Rise of anti-politics

Wednesday 7th August, 2024

The hurly-burly is done and Bangladesh is struggling to collect itself. A hurriedly formed interim government has undertaken the uphill task of bringing order out of chaos. Thankfully, there are signs of protesters responding to calls for calm positively. One can only hope that the trouble-torn SAARC nation will regain political stability soon and there will be no more shocks to its economy. There are no winners in political battles that entail enormous economic costs.

The situation Bangladesh found itself in towards the latter stages of Sheikh Hasina’s authoritarian rule bore some remarkable similarities to that in Sri Lanka during Mahinda Rajapaksa’s second presidential term. Hasina presided over an era of economic growth, as Rajapaksa did, but human rights abuses and attacks on the Opposition and democracy abounded on her watch. The last Bangladesh general election, boycotted by the main Opposition party, saw a very low voter turnout, which was about 42%. It was a clear sign of public disillusionment with the legislature, and the mob invasion of the Bangladesh parliament and acts of vandalism therein, on Monday, came as no surprise. Mayhem could have been averted if a free and fair election had been held.

If the Mahinda Rajapaksa government had not fallen in 2015, perhaps, the people would have taken to the streets, the way the Bangladesh protesters did although economic problems here at the time were not so severe as to drive the people to riot. The regime change in that year had a calming effect on the country, and it was in 2022 that the people rose against the Rajapaksas and their cronies, having made the mistake of voting them in again to spite the Yahapalana camp. Ousted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa could return home after fleeing overseas because there had been no bloodbath. The signs are that Hasina will not be able to return to Bangladesh in the foreseeable future.

What the Bangladesh uprising that ousted PM Hasina and her government signifies is the rise of anti-politics, which can act as a catalyst for change and reform but undermines the fundamental principles of democracy and political institutions, such as Parliament, unless addressed constructively. Sri Lanka is no stranger to anti-politics, which fuelled widespread anti-government protests in 2022 and subsequently led to economic reforms.

Economic reforms, however, cannot stand alone; they have to be buttressed by political and social reforms if they are to remain sustainable and yield the desired results. There has been no serious attempt to drain the political swamp; instead, the government politicians and their cronies continue to wallow in it. Sri Lanka is badly in need of a formidable, inclusive social reform movement to unite and mobilise the people to act as a countervailing force against authoritarian governments and work towards greater good.

Hasina obviously did not learn from Sri Lanka’s experience in 2022; she only made references thereto in a bid to vilify her political rivals. Perhaps, she may have thought she would be free from trouble as her country’s economy was doing well. She continued to rule Bangladesh with an iron fist in a bid to ensure that her government would remain unchallenged. She is now an asylum seeker!

Sri Lankan leaders had better learn from Hasina’s predicament. Having contained the economic crisis to some extent, they seem to think they will face no trouble on the political front because there are no scarcities and queues. They keep abusing power in every conceivable manner, cutting corrupt deals such as the on-arrival visa scam, shielding the corrupt like the cricket administrators, undermining the judiciary, suppressing democratic dissent, trifling with the people’s franchise, and manipulating the legislative process to further their own interests. Let them be warned that they are courting danger, and the day may not be far off when they are left with no alternative but to do as Hasina did on Monday unless they heed public opinion and reform their ways.