Govt failed to handle the situation properly
The demand that was placed by student protesters could have been fulfilled through discussion. They had only one demand: that the existing quota system in government jobs be reformed to make space for meritocracy. They did not ask for a change in government or chant slogans against the government. But the government handled the issue from an egoistic stance, and made several wrong decisions while tackling the situation. The way they tried to quell the protests by using Chhatra League, the ruling party's student wing, cannot be justified, either legally or morally. The situation came to what it is today because of that.
It is being said that some political parties have infiltrated the protest. This not something new; political parties usually get involved with this kind of movements. It happened during the protests in Ershad's time and even during the Pakistan period. It is unfortunate that the issue got prolonged and so many lives were lost, which according to various media reports, is about 170. This is too much! This means excessive force has been applied in this situation. The way our law enforcement agencies tackled this situation, using helicopters, is unprecedented. A civil protest should not have been dealt with this way.
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Those who died, about half of them, if not all, were students. These were children! Farhan Faiyaaz, Abu Sayed—losses like these is even harder to process. Also, why were the key point installations, some of which were attacked and burnt down, not protected by the authorities from the beginning? Even the way the police acted shocked us. I saw law enforcement agencies with assault rifle in hand! Overall, I think, the government could not handle this situation properly and is still failing to do so. Bringing the military in and imposing a curfew mean that the government had no other options left. A different message is being projected to the whole world because of military deployment and the curfew.
Regarding the government's narrative that the data centre was burnt down, the question arises: what happened to the back-up for that? Why are those not working? Crores of taka is being lost every day because of internet shutdown. People are complaining that they cannot transact money or pay their electricity bills because of this. When most businesses are dependent on the internet, I do not think shutting the internet service down across the whole country is worth it. Shutdown is okay for a day or two, but for how long will it continue, especially when the violence did not stop completely despite the internet shutdown? Lives were lost even yesterday (Saturday); about 35 people were killed, according to newspapers. Did the past protests—in 1969, for example—not take place when there was no internet? The internet shutdown is causing a great loss to the economy.
Anyway, all we can hope for is that good sense will prevail all over. The government should now properly heed the rest of the protesters' demands. There is not a single demand that cannot be implemented. I have all the sympathy for the students and their movement, which they had started peacefully but unfortunately a lot of lives were lost and much blood shed on the streets. I pray for the souls of those students who died, and for their families.
Brig Gen (retd) Dr M Sakhawat Hussain is former election commissioner of Bangladesh, is senior fellow at the South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance (SIPG), North South University (NSU). He can be reached at hhintlbd@yahoo.com.
Views expressed in this article are the author's own.
This article was published in print on July 23, 2024. Owing to the internet shutdown from the evening of July 18 to July 23, it is being uploaded online on July 24, 2024.
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