BANGLADESH OPPOSITION STAGES PROTESTS AS IT CHALLENGES PM HASINA

‘Fight for survival’

The government on Saturday deployed more than 30,000 law enforcement personnel in the capital while ruling party leaders and AL activists took to the streets and different entry points in Dhaka, with the apparent aim of preventing the movement of BNP supporters, Al Jazeera has learned.

“Our interest is to protect common people from any harm,” he said. Asked about the presence of AL activists alongside the police, Akter said: “Any political party can have people on the street as long as it doesn’t cause a public nuisance.”

These actions, however, did not deter tens of thousands like Islam from reaching Dhaka to protest against what they call “an autocratic and repressive regime” that has been in power “without people’s mandate”.

As well as deleting his Messenger account and altering his Facebook profile, Islam said he was able to pass the police checkpoints and enter Dhaka by presenting himself as an everyday person going about their business.

Monsur Jilani came to Saturday’s rally from the southeastern district of Cumilla. A BNP district-level leader, Jilani has served nearly seven months in jail in two stints in the past three years.

Poet and writer Kazi Abdullah Yusuf joined the protest, frustrated by the culture of fear under the Hasina government. More than 2,000 people have been jailed in the last two years under the “Digital Security Act”, which the United Nations has said “imposes harsh punishments for a wide range of acts that are not clearly defined”.

“I voted for Hasina in 2009 but she has turned into an autocratic ruler. We don’t have freedom of expression anymore and it’s stifling,” Yusuf said.

He added that the skyrocketing prices of essential items, fuel price hikes and power cuts compelled him to protest against the government.

“The Awami League government has long been saying that it has ushered us into a new era of development. The truth is, I am finding it very difficult to make ends meet now,” he said.

High energy prices triggered by the Russia-Ukraine war have significantly reduced its export orders from Western countries while at the same time massively devaluing the local currency against the US dollar. The country’s forex reserves have dropped to an alarming $26.3bn — sufficient for little more than three months’ worth of imports — from $45.5bn just a year earlier.

To ease the further strain on the dwindling forex reserves, the Hasina government in August raised fuel prices by 40-50 percent across the board. The hikes have had a domino effect on other essentials, including edible oils, rice, eggs and vegetables, all of which now cost 20-30 percent more. Public bus fares — used by millions — have also risen by as much as 22 percent.

This has angered Bangladeshis and many of them have taken to social media or the streets to express their frustration.

The BNP, which has been sidelined by Hasina for years, seems to have successfully managed to channel people’s anger against soaring prices.

Ali Riaz, a distinguished professor of politics and government at Illinois State University in the US, said the BNP had sensed an opportunity to make a political comeback after years of repression, as the development narrative pedalled by the Hasina government seems to be on the wane.

He added that the huge turnouts in all BNP rallies thus reflect not only support for the party but also “a serious discontent among common citizens about the state of economy and governance”.

In the past few months, news about large-scale corruption in the country’s banks and vast capital flights by people associated with the ruling party have surfaced in the media.

“The cronyism created strata of beneficiaries while a large segment of society continues to suffer with no end in sight,” said Riaz.

Besides, a large segment of Bangladeshis seems to be pushed to the brink, he said. “They would like to have an environment where they can express their views, freely participate in demonstrations, cast their votes, but most importantly have a government which is accountable to them and offers economic opportunities to survive,” he said.

“Policymakers have made matters worse with parallel exchange rates, lack of transparency around reserves data, and capped interest rates,” he said.

He fears that with the Taka, the Bangladeshi currency, expected to depreciate further against the US dollar, remittances from overseas — the second biggest source of foreign currency — are likely to dry up, accelerating a financial crisis.