How will the interim government shape up?
It is too early to react to the speech by the army chief because he has said we will get more information on the interim government after he discusses it with the president. But one thing to note here is that he mentioned the name of a banned political party—Jamaat-e-Islami—when he said a discussion had been held with the main political parties of the country. Also, he said that he had discussed the current situation with all the big political parties of the country, which is not true. For instance, the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) was not contacted.
Moreover, they did not contact the coordinators of the protesting students' platform (the Students' Movement against Discrimination). He said Prof Asif Nazrul had taken the responsibility of informing the students. These are vague comments. He said things would be clear tomorrow. As long as the demands of the quota reform movement are not fully implemented, the protesters should remain alert.
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The enthusiasm seen during the current movement is unprecedented. Such enthusiasm was not even present during the 1969 Mass Uprising, which was led by an organised leadership. Although the quota reform movement does not have the same format, I have not seen any mistakes made by its leadership so far. Rather, the movement gained more public support and there does not seem to be any loss of momentum. We are witnessing the determination of very ordinary students ready to sacrifice their lives to establish their rights.
The Awami League government lost public support. To stay in power, they applied brutal force. We heard the party's general secretary's comment about Chhatra League and saw how armed ruling party goons attacked the protesters. That made the protesters angrier. Then the (former) prime minister added salt to the injury with her comments. Then six to seven people died in state-sponsored violence. Even that did not frighten the protesters. Then the indiscriminate firing started. That too could not quell the protest, rather the number of students doubled. On August 4, around 100 people died. We have not seen so many deaths of unarmed people during any movement in post-liberation Bangladesh.
The government should have called a cabinet meeting and announced their resignation. Several weeks ago, the prime minister said she would hand the responsibility of trying the perpetrators of the violence to the citizens. If the citizens do take the responsibility for justice, it can only be delivered through the verdict of an election. It was not difficult for the government to do this. This happened before, after the fall of Ershad's regime. He said he would transfer power, but there was no clear-cut process to do that. We offered to create it, and I had drafted the design of that process. So, it could have been done again this time.
Mujahidul Islam Selim is former president of the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB).
Views expressed in this article are the author's own.
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