EGN NEWS DESK
Two years in the past, Nahid Islam graduated from Dhaka University with a bachelor thesis that examined why no pupil motion in Bangladesh had ever managed to succeed in its targets. Little does it matter that he forgot what his conclusion was. The 26-year-old has now modified historical past.
Islam was one of the seen faces of a pupil motion which kickstarted countrywide mass protests in Bangladesh in latest months, ensuing within the ousting of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, as soon as thought-about to be among the many strongest girls on this planet.
“Hasina is a bloodsucker and a psychopath,” Islam instructed TIME with a relaxed voice from an opulent black leather-based chair in his wood-paneled workplace on the Ministry for Information Technology in Dhaka, on a Sunday afternoon in September.
Not way back, he was an data know-how tutor, pressured into hiding with a purpose to keep away from being arrested by the federal government. Now he’s the nation’s ICT and media minister.
In June, along with a handful of different college students, Islam walked into the library at Dhaka University, holding up placards calling on folks to take to the streets. The High Court had simply reinstated a controversial quota that favored members of the family of veterans from Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War to get authorities jobs. Islam and his colleagues demanded a good probability for everybody as a substitute.
Protests towards the quota system first rattled college campuses throughout Bangladesh in 2018. At the time, the federal government finally backtracked and the protests died down. This yr too, it might have ended with the difficulty of the quota system, Islam stated.
But then safety forces started taking pictures reside rounds at protesters. On July 16, Abu Sayed, one other pupil chief, was shot dead whereas strolling in the direction of law enforcement officials with open arms.
“His killing turned out to be a game-changing second for the motion,” stated Islam. The protests rapidly swept up massive components of the inhabitants throughout the nation, providing folks a welcome outlet for mounting frustration within the face of a corrupt authorities, hovering costs, and an more and more authoritarian rule.
Eventually the protesters targeted on Prime Minister Hasina herself. When the scholars got here up with a one-point demand on August 3, it was Islam who delivered it: Hasina must resign, he introduced on the campus of Dhaka University. On August 5, when tons of of hundreds have been closing in on her residence within the coronary heart of Dhaka, she boarded a helicopter and was flown to India, the place she stays in exile.
“No one thought she could possibly be toppled,” Islam stated, rocking backwards and forwards in his large leather-based chair.
Read More: Sheikh Hasina and the Future of Democracy in Bangladesh
With the navy’s assist, the scholars—all the sudden in command of a rustic of 170 million—requested Nobel Peace Laureate Muhammad Yunus, 84, to preside over an interim authorities. The economist, who rose to fame when he revolutionized the event business along with his microcredit concept, was in exile himself resulting from an array of authorized costs levied towards him by the Hasina authorities. He’s been acquitted since taking workplace.
As the top of the interim authorities, Yunus is Islam’s boss now—however solely as a result of the scholars needed it this manner. When requested who was taking orders from whom, Islam smirks earlier than saying: “Yunus consults us on all main selections.”
He factors at a pink landline on his desk on the ministry. “The VIP cellphone,” Islam stated and shrugged. “No concept what I ought to use it for. I textual content Yunus on Whatsapp.”
If Islam continues to be puzzled about every part that has occurred in his life over the previous couple of weeks, his stoic demeanor doesn’t give it away.
His private secretary, a seemingly careworn officer older than himself, retains dashing out and in of the room, carrying paperwork for him to signal. Islam’s two cell phones are ringing always. And guests present up till the early morning hours at his residence in an uncharacteristically lush space of Dhaka, the place the lounge alone—adorned with a chandelier and white velvet sofas—is sort of as large as his outdated condo.
The sociology graduate has all the time been amongst those that defied the federal government. In his first week of college in 2017, the Dhaka-born son of a teacher took half in protests towards a coal plant on the sting of the Sundarbans, a mangrove forest on the border with India. In 2019, Islam ran for campus elections and later, alongside along with his friends, fashioned a pupil group at Dhaka University, the Democratic Student Force.
But he first turned recognized to the bigger public in July of this yr, after he was kidnapped and tortured by the nation’s intelligence companies, infamous for its enforced disappearances of presidency critics. One sweltering evening, round 30 plainclothes officers confirmed up at a good friend’s home the place he was hiding to keep away from arrest for his function within the protests. He says they put black material on his head, then they instructed him: “the world won’t ever see you once more.”
In what Islam believes was one among their secret prisons, they beat him with what he says felt like an iron rod, leaving bruises on his legs and arms. Dizzy from a mixture of the ache, tormenting sounds, and a glistening shiny gentle directed at him, he drifted out and in of consciousness.
“Who’s the mastermind? Where is the cash coming from?” they needed to know, he recalled. A day later, Islam says he was dumped beside a bridge. Photos of his accidents have been circulated by native media and prompted outrage.
“The intelligence companies have been in search of recognized faces, for the chief of our motion, however we didn’t have only one. That was our predominant power,” he stated. And whereas he appears to be navigating his new function as a minister with confidence, he insists that main the protests was teamwork: “The media all the time need one face, however I’m not the one chief on this motion. There have been many people.”
After Hasina’s authorities was ousted, the facility vacuum needed to be crammed rapidly. Dr Samina Luthfa, Islam’s sociology professor from Dhaka University, says she met an uncharacteristically nervous Islam on the day the scholars introduced the interim authorities to the folks. “He’s very younger, it was an enormous accountability.”
In the aftermath of the overhaul, folks’s expectations projected onto the interim authorities are skyrocketing. In this new Bangladesh, all people anticipates solely the perfect from the scholars who guided them within the liberation from a “dictator,” as many now dare to say overtly.
Read More: The Trials of Muhammad Yunus
His cellphone is ringing, once more. He is being requested to mediate at a Dhaka hospital, the place college students attacked medical doctors after one among their friends died from alleged neglect. The medical doctors responded with a strike. While he’s gulping down his rice and hen lunch, one other name. Can Yunus’ workplace share his quantity with some protesters who demand authorities jobs?
“It’s odd,” Islam stated, “as soon as this was us,” he says, referring to the protesters. “Now we’re those who must handle it.”
Bangladeshis are energized by the success of creating their voices heard after a 15-year rule that was sustained by vote rigging, crackdowns on critics, and a basic local weather of concern. People at the moment are making use of their new freedom. Women stage demonstrations towards harassment instances. Students oppose exams they wish to see postponed after weeks of interrupted courses. Even faculty kids in upper-class components of Dhaka have been seen protesting—they didn’t like their principal, they stated.
“Over the final 15 years folks couldn’t speak, now they lastly get an opportunity,” Islam defined.
But his largest problem would possibly nonetheless lie forward.
While there’s a basic sense of aid within the nation, there’s not been a lot time to rejoice. Restoring legislation and order stays a priority for the brand new authorities. And there’s additionally a lingering concern that the navy or the ousted Awami League might attempt to forcibly take again energy. It wouldn’t be the primary time, as in Bangladesh, politics have historically been marred by violence.
Islam says that it’s the job of the interim authorities to root out corruption and convey the nation again onto a path of democracy till elections are held. “We will solely be right here for a short while.”
“All the corruption and the violence – folks don’t need this anymore,” he stated. “We ought to perceive the heartbeat of the brand new technology. We want to maneuver on.”
