After mass protests pressured Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee the nation in early August, Bangladesh discovered itself in a singular second of alternative to chart a path towards true democracy.
The interim authorities created to handle the legacy of Hasina’s 15-year authoritarian rule is led by Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus and consists of civil society leaders.
Yunus, a celebrated civil society activist, is effectively outfitted to put the muse for a brand new and actually democratic Bangladesh. It could possibly harness the experiences of Bangladeshi civil society to allow social cohesion and convey a few much-needed reckoning with the nation’s tortured previous. There are numerous methods you may defend and develop civic areas. It could possibly, for instance, disband safety models chargeable for enforced disappearances and torture, reform the much-maligned NGO Affairs Workplace to make sure it helps civil society, or amend the International Donations Regulation that creates a bureaucratic labyrinth for that civil society receives worldwide funding.
Nevertheless, it is best to act shortly, as historical past tells us moments of alternative and optimism like this may be fleeting. As soon as a dictatorial regime is overthrown by revolution, democratic buildings can fall sufferer to elite turnover. Within the absence of a plan for the long run, pro-democracy parts could also be overwhelmed and derailed by speedy occasions.
In such settings, nationalist and authoritarian forces, which proceed to carry energy due to their alliances with the clergy and the navy, usually fill the rising energy vacuum. Generally the navy themselves take energy. In different instances, leaders appointed as representatives of democratic forces themselves resort to repression to attempt to preserve every thing collectively.
In Sudan, for instance, the overthrow of President Omar al-Bashir in 2019 was adopted by a number of failed makes an attempt at democratic transition and, lastly, a navy coup in 2021. Years later, violations of civic area proceed unabated and the nation stays devastated for the battle. .
In Pakistan, an preliminary navy coup in 1958 supposedly meant to create area for a extra steady democracy was adopted by a number of many years of navy rule and protracted assaults on civil society. The nation’s authorities proceed to silence dissent with repression towards activists, protesters and journalists.
In Ethiopia, when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed acquired the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for lastly reaching a peace take care of Eritrea, there have been excessive hopes for regional peace and stability. Nevertheless, he has since presided over a bloody civil battle by which mass atrocities have been dedicated. The nation is in turmoil, with human rights teams urging authorities to finish the repression of civic area and respect the rights of political opponents, journalists and activists.
If Professor Yunus’s authorities fails to incorporate civil society in decision-making and shore up democratic establishments, post-Hasina Bangladesh can also fall into these pitfalls. However these are, in fact, not the one doable eventualities. After a revolution, pro-democracy forces also can maintain agency and permit the emergence of extra complicated, but additionally infinitely extra constructive, realities.
Sri Lanka, the place widespread protests pressured President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign and flee the nation two years in the past, is one instance. Though issues have been removed from good, a transition of energy occurred by way of the nation’s established democratic methods. Final month, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who ran on the promise of higher governance and stability, gained Sri Lanka’s presidential election.
Chile is one other instance of how democratic forces can persevere within the face of elite restoration. Regardless of vital resistance from institution forces, Chile’s standard protests in 2019-2022 towards financial inequality led to a collection of reforms in schooling, healthcare and pensions. Guatemala, the place the president-elect took workplace in January regardless of the outdated regime’s repeated makes an attempt to thwart a peaceable switch of energy, can also supply helpful classes for Bangladesh’s nascent authorities. In each instances, civil society teams performed a key function.
Whereas revolutions and standard uprisings didn’t produce civic utopias or good democracies in any of those international locations, neither did they lead to a return to the place to begin.
The interim authorities of Bangladesh ought to take note of these examples the place civil society has gained necessary victories in troublesome and complicated circumstances. Nevertheless, it must also study from instances the place democratic forces failed to stop the strongmen they helped overthrow from ultimately being changed by equally corrupt undemocratic leaders.
It’s unrealistic to anticipate a brand new authorities to supply passable reforms in all areas and excellent democracy in a single day, particularly after many years of authoritarian rule. However numerous examples world wide present that it’s doable to construct a greater future on the ruins left by long-standing authoritarian leaders, so long as new leaders act decisively, proceed dialogue with civil society, and keep a democratic course.
If the Yunus interim authorities will get it unsuitable and the brand new management begins to attempt to stifle democratic dissent by repressing civil society and suppressing protests – whether or not from those that help the earlier regime or others who’re impatient for change – the errors dedicated throughout previous transitions elsewhere might find yourself being repeated in Bangladesh. In such a situation, the sustained protests that ousted Hasina and Yunus’ tenure as chief could be diminished to footnotes in a protracted historical past of authoritarian rule.
But when Professor Yunus does it proper, builds on the profitable expertise of different international locations and lays the muse for a robust democracy in Bangladesh, he might grow to be an inspirational determine like Mandela and supply different South Asian international locations, the place freedoms Civic protests are extensively repressed, with one regional instance of a profitable post-revolutionary transition. Many within the worldwide neighborhood are able to help him.
Bangladesh is at a crossroads, and the way Yunus and his advisors are in a position to navigate the present political dynamics whereas respecting human rights and civic freedoms will decide the way forward for its democracy.
The views expressed on this article are these of the creator and don’t essentially mirror the editorial place of Al Jazeera.
