The Protest Addiction: After the Revolution, Bangladeshis Stumble Forward
NEED TO KNOW
The Protest Addiction: After the Revolution, Bangladeshis Stumble Forward
BANGLADESH
Last summer, tens of thousands of students and other Bangladeshis, furious over the violent crackdowns, corruption, and cronyism of the regime of longtime authoritarian leader, Sheikh Hasina, forced her out of power and out of the country.
Soon after, the leaders of the so-called July Revolution installed an interim government, led by Nobel Prize-winning economist and microcredit pioneer, Muhammad Yunus, which began reforms to the judicial, legislative, political, and electoral systems, created an anti-corruption commission, and attempted to stabilize the economy.
However, in the 11 months since the revolution, protesters can’t stop protesting.
“All the major roads are blocked during the day,” complained chicken seller Zakir Hossain in an interview with Agence France-Presse.
The demands and objections are numerous: Some take to the streets to demand justice for crimes committed by members of the former regime. Others want elections immediately instead of waiting for the caretaker government to finish its reform program. Then there are those fighting to regain their power or trying to stop other groups, such as women, from getting more.
The turmoil is unsurprising, say commentators, given the state of the country after 15 years of misrule by Hasina. “The mess is huge,” wrote Bangladeshi author Ahmede Hussain in Foreign Policy.
Hasina effectively destroyed the civil service, the electoral system, and the independence of the judiciary. The police, security services, and military are in disarray. The economy, South Asia’s second-largest, is struggling, and corruption is rampant even as the government has reduced inflation and stabilized the economy. Also, around $3.1 billion is stolen and sent out of the country every year, an amount that is more than 10 percent of the country’s total national reserves. A new white paper says that number is closer to $16 billion.
“Our blood curdles to know how they plundered the economy,” Yunus said. “The sad part is they looted the economy openly. And most of us could not summon the courage to confront it.”
It will take time, added Hussain. “The damage is everywhere…Nothing has been spared. The democratic institutions that have been destroyed over the years can’t be rebuilt overnight.”
Yet the young who led the protests are impatient.
Most recently, protests broke out because some believe the current government isn’t moving quickly enough to punish the former leader and members of the former ruling party, the Awami League.
Even so, it is trying. Over the past six months, numerous charges have been filed against Hasina, including murder, abduction, genocide, and crimes against humanity, charges she denies.
In June, a special court, the Dhaka-based International Crimes Tribunal, began trying Hasina in absentia, along with other government and police officials involved in the murderous crackdowns on protesters last summer that killed as many as 1,400 people.
Bangladesh has been attempting to extradite the former prime minister from India since December.
And it banned the former ruling party in May, a move some applauded but others said smacks of authoritarianism.
Still, the new leadership has also attempted to be as inclusive as possible – it has solicited recommendations from all groups and parties and set up a commission to sort, process, and incorporate the ideas for reform from individuals and commissions: The Commission for National Consensus is charged with creating the “July Charter” to address the biggest issue of all, elections to jumpstart “Bangladesh 2.0.”
If the July Charter is finished by August, which is expected, Bangladesh will hold elections in December, likely the first free and fair elections in more than a decade. If it isn’t, elections will be held by June 2026. Yunus says he won’t run.
However, the pressure to hold elections sooner rather than later is increasing, so much so that Yunus threatened to resign.
Meanwhile, some issues will linger for years. For example, there are still outbreaks of violence against members of the former regime and their supporters, Hindus, and other minority groups in spite of the new leadership pleading for peace, tolerance, and calm.
Also, some believe Hasina will run in the next election even as she is currently in exile in India, and although the Awami League is banned, it has support in the country.
Some also worry about extremist elements returning to power. In June, Bangladesh’s top court reinstated the registration of Jamaat-e-Islami, paving the way for the country’s largest Islamist party to participate in the next election.
With different groups, including the country’s largest party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and the military creating instability, disorder, and pressuring the government, some wonder if Bangladesh can cross the finish line to elections.
“We are in a war-like situation,” said government spokesman Shafiqul Alam. “…Attempts are on to destabilize us in various ways. We have to get out of this situation.”
THE WORLD, BRIEFLY
Turkey Arrests 120 Opposition Figures Ahead of Istanbul Rally, Sparking Crackdown Fears
TURKEY
Turkish authorities arrested more than 120 people in the western city of İzmir on Tuesday, just hours before a major opposition rally in Istanbul, in what critics call a politically motivated operation aimed at weakening President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s challengers, Agence France-Presse reported.
The pre-dawn raids in İzmir targeted officials linked to the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), including former mayor Tunç Soyer, as part of a corruption investigation involving alleged irregularities in government contracts and fraud.
Prosecutors have issued a total of 157 warrants, claiming that the irregularities have caused massive public financial losses, Reuters noted.
CHP lawmaker Murat Bakan condemned the detentions and compared them to a March sweep in Istanbul that led to the arrest of Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, Erdoğan’s key rival in the 2028 presidential race.
Tuesday’s arrests came hours before the CHP was set to hold a major rally in Istanbul to mark 100 days since İmamoğlu’s detention. His arrest sparked weeks of mass protests and led to nearly 2,000 arrests nationwide.
Observers said the İzmir crackdown marked the recent effort by Turkish authorities to undermine the opposition party. On Monday, a court in the capital Ankara began hearing a case against the CHP over accusations of vote-buying involving its 2023 leadership primary.
The case could overturn the election of CHP leader Özgür Özel, who has become the face of the recent demonstrations.
Meanwhile, Erdoğan on Tuesday condemned a cartoon published by the Turkish satirical magazine LeMan as a “vile provocation” and a “hate crime,” after the image allegedly depicted the Islamic and Jewish prophets, France 24 added.
The cartoon – published a few days after the 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran – was interpreted by critics as showing the Prophet Muhammad and Prophet Moses shaking hands over a bombed city. Both prophets are revered in Islam and the image sparked a strong reaction from government officials and religious conservatives. Authorities seized copies of the issue and this week detained the four cartoonists credited with creating the drawing.
LeMan representatives countered that the cartoon was misunderstood and insisted that the character named Muhammad referred not to the prophet but to a fictional Muslim man killed during Israeli airstrikes.
Civil rights groups condemned the arrests as infringements on freedom of expression.
Thai Court Suspends Prime Minister Following Leaked Phone Call
THAILAND
Thailand’s Constitutional Court on Tuesday suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra from office pending an ethics investigation into her alleged deferential stance during a leaked phone call between her and a former Cambodian leader, in which the two discussed a recent border dispute, the Associated Press reported.
The court accepted a petition from 36 senators, which accused Paetongtarn of dishonesty and a breach of ethical standards following the leak of the audio of a June 15 phone call with Hun Sen, the former prime minister of Cambodia, who still holds considerable influence in the country, Reuters noted.
Judges voted 7-2 to immediately suspend Paetongtarn from her post until the court makes a ruling. The suspended prime minister now has 15 days to counter the charges.
Suriya Juangroongruangkit, deputy prime minister and transport minister, will take over and serve as acting prime minister.
Paetongtarn defended her behavior while apologizing to the people offended by the leaked phone call.
The prime minister has faced growing public anger over how she handled a recent border dispute with Cambodia, which saw the two countries exchange fire in May. One Cambodian soldier was killed.
The goal of the phone call was to de-escalate tensions, according to the prime minister, but instead, it set off a series of public complaints accusing Paetongtarn of appeasement and unprofessionalism and of being too deferential toward Hun Sen.
In the leaked audio, posted to Hun Sen’s Facebook page, Paetongtarn called the Cambodian leader “uncle,” said she was under domestic pressure, and urged Hun Sen to opt for a peaceful resolution to the dispute.
Following the leak, the Bhumjaithai Party left the prime minister’s coalition government, leaving it with a razor-thin majority, and accused Paetongtarn of undermining sovereignty. The leak also triggered large protests over the weekend, demanding Paetongtarn’s resignation.
Paetongtarn’s suspension may cause renewed instability in Thailand, a still fragile democracy that has faced repeated bouts of political unrest over the past few years, and is also facing an economic slowdown.
Meanwhile, analysts say the conservative establishment, including the military, believes the political dynasty started by Paetongtarn’s father, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, has become too powerful.
Paetongtarn is the third in her family to serve as prime minister and could also become the third to be removed before the end of her term. Thaksin was removed from office in a 2006 coup, while his sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, was ousted in 2014 by a court, followed by a coup.
Danish Women Added to Military Conscription Lottery
DENMARK
Beginning Tuesday, Danish women will join men in the lottery system used for selecting individuals for 11 months of mandatory military service once they turn 18, the BBC reported.
Until now, Danish women could take part in the military service voluntarily upon reaching 18 years old.
Now, both women and men are required to register for conscription under a new law.
Volunteers will be enlisted first, while the remaining spots will be filled through the national lottery starting in January 2026. The change also increases the period of conscription for teenagers from four to 11 months.
The change was enacted two years earlier than expected due to growing security concerns in Europe, Deutsche Welle explained.
In March, the Danish government also announced an almost $5.9 billion increase in defense spending to meet NATO targets.
Denmark is the latest country in Europe to shore up conscription. Its neighbors, Sweden and Norway, both brought back universal conscription in the past decade.
About 4,700 Danes served in the military last year, with about 24 percent of them female volunteers. The change in conscription is expected to increase the number of people serving in the military annually to 6,500 by 2033.
DISCOVERIES
Plant-Based Dinosaurs
Were sauropods vegan?
Researchers have long believed so but never had any proof.
But now, fossils found in the abdomen of one of these dinosaurs have provided the evidence, according to a new study.
It concluded that the sauropod in question, which lived about 94 to 101 million years ago, ate multiple plants and mostly relied on its gut microbes to digest them.
Given the lack of sauropod cololites, or preserved gut contents, researchers had based their theories about their diets on anatomical features such as tooth wear, jaw morphology, and neck length. They say that discovering the diets of dinosaurs is important to understand their biology and the role they played in their ecosystems.
“No genuine sauropod gut contents had ever been found anywhere before,” lead study author Stephen Poropat said in a statement. “This finding confirms several hypotheses about the sauropod diet that had been made based on studies of their anatomy and comparisons with modern-day animals.”
The discovery came about after the excavation of a relatively complete sub-adult skeleton of the sauropod Diamantinasaurus matildae from the mid-Cretaceous period, found in the Winton Formation of Queensland, Australia.
There, the team found an unusual, fractured rock layer that seemed to contain the sauropod’s cololite, in which they discovered many well-preserved plant fossils.
In the cololite, researchers found many different plants, from cone-bearing seed plants to flowering plants. The plants look to have been severed, maybe bitten, but not chewed, showing that D. matildae were likely indiscriminate, bulk feeders.
The analysis backed that theory, showing how these dinosaurs minimally processed food in their mouth, relying instead on fermentation and gut microbes for digestion.
This capability to bulk feed on a wide range of plants might be one reason why sauropods survived as long as they did, which was through most of the 160 million years of the dinosaur age.
“These findings largely corroborate past ideas regarding the enormous influence that sauropods must have had on ecosystems worldwide during the Mesozoic Era,” said Poropat.
However, this study has a limitation, namely that the cololites analyzed are a single data point.
“These gut contents only tell us about the last meal or several meals of a single subadult sauropod individual,” said Poropat. “We don’t know if the plants preserved in our sauropod represent its typical diet or the diet of a stressed animal. We also don’t know how indicative the plants in the gut contents are of juvenile or adult sauropods, since ours is a subadult, and we don’t know how seasonality might have affected this sauropod’s diet.”