DHAKA, Bangladesh — Within a week of unseating Bangladesh’s longest-serving prime minister, the students who drove out Sheikh Hasina were directing Dhaka’s traffic.
Decked out in neon vests, their university IDs slung around their necks, they clutch sticks and umbrellas to wave cars this way and that, filling the void after police went on strike. They stopped drivers, checking their licenses and telling them off for not wearing their seatbelts. Some opened trunks of cars they deemed could belong to officials from the previous government, looking for smuggled riches.
Students have not only manned roads, two who led the charge against Hasina are settling into the interim government they ushered in just a few days after she resigned and fled to India in a military helicopter.
Before Hasina was toppled by the student movement with astonishing speed, she was seen as one of the country’s most unshakeable leaders. In total, she governed for more than 20 years, most recently winning four straight terms as her rule became ever more autocratic.
The question now is what comes next in a country still reeling from the violence surrounding her removal that left hundreds dead. The students hope they can restore peace and democracy and create a “new Bangladesh,” said Asif Mahmud, one of the protest leaders now in charge of the Sports and Youth Ministry.
“We’ve got a big responsibility,” he said. “We never thought, never had an ambition, that we would take such a responsibility at this age.”
“There is pressure, but confidence is also there,” said 26-year-old Mahmud.
The student-led protests began with a demand to abolish a quota system for government jobs they said favored Hasina’s allies but coalesced into a full-scale revolt against her and her Awami League government. Clashes with security forces, and the deaths that resulted, fueled wider outrage against Hasina’s rule, and the students have ridden a wave of popular support.
But concerns are also simmering over their lack of political experience, the extent of their ambitions and crucially, how long it will take the interim government to organize elections. Already, the student ministers along with the protesters have said that before any vote is held, they want to reform the country’s institutions - which they say have been degraded by both the Awami League and its rival, the dynastic Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
Experts warn, however, that the interim government is unelected and as such it has no mandate to implement major changes.
The government, headed by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus who was chosen by the students, “must keep in mind that their main responsibility is to hold an election,” said Zillur Rahman, executive director of the Center for Governance Studies, a Dhaka-based think tank. “They shouldn’t take any policy decisions.”
Yunus, economist and longtime Hasina critic, is known globally for his pioneering use of microcredit to help the poorest of the poor - but also has never run a government. He’s made clear that students will play a critical role in a manner never seen before: “Every ministry should have a student,” he said.
Controlling traffic for a few days is one thing but potentially appointing students into ministries could make them “power hungry” at an especially sensitive time, said Rahman.
Nahid Islam, the other student-turned-minister, acknowledged that they have no governance experience but said the grit and determination they showed in pushing out Hasina was proof that they can get things done.
“We think the students who have succeeded in leading an uprising … and the citizens are capable enough to build the nation,” said Islam, who was born in 1998 and now runs the Ministry of Information and Technology.
In the wake of Hasina’s ousting, students have mounted protests and issued ultimatums against authorities seen as close to her, demanding they quit. Six Supreme Court justices, including the chief justice, and the central bank governor all resigned in the past days.
“A modern government cannot be run on such a pattern,” said Mahfuz Anam, the editor-in-chief of The Daily Star newspaper, while adding that there have been some steps towards a stable transition process.
Many of the students who spent the past weeks protesting agree. They want the interim government to be neutral - but insist it must also be untethered to the mainstream political parties their generation has little connection to.
Alvi Mahmud, an 18-year-old student, said that if the interim government does a good job, then “people will not want BNP or Awami League or any traditional, old parties. They will want change. They will want a new way of living.”
The burning question is when new elections can be held. Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, a senior BNP leader, told reporters on Monday that the party told Yunus that it would give the interim government reasonable time to create a conducive and democratic environment for the polls.
This could create “a sense of calm in the political environment,” said Anam. It could also give student leaders time to politically mobilize ahead of elections.
“We are not thinking of a political platform yet,” said Islam, the new minister. “But a young generation is ready to lead this country, that generation has been built.”
For now, the country and its students are trying to come to terms with the horror of the last few weeks. More than 300 people were killed and tens of thousands injured as security forces cracked down on the demonstrations.
Students are sweeping up the streets that only recently were a battleground stained by the blood of their friends. They’re cleaning up debris at homes and university campuses destroyed in the violence. And though some police have returned to the streets after a strike, many students have remained beside them to help direct traffic.
At an intersection in the heart of the city, a statue of Hasina’s father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman - Bangladesh’s first leader after its independence in 1971 - used to tower over the constant flow of traffic. Swept up in both anger and joy after Hasina fled, protesters brought it down.
A few days ago, the site of the statue was defaced with graffiti against her, “Hasina you smell of dead bodies” was scrawled on the walls. Now, students have covered those words with murals depicting unity and their fight for change.
“We salute those who fought for our victory,” someone wrote in red and green, the colors of the Bangladesh’s flag. “We are one,” read another.
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