Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel laureate known for his groundbreaking work in microcredit and microfinance has been appointed to head the army-backed interim government in Bangladesh after weeks of escalating protests by students against the country’s government.
Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who had been in power since 2009 resigned and fled the country when the initially peaceful protests turned deadly under her reign.
Following Hasina’s resignation, a new interim government was formed with Yunus, who took the oath on Aug. 8 and was chosen after an agreement among military officials, student organizations and civic leaders.
The appointment of a new interim government follows months of escalating protests that have gripped the nation since June, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of protesters and a violation of democratic freedoms in the form of government authoritarianism.
Protests began in Bangladesh in early June, when the country’s High Court ruled that the government’s 2018 decision to abolish its quota system was illegal and ordered its reinstatement.
The quota system for government jobs was first established in 1971 after Bangladesh gained independence from Pakistan. It allocated a percentage of civil service jobs to the children and grandchildren of freedom fighters who fought for the country’s independence and other minority communities.
The system reserved 30 percent of government jobs for the descendants of freedom fighters, 10 percent for women, 10 percent for ‘backward’ districts, 5 percent for ethnic minorities and 1 percent for people with physical disabilities, totaling 56 percent of the country’s civil service jobs allocated to specific groups.
This system worked in the 70s, when Bangladesh had a population of around 70 million, but currently, it leaves the rest of the country–with a population of 172 million people–to compete for the remaining 44 percent of civil service jobs.
The government abolished it in 2018 after massive protests led by students who argued that the system was unfair and outdated. This effectively reduced the reserved quotas for first and second-class government jobs to zero percent, opening up opportunities for merit-based recruitment.
Sarah Kabir, a freshman from Bangladesh studying computer science at Howard University, said that students like her in Bangladesh count on finding employment with the government.
“Government jobs are something that most [graduating] students are aiming for and because of the quota system they are very difficult to get,” Kabir said. “There are almost no jobs in the private sector in Bangladesh that pay a livable wage.”
The lack of opportunities in both the private and the public sectors has left the country’s youth frustrated.
“Students that are really talented and have perfect scores often don’t get the opportunities they deserve,” she said.
Upset with the nation’s ongoing economic struggles, students took to the streets. Peaceful protesters were attacked by pro-government student groups, while the government used excessive force to suppress the movement.
More than 300 deaths have been reported, with the government taking measures such as detaining student protestors, declaring a nationwide curfew, shutting down internet access, deploying the military, and announcing shoot-on-sight orders.
“The Bangladesh government has shut down the internet for a couple of days so that the world cannot see their level of brutality, their authoritarianism,”said Abraaz Aryan Khan, a junior from Bangladesh studying at Howard University.
As the disruption of communication channels escalated beyond public broadcasts, it affected personal communication as well.
“We could not even communicate with our family members back home for a while,” he said.
On July 21, after much escalation, the Supreme Court of Bangladesh cut down the quotas, bringing the new total reserved seats from 56 percent to 7 percent.
The country’s population, which previously wanted the end of the quota system, now wanted an apology from Hasina and her administration after numerous deaths and injuries.
The Supreme Court’s decision to scale back the quota reservations did little to quell the unrest. Protesters returned to the streets, ignoring curfew and demanding justice in the form of an upheaval of the current government.
Arafat Anjum Khan, a junior computer information systems major at Howard University from Bangladesh expressed concerns over the authoritarian stance taken by the government.
“This isn’t just about the quota system, it’s about the broader trend of shrinking democratic space,” he said. “Internet blackouts not only prevent people from organizing but also cut off access to information and communication channels,” Khan said “Curfews and crackdowns on peaceful protests send a clear message that dissent will not be tolerated.”
In a final attempt to put a stop to the protesters, the police fired rubber bullets at demonstrators calling for Hasina’s resignation where more than 90 people were killed on Aug. 4.
On Aug. 5, Hasina resigned and fled to neighboring India, where her requests to seek asylum in the U.S. and the UK have been denied.
Copy edited by Camiryn Stepteau
