Dhaka: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is a political phenomenon who has helped transform the country of 170 million from a pastoral jute producer to Asia-Pacific’s fastest-growing economy over the past decade, Time said. A cover story on the world’s longest-serving female head of state.
In office since 2009, after a first term from 1996 to 2001, he has been credited with taming both resurgent Islamists and the once-intervening military, Time said. Having already won more elections than late Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher or Indira Gandhi, Hasina is determined to extend that haul at the ballot box in January.
“I believe that my people are with me,” she says in an interview with Time in September. “They are my main strength.” Bangladesh has adopted an authoritarian stance under Hasina’s Awami League party. The last two elections were condemned by the US and the European Union. and for other significant irregularities, including stuffed ballot boxes and thousands of ghost voters.
They got 84 percent and 82 percent votes respectively. Today, two-time former Prime Minister and BNP leader Khaleda Zia is seriously ill under house arrest on suspected corruption charges. Meanwhile, more than 40 lakh legal cases have been filed against BNP activists, while independent journalists and civil society also complain of retaliatory harassment. Critics say the January vote is akin to a coronation and Hasina a dictator, Time said.
“The ruling party is controlling all the state machinery, be it law enforcement agencies or the judiciary,” says BNP general secretary Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, who has been charged in 93 cases including brutality and murder and tried nine times. Has been put in jail.
“Whenever we raise our voice, they persecute us.” Hasina’s economic achievements are impressive.
Bangladesh has gone from struggling to feed its people to becoming a food exporter, with its GDP growing from $71 billion in 2006 to $460 billion in 2022, making it South Asia’s second-largest economy after India. Has been.
Social indicators have also improved, with today 98 percent of girls receiving primary education. Bangladesh is moving towards high-tech manufacturing, allowing international companies like Samsung to divert supply chains from China.
“When it comes to democracy, human rights, freedom of expression, we definitely need to improve,” says Professor Mohammad Ali Arafat, an Awami League lawmaker from central Dhaka.
“But we have come a long way.” Hasina knows that bitter and hurtful opposition means failure is not an option. “It is not so easy to overthrow me through the democratic system,” she says. “The only option is to eliminate me. And I am ready to die for my people.”
