The unsettling of Bangladesh

Despite warnings from the international community that any move towards military rule would have adverse consequences for Bangladesh, the army-backed administration has tightened its grip, vowing to uproot corruption and violence in electoral politics, as well as tackle Islamist militancy. This has led to the arrest of several high-ranking politicians on charges of graft and the execution of a few high-profile Islamist militants. In fact, former prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has also been formally accused of extortion and murder.

While military rule might look like the right solution, in the long-term it cannot resolve the problems of weak political institutions and rising Islamic radicalism. It will only hinder Bangladesh’s evolution into a stable secular democracy. Over the years, politics has grown to overtly revolve around the personalities of its two main leaders, the BNP’s Khaleda Zia, and Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League. The two were so busy undermining each other, they had little time for serious issues of governance. The political struggle between Zia’s right-of-centre BNP and Wajed’s left-leaning Awami League turned into a zero-sum game, with Bangladesh emerging the biggest loser. The increased polarisation between the two mainstream political parties has opened up “political space” for extremist Islamic parties that use their new-found relevance as leverage to further their radical agenda.

The growth of radical Islam here owes a lot to the failure of democracy and the weakening of civil society. Frequent clashes between the elected government and the opposition have prevented democratic institutions from functioning effectively, depriving them of their legitimacy. This in turn has contributed to the rise of radical Islam, giving political protest a religious outlet.

After independence, Bangladesh not only had declared secularism to be one of its founding principles, it had also banned religious parties. As the military became a major political force in Bangladesh, it used the country’s Islamic identity to give its rule increased legitimacy and mainstream political parties started using Islam for their own purposes as well. Religion today has come to occupy a central place in Bangladeshi political discourse, and Islamic radicals are no longer shy of declaring their political ambitions.

Bangladesh has the third-largest Muslim population in the world, with a reasonable GDP growth rate of 6.1 per cent. However, of its 144 million people, 70 million live on less than US$10 a day. This has made the country an easy target for Islamic radical groups.

All this throws into sharp relief the danger posed by the rapid decay of political institutions in many emerging democracies. A state that was considered to be a model Islamic democracy is now significantly affected by Islamic extremists. The rise of fundamentalism in Bangladesh is a cautionary tale about the dangers of formal, rather than substantive, democracy. As the military is tempted to play a more active role in politics, in the name of “cleaning up the political system”, it will only give a fillip to Islamic extremists.

In many ways, the fact that Bangladesh has traditionally been a secular state despite having one of the largest Muslim populations in the world, also makes it a ‘frontline state’ in the struggle for the hearts and minds of the Islamic world. This makes it imperative for India and the international community to take the volatile situation in Bangladesh more seriously than it has done so far.

India may currently find dealing with the present government easier, especially as it has swiftly acted against some of the most radical Islamists and expressed its desire to work towards improving Indo-Bangla ties. But it should be under no illusion that this will solve the problem of radicalisation in Bangladesh or curtail growing Islamist terror networks there. In the end, a democratic government representing the will of the people is probably the best means of achieving any lasting solution that India may desire. Therefore, India should make it amply clear to the military-backed government that the sooner elections are held, the better it will be for the region and for Bangladesh.

The writer teaches at King’s College London