A people's revolution in BD led by Generation-Z

A miracle has happened in Bangladesh within a period of just 36 days – from July 1 to August 5. And the heroes of this people’s revolution that took place on August 5 were undoubtedly the segment of population known as Generation-Z or the Zoomers, more specifically the students who were born between 1995 and 2010. If we look back at this amazing event through the prism of a behaviour list, then it can be claimed that the revolution materialised due to the demonstration effect of rampant discriminations over the years by the brutal Hasina regime in the domains of society, economy and polity of Bangladesh, and the bandwagon effect of relentless protests by the masses led by Generation-Z against these discriminations.

It was a miracle, because even seasoned and popular political parties in the country like Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Jamaate Islami could not dislodge the mafia-like monstrous regime of Sheikh Hasina during the past eleven years despite her holding three successive fraudulent polls over the period with the blessings of her Indian masters. In fact, the totalitarian Hasina regime succeeded in gaining complete control over all pillars, branches and institutions of the state with the support of mafia-like oligarchs inside and outside the country. And it appeared she would continue to do so, at least until 2029, after holding the latest sham or dummy election of January 7 this year, which was boycotted by all genuine opposition parties.

Hasina succeeded in gaining a huge advantage over her opponents as her cronies in the bureaucracy, judiciary, and legislature had gradually consolidated their grip on these state apparatuses over the years since she assumed office in 2009. As a result, whenever challenged by the opposition, the civil society, or the media, she could silence those by running a campaign of terror through deployment of her loyal and obedient cohorts in the security establishment backed by the judiciary. The BNP and Jamaat leaders and activists could do nothing about it, as they were constantly under surveillance, and were silenced through pre-emptive arbitrary arrests and detentions, unjust imprisonments, enforced disappearances, and even cross-fires. The opponents had no place to go for seeking justice, as both the lower and higher judiciary invariably followed the dictates of Hasina and her cronies – from top to bottom. In this hopeless, dismal, and precarious situation appeared the Generation-Z students with the avowed objective of doing away with the discriminatory quota system for government recruitments, where astonishingly 30 per cent of the civil service posts were reserved for the Hasina-affiliated freedom fighters (mostly retired) and their descendants.

The first round of this tussle took place in 2018, when Hasina virtually capitulated to the students’ demand for reforming the quota system by abolishing it altogether. This she apparently did to prevent things going out of control just before another election, which was due towards the end of that year. As a result, she could move forward with her notorious design cum blueprint of holding another sham election in December 2018, when ballot papers were shamelessly stuffed by her men on the night preceding the election day.

However, after hoodwinking the nation once again on 7 January this year through another fraudulent cum dummy election with the backing of her Indian masters, Hasina’s arrogance sky-rocketed and she became excessively confident that she could get away with anything and everything she tried with the connivance of her Indian friends. But this time, she miscalculated the revolt of the Bangladeshi people led by college and university students belonging to Generation-Z, and therefore had to pay a heavy price by resigning and fleeing the country.

Now, what went wrong for Hasina, and what actually worked in favour of the masses of Bangladesh? A behavioural analysis would point to a bandwagon effect engendered by a band of courageous students who were hell-bent to bring to an end the demonstration effect of rampant discriminations in society, economy and polity engendered by the Awami League-regime of Sheikh Hasina over a long period of time. This demonstration effect led to such a situation where falsehoods became truths, and injustices were claimed to be just and fair due to the apparent invincibility of a mafia-clan led by Hasina.

At the start of the Gen-Z movement on July 1 (earlier labelled as ‘Students’ Movement against Discrimination’) following the intervention by the Supreme Court on June 5 that declared the 2018 government order abolishing the quota system illegal, the students were pitted against a mighty enemy comprising an oligarchy of judiciary, administration, and legislature fully loyal to Hasina. Despite not having any experience of waging political movements, the Gen-Z warriors were smart and tech-savvy youngsters having long experience of networking through the internet and the social media. Another advantage they enjoyed was that they were mostly outside the surveillance of Hasina’s security establishment, as they did not have any notable political identity. Consequently, it was easy for them to communicate seamlessly through the virtual media. Besides, one of the smartest things they did was to appoint numerous coordinators both at the local and central levels (numbering around 200) with no easily identifiable individual leadership. This collective endeavour resulted in a movement where the programmes could be carried forward by others even when some of the coordinators were killed, injured, arbitrarily arrested, detained, or tortured.

Hasina and her mafia-like oligarchs were quite adamant about not conceding any concessions to the students, as maintaining the quota system would have provided the Hasina clan with ample opportunities to flood the civil service with their kins and partymen, although her security establishment was already ensuring that no candidates linked to the opposition BNP or Jamaat passed the screening process for getting any job in the civil or military bureaucracy. This state of affairs gave Hasina added confidence that the civil and military bureaucracy were fully under her control, as they were manned by her party loyalists. It was a huge miscalculation on Hasina’s part, as principled officers in the military, especially those in the lower echelons, were mostly patriotic ones who put the country and its people on top of everything else including their kins in the Awami establishment.

The first major protest program that the students enforced was the novel ‘Bangla Blockade’ on July 7, when the whole country came to a standstill. This was followed up with road and railway blockades on July 8 all over the country including capital Dhaka. Then came July 16, the beginning of the end for Hasina. The fearless and courageous posture of one of the Gen-Z coordinators at Rangpur Begum Rokeya University Abu Sayeed – standing bravely before the policemen with open arms just before he was shot dead was the fire that engulfed the whole of Bangladesh soon afterwards. It also reminded many observers about Tarek El-Tayeb Mohamed Bouazizi, whose self-immolation on December 17, 2010 became the catalyst for the Tunisian revolution that ultimately brought down the then regime there. It was all the more impactful for the countrymen, as many Bangladeshis watched the shooting incident in horror live on television channels across the country.

The incident set in motion huge protests across Bangladesh participated by all segments of people, which resulted in six deaths on July 16, 42 deaths on July 18, 86 deaths on July 19, 38 deaths on July 20, and 21 deaths on July 21 (reference: Daily Prothom Alo) alongside thousands of injuries mostly due to police-firing from lethal weapons during the ‘Complete Shutdown’ announced by students, although the actual numbers may have been much higher as the Hasina regime enforced an internet blackout from July 17 to 23 in order to hide its crimes. Astonishingly, even firings from helicopters were resorted to for quelling the protests, unprecedented in a civilian democracy. Not even women and children were spared during these indiscriminate firings, and UNICEF later claimed that at least 32 children lost their lives due to police-firing with many more injuries. In between, the Gen-Z students ousted the mafia cadres of Bangladesh Chhatra League (AL’s student wing) from all universities on July 17 and then enforced blockades across the country.

The ruthless Hasina regime did not stop even after these mass killings between July 16 and 21. Block-raids were undertaken all over the country by specifically targeting the students alongside the BNP and Jamat activists – again unprecedented in the country’s history. Over 12 thousand activists were indiscriminately put behind bars between July 26 and 31 alone with the ready acquiescence of Hasina-controlled lower judiciary. Although many of the Gen-Z students and their coordinators went into hiding, they brought out processions by covering their mouth with red fabrics on July 30, and the social media profiles of millions of Bangladeshis were coloured with red on that day for expressing solidarity with the students. The ‘March for Justice’ program was then observed by the students the following day by bringing out processions all over the country, which were joined by all sections of people including the guardians of students. This was followed by the ‘Remembering our Heroes Day’ on August 1, when events commemorating the martyrs were organized across the country.

On August 2 Friday, the students brought out huge processions after Jummah prayers (Friday congregation of Muslims), which was observed in most districts and cities of the country. Side by side, the members of the civil society, artistes and teaching community as well as the general masses brought out processions named ‘Snehajatra’ (March of Affection) for expressing solidarity with the students. Thousands of protesting people gathered at the Central Martyrs’ Monument of capital Dhaka on August 3, and the whole of Bangladesh reverberated with the slogans of protesters demanding resignation of the government. Then on the first day of the ‘Total Non-Cooperation’ announced by the ‘Students’ Movement against Discrimination’ demanding resignation of Hasina regime on August 4, widespread violence erupted during protests across the country, and as many as 111 people were killed, mostly by Hasina’s henchmen including the police.

In the above backdrop, the Gen-Z students immediately switched to their 1-point demand of Hasina’s resignation, and then cleverly brought forward their ‘March to Dhaka’ program from August 6 to August 5. In a desperate move to hang on to power by any means, Hasina clamped curfew all over the country from August 4 evening, apparently to launch another round of brutal repression cum torture on her countrymen. But this time, the patriotic armed forces of Bangladesh intimated that they would not open fire on the unarmed civilians of Bangladesh; their dissatisfaction owing to India’s hegemonic grip over Hasina government, including the military, may also have been a contributing factor in this decision. And finally, when the students and masses started to flood the Dhaka streets and its neighbourhoods after arriving from the surrounding districts by defying the curfew on August 5, and when they were poised to storm the Prime Minister’s residence or ‘Ganobhaban’, Hasina was compelled to flee the country after tendering her resignation.

This 36-day-long students’ movement in Bangladesh from July 1 to August 5 led by Gen-Z will remain a shining example of how a brave generation of students can bring about a people’s revolution in a third-world country through the bandwagon effect of sustained networking by involving the masses. Through this process, they could bring about the downfall of an apparently invincible autocrat and thereby save the nation from a deeply entrenched mafia-like dictatorship, which has been depriving the countrymen of their democratic cum fundamental rights, including voting rights, by means of fraudulent and discriminatory acts perpetrated over a period of one and a half decades. 

Dr Helal Uddin Ahmed is a retired Additional Secretary of GoB, ex-Deputy Press Secretary to Chief Adviser (2007-08), former Editorial Consultant of The Financial Express, and ex-Editor of Bangladesh Quarterly.

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