After the horrific events of the past week, Bangladesh faces a reckoning

Life in Dhaka is slowly returning to normal, but something has changed. It feels as though a Rubicon has been crossed.

If the shocking events of the past week have not been enough to persuade the powers that be that Bangladesh requires fundamental, far-reaching, structural change, then I don’t know what will.

Make no mistake, this was never about just quotas – or to the extent that it once was, that issue lies dead and buried since the government’s efforts to shut down the protests took a deadly turn on Tuesday.

Let’s start at the start. Quota reform has always been a proxy for a critique of more far-reaching corruption and cronyism. What the students were really revolting against is the injustice of a system and set-up where who you know and who your family is matter more than what you are and what you can do.

The problem with the quotas for freedom fighters and their families is not so much that anyone has an issue with freedom fighters and their families per se, as it is that we all know that the quota system exists as a tool for patronage and cronyism.

If those availing themselves of the freedom fighters quota really were all genuine freedom fighters or their families, that would be one thing: but we know very well that for vast swathes of those claiming the privilege, they are no such thing. The certification process has been corrupted beyond repair.

We all know genuine freedom fighters who have never availed themselves of a certificate out of distaste for their patriotism and sacrifice being commoditised in this way, and we all know that there are thousands of certificate-holders with zero connection to our Liberation War but with friends and connections in the right places.

Next comes the issue of leaving the matter in the hands of the judiciary. At the risk of edging into contempt of court, I am afraid that this has never been a persuasive line of argument.

Simply put, no one believes that the judiciary operates independently when it comes to political cases or cases in which the government has an interest, and that distrust tells its own story.

Finally, the steps the government took to stamp out the protests brought into sharp relief everything that is wrong with our system of governance, if you can even dignify it with that name.

First, they sent in their storm-troopers from the early hours of Tuesday morning, leading to over 200 student protesters being injured. That too, the proximate cause of the decision to send in the thugs was that they believed that the protesters had disrespected the prime minister. This is not something we expect to see in a democracy.

When this failed to control the protests, they sent in armed police. It is unclear what instructions they were given, but we know for a fact that at least one unarmed student was shot at point blank range – and the dozens killed during the first three days speak eloquently of the disproportionate force that was used. The death toll multiplied in the following days, when the police and then the army faced off against the violent agitators who had replaced the students at the barricades.

But by then the fuse had been well and truly lit and this was no longer about quota reform.

In its way, this whole sorry tale neatly encapsulates everything that is wrong in Bangladesh right now.

The government needs to understand, first, the level of anger and frustration that the country’s young people are feeling which led to this conflagration in the first place. Secondly, they need to understand how their arrogant and tin-eared response not only backfired dramatically but will never work for them again.

The Awami League should understand better than anyone the power of the Bangladeshi people. It should know that they will not be dictated and they will not be dominated. To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln: You can dominate some of the Bangladeshis all of the time and all of the Bangladeshis some of the time. But you can’t dominate all of the Bangladeshis all of the time.

Once upon a time the Awami League would have been at the vanguard of such a movement. The fact that it no longer apparently recognises itself when it looks at idealistic and committed students tells us everything we need to know about the corrosive and corrupting nature of its 15 years in power.

The fact that it was under an Awami League government that an unarmed and defenseless Abu Sayeed was shot down in cold blood should give the party serious pause for thought as to where they have come to.

If there can be one bronze lining – even silver is too much after such an appalling loss of life – to the horrific events of the past week it is that Bangladesh must now face a reckoning. The time is now long overdue for us to take a long hard look in the mirror.

For too long the powers that be have been allergic to criticism, allergic to introspection, allergic to reform, treating even the mention of it as disloyalty and disrespect.

For too long have we been all forced to pretend that everything is fine and that we never had it so good.

That charade is well and truly over. Nothing is fine.

They need to first recognise the problem and admit that there is one before they can hope to fix it.

After the events of the past week there can be no two ways about it. Things cannot go on this way anymore.

Something’s got to give.

Zafar Sobhan is Editor, Dhaka Tribune.

This article was first published on Dhaka Tribune.