The flight of a prime minister from his country by helicopter, even if it constitutes an impressive cinematic image, is almost always the result of political chaos and does not immediately portend positive developments. The flight of the Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina by helicopter from Dhaka last Monday, confirms the finding as to its first leg.
Hasina, who fled to India initially, possibly heading for “exile” in London, left the country after massive anti-government protests in which more than 400 people have died since early July. However, a day later, and while the country of 170 million people is in chaos, there was an incredibly positive development: the army announced that the Muhammad Yunus84 years old, awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, the so-called “banker of the poor”, will head the country’s transitional government.
The invitation from the army
It is unusual for the military, which in Bangladesh has a history of coups, to appeal to a banker to save the country. But the initiative is the best option in this particular situation. Yunus is very popular in his hometown. And rightly so: thanks to his bank’s (Grameen Bank) system of microloans to the have-nots, millions of people have been lifted out of extreme poverty. For Hasina, Yunus “drank the blood of the poor”. He himself had tried to establish a party in his country in 2007, but the government camp’s (Hasina’s) war against him was so fierce that he abandoned the attempt.
Hasina’s conversion
Hasina was serving her fourth term as Bangladesh’s leader. Although she took credit for the country’s economic recovery in the early years of her rule, she was later elected an authoritarian leader who suppressed opposition voices and wrecked the economy. As the daughter of the assassinated first president of Bangladesh Sheikh Mujibur RahmanHasina enjoyed for years the respect of citizens who saw in her the continuation of the consolidation of the power of independent Bangladesh.
Her father is considered among the founders of the state and declared the country’s independence from Pakistan in March 1971. Pakistan’s military dictatorship launched an attack on East Pakistan, as Bangladesh was then called. Genocide followed and in 1972, after mediation by India, Bangladesh was recognized as an independent country by 86 UN countries. Pakistan recognized the independence of Bangladesh in 1974. Rahman, the first president of Bangladesh, was assassinated on 15 August 1975 along with his wife and three sons by soldiers. In effect, his daughter took over the continuation of the political dynasty.
Pressure from the opposition
Last year, shortly before the elections which Hasina won again, the opposition, despite years of repression, began to regroup with the main argument being the poor state of the economy. The image of the prime minister as the architect of economic recovery fifteen years ago had long since worn off. Its economic policy had relied heavily on Bangladesh’s garment industry without tapping into other sources of wealth and growth, widening social inequalities in the country. The prices of basic goods skyrocketed and the country’s foreign exchange reserves dwindled significantly. The government, however, managed to hang on to power and Hasina asked China and India to help the battered economy. She continued to exercise repression, imprisoning her opponents and bringing thousands of citizens to trial every day.
When student-led protests broke out in early July over a quota (30%) in public sector jobs for the descendants of Bangladesh’s independence war, Hasina’s government responded with a harsh crackdown. The army tried to convince the prime minister to resign and did not join her. The placement of Yunus as head of the transitional government gives hope that the world’s eighth most populous country, which supplies 15 million human labor forces to 176 countries, including Greece, to return to democratic normality.
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