With the quota reform confirmed, we now find ourselves in a strange limbo, where we can only wait for the government to slowly reel our weary souls back to normal. While there remains some confusion about further protests, the curfew breaks are getting longer by the day, and the internet is flickering back on. We could be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
Maybe it’s finally time to tally the scores and gauge all the wins and losses. There were plenty of players in this game of ... government jobs, and every episode has been agonizing to watch.
So, who won?
Was it the students?
Some are rightfully writing this off as a momentous victory for the student movement. They stuck to their cause and got what they originally set out for. They have much to be proud of.
But we can never let ourselves forget that these students have been turned blind, berated, brutalized, bombed, kidnapped and even killed. They were attacked in their campuses and dorms, and then, along with the rest of us, they were confined to their houses and muted online. Given the final verdict, the thought of how all this bloodshed could have been avoided will forever linger in everyone’s heads.
To make matters worse, their movement has been absorbed by the ugly sphere of party politics. If the government were to ever change the quota distribution, which the court says they can, then organizing further protests under a cohesive unit looks a daunting task. It will only be susceptible to the same dangers of being disrupted by “terrorists” and being turned into a political tool. And we have all seen just how far the authorities are willing to go.
There’s also the matter of the other demands that are yet to be met. But their troops are tired -- the entire country is -- and rallying support from the general public, who have been crippled financially, will not be easy.
The safety of all these public university students when they return to their schools is also a matter of deep concern with no simple solution. The post-battle bad blood with the ruling party cadres will not simply be wiped clean. Their members won’t just forget the faces of those who dared speak up, and with the impunity they receive on campus, the wake of this fiasco remains a scary prospect.
Nonetheless, these passionate and determined students -- possibly the same batch that took to stage in 2018 for road safety -- have once again rekindled a flame of hope in the hearts of every Bangladeshi. If we protect that fire, the future is sure to be bright.
What about the opposition?
This disaster has breathed new life into the opposition party’s cause. They’ve been calling out the big bad fascist wolf for years now and this past week’s events have certainly added some weight to their cries. The international community will surely be paying attention.
Meanwhile their goons were happy to hijack the protests and take to the streets in order to riot, loot, and pillage -- anything to undermine the incumbent government. But that meaningless destruction was nothing we hadn’t seen before; it’s textbook Bangladeshi political squabble.
While each passing day of this turmoil might seem like a victory for them, it also allows the ruling party more time and more excuses to infiltrate enemy ranks in this digital abyss and cut down on their already dwindling numbers. When the need for more political choice across the world is clearer than ever, can the BNP really afford to stretch themselves so thin and lose whatever base they have? The highest authority has issued a very clear warning.
Anyone else?
As always, the losers everybody seems to forget are the women, the underprivileged districts, and the indigenous communities. These groups have either had their quotas abandoned or drastically cut. The student demands don’t seem to care for them either. But each of these groups have every right to express their disapproval of the new quota system.
The quota should be there to serve marginalized communities who face discrimination in the job market. All these groups frequently struggle with poor infrastructure and resources that don’t grant them a fair shot at landing that job in the government -- a government which should also be representative of them. Ensuring representation for these groups is essential to bring about a country that can actually take pride in its plural identity.
It couldn’t possibly be …
Not only does the state retain all the authority to change the quota distribution on a whim, it would seem they’ve also successfully flipped the protest coverage to fit their narrative. For them, as soon as they pulled the trigger, escalation was the name of the game.
Now they can say: They’ve always been sympathetic to the cause. The disruption is all BNP and Jamaat’s fault -- there’s plenty of evidence, the damage to the metro, and even a jail-break pointing to it. It’s necessary to strike hard and weed them out swiftly.
The same businessmen who took issue with the economic damage caused by the student oborodhs, all nodded along atop their gold bags, preaching patience over profit.
While this language of strong action against terrorists typically excites the international community, valuable partners like the UAE have not taken kindly to such disruption. Bangladeshis all over the world are riled up and ready to explode. With our connection to the world gradually returning, and the grave reality of the past week all washing ashore, we are yet to see the true aftermath of all this and the global damage control that will be necessary.
But was it worth it? Was it worth suffering the devastating economic toll and infrastructure damage? Was it worth potentially destroying international relations? Was it worth casting away the people’s confidence and toying with their basic needs? Was it worth scarring the future of this nation?
Never have I seen such a huge mess made over such a pointless affair.
Still, as we watch them scramble to put on a desperate show over fixing the internet in phases, we here can only wear fake smiles and applaud, knowing full well that the state has little concern for our civil liberties. We’ve received their message loud and clear: If you want your life and individual rights to be respected, then it’s best you try your luck elsewhere.
So what about you? Yes, you, who were depraved enough to pick up a newspaper to make sense of it all. Did you gain anything? Even as I enjoy the scenic sunset on the roof with my neighbours, after what feels like ages, it’s clear to me that we’ve all lost.
Tasawar Sattar is an Editorial Assistant at Dhaka Tribune.