Normalcy is returning gradually in some areas while new fault lines are appearing in others; nobody knows for sure whether some more worrisome things may come to the surface from within the institutional wreckage. The fact is, no one has seen such a messy Bangladesh after the fall of a regime in mass uprising before.
Except for the armed forces, all other key institutions of the state collapsed like a house of cards after Sheikh Hasina resigned as prime minister and fled the country for India on 5 August in the face of an extraordinary student uprising marking an end to her 15-year-long regimented rule.
Her abrupt departure left Bangladesh without a government for the first time in its history, creating a constitutional vacuum for several days until an interim government led by Dr Muhammad Yunus was formed on the night of 8 August, embarking on an uphill battle to address the unprecedented national crisis.
A quick restoration of order and discipline in every level of the administration – from central to local, from judiciary to police and from financial to health, education, sports and cultural sector – has become the first order of the day for the Yunus-led makeshift administration.
The health of the economy, however, offers his team no time to breathe a sigh of relief. Rather it puts another big task on his team’s shoulder to cleanse the virus from the lifeblood of the economy plagued by high inflationary pressure, rampant corruption and financial mismanagement brought about by the ousted regime.
The series of events that unfolded fast after 5 August may not be compared to any other disastrous situation as economist Zahid Hussain writes on his social media on the ninth day of the Yunus-led team in office – “governing a country from the institutional wreckage is more difficult than running a country ravaged by a war.”
There are many anecdotes around the world that show a well-established state can survive well for days without a government where the consequences are less profound as state institutions stay functional.
But after the fall of Hasina, the situation crumbled fast and was alarmingly worrisome.
Key institutions of the state were never allowed to grow during her 15 years’ rule though she frequently described her regimes as “years of development”.
After her fall the real state of all institutions was exposed: they were mere skeletons bearing the names and buried under the shadow of her government’s “mega infrastructure development muscles”.
How Hasina built her “Iron Dome”
Returning to power, winning a landslide victory in December 2009 parliamentary election, Hasina moved towards the opposite direction from her electoral pledges she had named “A charter of change”, which was full of lofty promises to strengthen the judiciary, the parliament, the law enforcement agencies and the election system.
She wrote her own playbook.
All the key institutions such as the civil bureaucracy, the police and the judiciary were deeply politicised, installing either partisan operatives or those who were loyal to her, to bring the institutions gradually under her thumb.
The tactic of the Hasina regime was applied strictly: those who would serve her by implementing her partisan agenda would get promotion and good posting. Those who would fail to do so would either be made OSD or be deprived of due promotion. Those who belong to other than Awami League families would also be cornered everywhere in her administration. The criteria for professionalism and merits were sent to exile.
Her party men grabbed all the local government bodies such as city corporations, municipalities and upazila parishads in the several state-managed elections which helped her to consolidate her power base at the grassroots and to crush the opposition across the country.
She did not even hesitate to politicise all higher educational institutions by appointing partisan people to the offices of vice-chancellors in all public universities.
Partisan heads of the university administrations had to provide undue favour to her party’s students front Chhatra League to reign supreme on the campuses and to crush dissenting voices among students.
The law enforcement agencies were always ready to crush any opposition movement against the Hasina government. The judiciary, especially judges and magistrates in lower judiciary, were directed to deny bail to arrested opposition party workers. Rampant abuse of the draconian cyber security laws against people who dared to raise dissenting voices ultimately created an atmosphere of fear.
Businesses were forced to extend their support to her regime. Some of them were allowed to unlawfully take over banks and then rob them…
Read More: How Team Yunus face wreckage of Hasina’s ‘Iron Dome’