By james art Ousted Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s party may soon begin street agitation against the interim government of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, according to a party leader.
“We are planning to demonstrate and start our political activities,” Shafiul Alam Chowdhury, organizing secretary of the Awami League, told VOA on Friday.
Chowdhury is among dozens of Awami League leaders who fled Bangladesh after a student-led mass uprising toppled Hasina’s regime in August. The iron-fisted leader was serving her fourth consecutive term when she was forced to resign on August 5 and flee to India in a military helicopter.
Since the fall of the regime, dozens of party leaders have been arrested, many in connection with the violent crackdown on protesters that killed hundreds across the country between July and August. Thousands of Awami League workers and supporters have gone underground, fearing mob attacks.
On Wednesday, the caretaker government banned the Awami League’s student wing, the Bangladesh Chatra League, declaring it a terrorist organisation.
Earlier this month, the International Crimes Tribunal in Bangladesh issued arrest warrants for Hasina and 45 others linked to the ousted regime.
Speaking to VOA by phone, Chowdhury said the party is working to unite its ranks and is tying up with other like-minded political forces to launch protests against the caretaker government.
“In two weeks or a month we can move,” the Awami League leader said when asked how soon his party planned to take to the streets.
Bangladesh’s main political parties support the caretaker government’s program to reform institutions they say the Awami League destroyed through massive political interference over the past 15 years.
However, political parties have also publicly demanded that the Yunus government ensure a quick return to democracy. One of the country’s biggest political parties is unhappy with the progress so far.
“This government is going a bit slow,” said Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, secretary general of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
“The Electoral Commission, they resigned. But they [the interim government] they have not formed the new election commission,” Alamgir told VOA at his residence in Dhaka earlier this month.
Ten commissions, including civil society activists, retired civil servants and academics, are tasked with proposing reforms in key areas including the judiciary, the police, the constitution, the electoral system, the media and labor rights.
Six of the commissions announced in September have until December 31 to present their proposals. However, reviewing these proposals, seeking political consensus on them and implementing them may take several months.
Alamgir, whose party has called on the caretaker government to undertake reforms without a timetable, worries that delaying the election will prolong the political vacuum in the country, giving the rival Awami League an opportunity to regain lost political space.
“The fallen fascist Awami League, they have their support [base]. They are a very big, old political party, so they have support here. They will also get time to consolidate and create trouble here,” veteran politician Alamgir told VOA.
Bangladesh’s election law requires the government to form a search committee that selects the members of the election commission. The interim government recently announced that it would follow the existing law, but did not set a date for the formation of such a commission.
“Please try to understand that we are not a political force and this is the first time we are working in a group,” said Asif Nazrul, Bangladesh’s chief legal adviser, defending the caretaker government’s slow progress.
“We don’t have the necessary experience. We have commitment, we have a hardworking attitude, we have integrity,” Nazrul told VOA late last month at his official residence in Dhaka.
One of the main shortcomings of the interim government, analysts say, is that it lacks a supportive security and administrative system, with much of what is in place dating back to the last 15 years of Hasina’s rule.
“The government is operating without full control over law enforcement and bureaucracy,” said political analyst Zaheed Ur Rahman.
To rid the system of the remnants of the Awami League, the interim government has been transferring and reassigning police officers and bureaucrats in and out of the capital, Dhaka.
To chart the course for Bangladesh and calm political nerves, Yunus’ team has stepped up its engagement with political parties. The Awami League has so far been excluded from the consultations.
“They should be given political space. They should be given the right to make politics. It should also be given to them [a chance] to participate in future elections. I agree with that,” said Rahman, who is also a member of the Electoral Reform Commission.
But Rahman warned that putting the Awami League on the table anytime soon could backfire.
“Awami League call for [discussing] I think the reforms will have a strong reaction in society.”
The Awami League is also not interested in sitting with the caretaker government, Chowdhury said.
“This [interim] government is completely unconstitutional,” he said. “If we protest against them, we demonstrate across the country, that [interim] there will be no more government.”