After mass protests compelled long-term 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 in the direction of true democracy.
The interim authorities that was put in place to take care of 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 well-equipped to put the foundations for a brand new, actually democratic Bangladesh. He can draw on the experiences of Bangladeshi civil society to allow social cohesion and convey a couple of much-needed reckoning with the nation’s tortured previous. There are various methods during which he can shield and increase civic areas. He can, for instance, disband safety models chargeable for enforced disappearances and torture, reform the much-maligned NGO Affairs Bureau to make sure it helps civil society, or amend the Overseas Donations Legislation which creates a bureaucratic maze for civil society to obtain worldwide funding.
He ought to, nonetheless, act quick, as historical past tells us moments of alternative and optimism like this may be fleeting. After a dictatorial regime is eliminated by way of revolution, democratic buildings can fall prey to a rotation of elites. Within the absence of a plan for what’s subsequent, pro-democracy parts may be overwhelmed and derailed by fast-moving occasions.
In such situations, nationalist and authoritarian forces, who proceed to carry energy resulting from their alliances with the clergy and navy, usually fill the rising energy vacuum. At occasions, the navy itself takes over. In different cases, leaders introduced in as representatives of democratic forces flip to repression themselves to attempt to maintain every thing collectively.
In Sudan, for instance, the 2019 overthrow of strongman President Omar al-Bashir was adopted by a number of failed makes an attempt at a democratic transition and ultimately a navy coup in 2021. Years later, civic area violations proceed unabated and the nation remains to be devastated by battle.
In Pakistan, an preliminary navy coup in 1958 supposedly aimed toward creating area for a extra secure democracy was adopted by a number of many years of navy rule and protracted assaults on civil society. Authorities within the nation proceed to silence dissent with crackdowns on activists, protesters, and journalists.
In Ethiopia, when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed acquired the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for lastly securing a peace take care of Eritrea, hopes have been excessive for regional peace and stability. Since then, nonetheless, he has presided over a bloody civil battle during which mass atrocities have been dedicated. The nation is in turmoil, with human rights teams urging authorities to cease their crackdown on civic area and respect the rights of political opponents, journalists, and activists.
If Professor Yunus’s authorities fails to embrace civil society in resolution making and shore up democratic establishments, post-Hasina Bangladesh may also fall into these pitfalls. However these are, in fact, not the one doable situations. After a revolution, pro-democracy forces may also keep agency and allow the emergence of extra complicated, but in addition infinitely extra constructive, realities.
Sri Lanka, the place widespread protests compelled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign and flee the nation two years in the past, is one instance. Though issues have been removed from excellent, a transition of energy occurred by way of established programs of democracy within the nation. Final month, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who ran on a 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 clawback. Regardless of vital resistance from institution forces, Chile’s widespread protests in 2019-2022 towards financial inequality led to a collection of reforms in schooling, healthcare and pensions. Guatemala, the place in January the elected president was inaugurated regardless of repeated makes an attempt by the previous regime to scuttle a peaceable switch of energy, may also supply helpful classes for Bangladesh’s nascent authorities. In each these cases civil society teams performed a key position.
Whereas revolutions and widespread uprisings didn’t produce civic utopias and excellent democracies in any of those nations, in addition they didn’t end in a return to sq. one.
Bangladesh’s interim authorities ought to take note of these examples the place civic society secured vital victories in tough and complicated circumstances. It ought to, nonetheless, additionally study from instances the place democratic forces failed to forestall the strongmen they helped topple from ultimately being changed by equally corrupt, anti-democratic leaders.
It’s unrealistic to anticipate any new authorities to supply passable reforms in all areas and an ideal democracy in a single day, particularly after many years of authoritarian rule. However numerous examples all over the world present that constructing a greater future on the ruins left by long-term authoritarian leaders is feasible – so long as the brand new management acts with dedication, continues the dialogue with civil society, and stays on a democratic course.
If the interim authorities of Yunus will get it incorrect, and the brand new management begins to attempt to stifle democratic dissent by suppressing civil society and clamping down on protests – whether or not these protests are by those that assist the earlier regime or others who’re impatient for change – errors made throughout previous transitions elsewhere would possibly find yourself being repeated in Bangladesh. In such a state of affairs, the sustained protests that eliminated Hasina, and Yunus’s tenure as chief, can be lowered to footnotes in an extended historical past of authoritarian rule.
But when Professor Yunus will get it proper, attracts from the profitable expertise of different nations, and lays the foundations for a strong democracy in Bangladesh, he might develop into a Mandela-like inspirational determine, and supply different nations in South Asia, the place civic freedoms are broadly repressed, with a regional instance of a profitable post-revolutionary transition. Many within the worldwide neighborhood stand able to assist him.
Bangladesh is at a crossroads, and how Yunus and his advisors are in a position to navigate 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 the writer’s personal and don’t essentially replicate Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.