In our interconnected world, picking up the phone and hearing muffled voices against static or a completely dead line feels a little post-apocalyptic. But recently, many Bangladeshis around the world have experienced something similar. A government-imposed telecommunications blackout left thousands stranded and unaware of the nation’s current affairs, and unable to contact family and friends back home. Amidst the nationwide anti-government protests by university students demanding reforms to the government’s quota system, the crackdown has been brutal and unprecedented.
Initially introduced in 1972, the quota system was designed to reserve more than half of prestigious public service roles for specific members of the community, including women, the disabled, and those from marginalised districts. Yet 30% of these jobs were also reserved for descendants of war veterans known as “freedom fighters”, who fought to liberate Bangladesh during the War of Independence in 1971. The 30% is a significant percentage — one which disproportionately benefits members of Bangladesh’s ruling party, The Awami League, more than genuinely deserving candidates. Since 1971, the Awami League has put forth the political narrative of being the true champions of Bangladeshi liberation, and anyone in opposition is thus thought to be against the spirit of independence that the party espouses.
Student frustration towards the 30% freedom fighters quota has been brewing for a while. Quota reform protests have occurred previously in 2013, and in the wake of mass protests again in 2018, the government abolished the system entirely, before that ruling was deemed “illegal” and the quota system was reinstated by the High Court in June this year. With Bangladesh currently facing an economic downturn, youth unemployment rates skyrocket while jobs grow stagnant in the private sector. Fed up with a quota system that seemed to unfairly disregard deserving candidates for government jobs, university graduates and students from Bangladesh’s leading universities took to the streets to peacefully protest.
The government’s response has been nothing short of brutal. Hundreds have been injured and killed in state-sponsored attacks by police and paramilitary forces using unlawful force to quell protests, including beatings and use of tear gas, rubber bullets, and in extreme cases, live ammunition. There have also been reports of the police detaining and torturing protest leaders. In response to the anarchy, a nation-wide curfew was announced, and the police were given permission to “shoot on sight” anyone violating its terms. The death toll is officially reported by the Awami League to be in the hundreds, and reported by the protestors to be well into the thousands. The government imposed curfew and civilians were blocked from accessing mobile networks, social media, and the internet, essentially siloing them from the rest of the world.
Peaceful protest is a fundamental right of any student and a leading catalyst for real societal change. When the right to protest, to access information transparently, and to voice concerns online is violently denied, it threatens the democratic status of any free and independent state.
The importance of student voices is entrenched in Bangladesh’s history. Prior to the nation’s independence from Pakistan, Bangladeshi university students famously protested in the Bengali Language Movement of 1952. The Government of the Dominion of Pakistan — situated in ‘West Pakistan’, now Pakistan — enshrined Urdu as the sole federal language, sparking extensive protests among the Bengali-speaking majority. Despite the ban on protests and rallies, students at the University of Dhaka organised a peaceful protest on February 21 to demand Bangla be the state language, which turned violent when the Pakistani army opened fire on students, killing many. The event catalysed Bengali identity formation and the nationalist movement for independence. This date is now celebrated as Ekushey February (Language Movement Day) and is a national holiday. Globally, this date is commemorated as International Mother Language Day.
Ironically, in a nation founded on the efforts of student uprisings, outspoken university students today are not awarded a national holiday, but met with bullets and blackouts. It is even more hypocritical that this state-sponsored violence is taking place on campus’ such as Dhaka University, which is the same site that the Pakistani government undertook Operation Searchlight in 1971 — an operation designed to cripple the burgeoning resistance movements by invading the university campus and murdering the most meritorious changemakers of society: students, academics, and their families. Operation Searchlight is a dark moment in the history of Bangladeshi independence, and yet the same atrocities are occuring on the same campus by an independent, free, Bangladeshi government. The suppression of student voice paints a bleak picture of the future of free speech in the country.
Unfortunately for us as University of Sydney students, the silencing of student voices overseas does not seem too far from home ground. Just last month, changes to university policy saw the introduction of the ‘Campus Access Policy’ (CAP) which revokes student and staff rights to organise protests, put up posters, or set up stalls on campus without first gaining approval from university management. It comes after the months-long Gaza solidarity encampment spearheaded by university students on campus grounds, as a protest against the university’s profiting off ties with Israeli universities and investments in weapons manufacturing companies.
The CAP is designed to restrict students’ fundamental right to speak freely against the University, undermining the spontaneity of student voice, and curtailing the impact of collective action led by students. At a university like USyd with such a zealous history of protest and student action, the CAP feels like an attack on the integrity and legacy of student activism. It reveals one thing: bureaucratic institutions are afraid of the inherent power of student voice because they know what a significant impact it can have on reputation.
In a recent update, the High Court of Bangladesh has reluctantly agreed to the initial demands of protestors. As of July 21, the quota system has been amended to be 93% merit-based, 5% for the grand/children of freedom fighters, and 2% for ethnic minorities and those with disabilities. The small quota for women has been abolished entirely. This reformed system remains questionable, as the percentages for minorities, women, and disabled people — those for whom a quota system is necessary to access equal opportunities — has become either much lower or nonexistent and leaves them more vulnerable. The quota reform movement was always in opposition to the ‘Freedom Fighter Quota’, and in favour of “reserving jobs for ethnic minorities and people with disabilities”.
Nevertheless, protesters are continuing to mobilise and demonstrate against the government, now focussing their movement towards a 9-point-demand list which includes a public apology from the Prime Minister for the mass killing of students, the reopening of schools and universities, and consequences for the elected officials, military, and policemen who presided over extrajudicial killings. Updates on the current situation are difficult to accurately gather due to state-sponsored underreporting and unstable internet access.
These methods of restricting and manipulating communication in Bangladesh have eerie resonances with Israel’s war tactics in Palestine. The Awami League government has purchased mass surveillance equipment from Israel — despite a longstanding ban on travelling to Israel with a Bangladeshi passport — capable of intercepting communications. The situation in Palestine and the situation in Bangladesh, despite differing contexts and scales, is interconnected by the common thread of state-sponsored violence and human rights abuses against vulnerable civilian populations. In the 21st century, attacking the free flow of information and communication is a lethal tactic, employed as a weapon against the people in order to advance government agendas.
We must remain vigilant in supporting and protecting the right for students to assemble, protest, and advocate for themselves against institutions geared towards preserving the power of a select, elite few.
