The protests led to the flight of Bangladesh’s prime minister

Another one "is not related to Estonia" topic. But the Estonian-language media does write about it.

I happened to be watching the world news this afternoon just as the serious events unfolded. I can’t say I knew much about Bangladesh at that point. But the matter became interesting, and so I researched the whole story a bit. And now I share my discoveries with you. Who cares, it matters, who doesn’t care, it doesn’t matter.

Bangladesh is a country in South Asia. Looking at the map, it lies to the east of India and is surrounded by India on almost all sides. Its area is nothing special – 148,000 square kilometers, or a little more than three Estonia – but the population is only 175 million, which makes this country the 8th most populous country in the world. According to forecasts, the population will grow to 200 million by 2045.

The language spoken in the country is Bengali, which is also widely spoken in some parts of India bordering Bangladesh. Bengali is also closely related to most of the languages ​​spoken in India, while it is more distantly related to almost all languages ​​spoken in Europe (except Estonian, Finnish, Hungarian, Maltese, Basque and a few others). Most of the people of Bangladesh are Muslims. Bangladesh is very famous for its textile industry which is the largest in the world. Thanks to the textile industry, the economy of Bangladesh has grown considerably in recent decades.

However, the history and political life of Bangladesh has been full of twists and turns. Let’s start from the beginning to understand where they have come to this moment.

Until World War II, the territories of Bangladesh were part of the British Empire. However, after the World War, the British wanted to get rid of their territory in South Asia as painlessly as possible. It was quite a difficult task, because the peoples who lived in this area were very different linguistically, culturally and politically.

So it was decided that two different countries would be formed in this territory. One country – India – for Hindus, and another country – Pakistan – for Muslims. Bangladesh thus initially also came under Pakistan. Today’s Pakistan came to be known as West Pakistan, while Bangladesh became East Pakistan.

It soon became clear that the two Pakistans were also too different to form a common state. The conflicts finally led to a war between the two Pakistans in 1971. The war also ended in 1971 with the declaration of the state of Bangladesh.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the father of the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, who resigned today and fled the country, became the first leader of the country of Bangladesh. He had great popular support as he had spoken for a long time about the need to create a Bangladeshi state. He was a symbol of the freedom struggle, he had also been imprisoned by the Pakistani authorities because of his views. So the people elected him to power.

Years passed, but life in Bangladesh was quite miserable. Therefore, in 1975, he understood that in the case of democratic elections, the people would probably not elect him again. An alternative solution had to be found to maintain power.

The solution for this was the establishment of a new constitution. With the new constitution, he ended the election of this democratic bull and banned all his political opponents, thereby essentially guaranteeing himself unlimited power in the country.

However, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was able to enjoy unlimited power for only a few months when a military coup took place. The Sheikh was removed from power and killed. Ziaur Rahman, a military figure, came to power and later founded his own party – Bangladesh Nationalist Party or BNP.

Ziaur Rahman was in power until 1981, when there was another military coup by Ziaur’s former allies and subordinates. Ziaur was removed from power and killed.

Hussain Muhammad Ershad now came to power. He was not a special promoter of democracy either. Elections continued to not take place. Until 1990, when great riots broke out and he was removed from power.

Then things got better. In 1991, the first truly democratic elections were held in a long time. The winner was the BNP, which was now led by her husband instead of the murdered former head of state.

From then on, the elections took place after an indefinite period of time. Usually somewhere every four or five years, but it’s probably not written anywhere directly when the elections should take place. It is up to the current leader to decide when or if he will hold elections.

Today’s prime minister won the elections for the first time in 1996 as the leader of the political party Awami League founded by his father. Then he won the elections in 2009 and also all the elections that have taken place since 2009.

In other words, Bangladesh is a country that has been ruled by two rival families with alternating success for all its 53 years of independence. On one side is the Awami League, which today is headed by the daughter of the first leader of Bangladesh, on the other side is the BNP, which is headed today by the son of the former head of state, Ziaur Rahman. There are other political forces, but their real impact on Bangladeshi politics is marginal.

It has now been almost 6 years since the last election in Bangladesh. The people have asked their leader again and again when the next elections will be held. But there has been no answer. In fact, the answer has been given that due to the unstable political situation, it should not be possible to hold elections in the near future. This is one of the things that culminated today with the change of the head of state.

Another important fact, which is directly related to the matter, is the demonstrations of Bangladeshi students against the organization of the labor market. Namely, there is a law in Bangladesh according to which a third of all jobs are guaranteed to the descendants of those who participated in the Bangladesh Liberation War. However, this makes it extremely difficult for students who do not belong to this elite group to enter the labor market.

Students came to the streets. The whole country saw the courage of the students and soon the whole country was on the streets. The head of state sent the army to disperse the demonstrations. According to various data, more than 300 people have died in the demonstrations, about 100 of them in the last 24 hours. But it was all worth it and the people got rid of another authoritarian leader.

Whether it was good or bad in the end, the future will tell. On the one hand, one of the two families is now out of the power struggle, as all the closest relatives of the fugitive head of state live outside Bangladesh. On the other hand, the country’s military structures have now announced the takeover of power and "interim government" formation. The history of Bangladesh has shown that when the military starts running the country, nothing good comes out of it.

Maybe some will find it an interesting read, maybe not. I myself would like it if someone would break down and explain some topical issues in the world. I don’t want to sound bad, but the start of a major war in the Middle East is probably not far away, so those who want to explain the topic can prepare themselves.