history, that may be optimistic. The last military-backed interim government, installed following a coup in 2007, stayed on for two years before relinquishing power and holding elections.
Was this a coup?
The army’s involvement is no surprise given Bangladesh’s history of political turmoil and military takeovers. Hasina’s resignation was announced by Army Chief Waker-Uz-Zaman in a televised address, rather than the president, who officially accepted it. Zaman said he was taking responsibility for the country but was working with the civilian president and taking note of the students’ demands. The president then disregarded a constitutional provision that says he must pick an elected lawmaker who commands a majority in parliament to replace Hasina, and dissolved the body instead on murky legal grounds.
What’s happened to Sheikh Hasina?
Hasina flew to India on a Bangladeshi military aircraft and is now at an undisclosed location. India was supposed to be a brief stopover for Hasina before she headed to the UK, but that changed because of concerns over her safety in that country, which has a large Bangladeshi diaspora. India’s foreign ministry has said it’s up to Hasina “to take things forward,” signaling that New Delhi will allow her to stay as a guest for as long as she needs. In an interview with Bloomberg, her son Sajeeb Wazed said she won’t return to the country. However, she indicated to other media outlets that she will go back to Bangladesh for the elections. Supporters of her Awami League party were reportedly regrouping after the protests.
How did the unrest in Bangladesh spread?
When opposition parties swung behind the student 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. 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 does the political instability mean for Bangladesh’s economy?
Curfews and internet blackouts during the disturbances are likely to have dealt a blow to Bangladesh’s $455 billion economy. The country is in a precarious position, with foreign reserves falling to $20.5 billion at the end of July from $21.8 billion a month earlier. Bangladesh went to the International Monetary Fund in 2022 for help to rebuild those reserves and 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.
--With assistance from Sudhi Ranjan Sen.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
