[hackerlytest]

Some context: Students are protesting to reform the quota system. Which was abolished in 2018 after protest but recently brought back again. The Quota system basically reserves 56% of public sector jobs, i.e. 30% to relatives of war veteran.

The war happened in 1971. To get public job and avail the quota, it must be their 3rd or 4th generation now. Which is plain unfair.

But it’s not about that, the gov loyalists and their goons fake these veteran certificates to land these jobs. Bangladesh is one of the most corrupted countries in the world after all. So real veteran relatives are seldom the beneficiary.

These students just wanted to reform this system. But our fascist gov and their goons used force and killed 50+ unarmed students until yesterday (3 from my alma mater alone.) This was completely unprovoked and unnecessary. Basically any forms of dissent have been dealt with this way since 2009. No one can criticize or protest the big brother.

We have a dictatorship since 2009. People are angry - due to corruption, inflation, joblessness and tyranny. This is just some outburst of it.

When you see the videos how the police are killing teenagers and university students in the road - our future generation - no one can tolerate this.

Now the fascist gov has closed all internet and phone connection to outside world. I can't contact my family anymore. I don't know their well being.

There is of course more to it. But this is the summary.

[alephnerd]

> Now the fascist gov has closed all internet

I agree that Sheikh Hasina is extremely authoritarian and corrupt dictator but imo JeI are the actual fascists, and the BNP has absolutely been enabling them.

That said, I agree with you that Hasina's authoritarianism needs to end.

Ideally all these old fossils (Hasina, Zia, Rahman, etc) need to be purged and the actual youth (who are the majority of Bangladesh) get a chance to have their voice in power.

It's a handful of elite 70 year olds who have been running a country where the median age is 25 and are ruining it due to their own personal drama from the 70s and 80s.

[trompetenaccoun]

Independent of points for or against their rule, the ageist argument makes little sense. 25 year olds are generally politically naive and easily manipulated. The average person in their twenties has no idea about economics, geopolitics or other such topics that are important to understand for running a country. When you look at uprisings against ancient leaders in countries with very young populations, they regularly end up even worse then before, sadly. Take Sudan as an example.

[JumpCrisscross]

> agree that Sheikh Hasina is extremely authoritarian and corrupt dictator but imo JeI are the actual fascists

The challenge of escalating partisanship is self-reïnforcing polarisation. The worse the leadership, the worse the opposition.

The operant question, thus, is not who is good but who is less evil, in the hope that this ratchet, a few times turned, yields goodness.

[Karrot_Kream]

Yeah I think "fascist" is too much for any actor not JeI but authoritarian is right. They've cut off Internet and telecom access after all, a dangerous game given how physically close they are to West Bengal.

[rayiner]

That’s a terrible idea and would set Bangladesh back generations. Hasina is authoritarian, but Bangladeshis need someone like her to run such a disorderly population. She’s not Lee Kuan Yew, but she’s the best in that direction Bangladesh can hope for. And a third-rate copy of LKY is a hell of a lot better than whatever Islamic socialist would replace her.

[thisislife2]

> It's a handful of elite 70 year olds who have been running a country where the median age is 25 and are ruining it due to their own personal drama from the 70s and 80s.

Really? Are you going to totally ignore that it is those very 25+ years old that gave the current premiere of Bangladesh her massive majority? (See also https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/88356/why-are-m... ).

> That said, I agree with you that Hasina's authoritarianism needs to end. ...

Beware of what you wish for! It's all nice and easy to harp at "undemocratic" and "authoritarianism". But understand the political context and history of Bangladesh before passing such blanket judgement. The reality of Bangladesh politics is:

1. Political violence is a fact there - Mrs. Hasina's father, a hugely popular leader, was assassinated and 18 members of her family, including her 10-year-old brother, and relatives were massacred. She had to seek refuge abroad to survive.

2. Bangladesh has also seen many military coups.

3. Some opposition parties of Bangladesh are backed by the military.

4. Some of the opposition lean towards religious fundamentalism and, as you pointed out, also associate with extremist groups.

5. Foreign powers - USA (and other western countries acting in cohort with the US), China and India - often interfere in Bangladesh's internal affairs.

(Source: https://politics.stackexchange.com/a/80654/ )

Being a young democracy, amidst such a political environment necessarily requires an authoritarian streak in a politician to survive and to nurture a secular democracy. As an indian, I genuinely admire her commitment to create a democracy in an Islamic republic that is easily prone to religious fundamentalism and sectarianism - sometimes she reminds me of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who did the same with Turkiye. (Remember that Bangladesh is one of the few islamic Republics that has actually committed to democratic political values).

-----

All that said, it is very clear that the current protests were very poorly handled and will be politically damaging to her, and could be a turning point in Bangladesh politics. Whether it will be good for Bangladesh totally depends on how her government handles these protest. Even if the matter is sub-judice, and being examined by the Bangladesh Supreme Court, the government should have engaged more deeply with the protestors and anticipated the political violence.

[xeromal]

Thank you for the information. I'm sorry for you and your family. Are public jobs so numerous that a lot of people survive off of them?

[csomar]

I think it's more about justice than the number of jobs or whether you get it or not. Many people will be happy when they perceive that a fair process has been established in granting these jobs. Especially when income is hard to come by.

[Willian03]

At 140,000 square kilometres, Bangladesh is about the size of New York State, with 170 million people. Problems are inevitable, there are not so many job opportunities at all, and there will always be people who are dissatisfied

[geodel]

Nope. It won't be numerous but grab whatever of the tiny pie is the point. I am from neigboring country but situation is same for jobs. For 10 govt job, 10K people can show up and create riot like situation in little time.

[tempodox]

Thank you, the news article was suspiciously stingy on these salient details.

[constantcrying]

Why are you seething about this from the other side of the world?

You are presumably an intelligent person, but you, and everyone else that could, left your home country for economic opportunities elsewhere. Now, your home country is administrated and governed by the people without the opportunity to leave and you are on the other side of the world.

I think it is extremely weird to see the people with the best opportunity to reshape their country leave and then from overseas complain about the politics in that country.

[AlexeyBelov]

What do you mean by seething? Their comment appears emotionally balanced to me.

Honestly, it sounds like you want to gatekeep political discussion. Am I misunderstanding you?

[ramon156]

Huh? Even if he was seethings, why is caring about your family a bad thing? Is your opinion suddenly not relevant anymore when you've fled the country? Weird mindset

[einpoklum]

I'd call it a US-manipulated military oligarchy with a democratic facade:

https://theintercept.com/2023/06/05/imran-khan-interview/

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/10/did-us-ask-for-imra...

[sparky_z]

You seem to have confused Pakistan for Bangladesh. Unless I'm misunderstanding your point.

[dotancohen]

  > But our fascist gov and their goons used force and killed 50+ unarmed students until yesterday (3 from my alma mater alone.)

Is this what those students with the colored flags have been protesting about in US universities for the past half year or so?

[0x1ch]

Not sure if you're a troll or not, but that would be related to Israel and Palestine.