Mahfuj Alam retains his optimism. That is important to note from the start.
Yes, it has been tempered somewhat by the realities of erasing corruption in Bangladesh, a land where it is entrenched. But it still flickers, and that means there is hope.
Like many in Bangladesh, he isn’t quite sure what to think yet of the results of the national elections that took place on Thursday.
Democracy is not easy.
And, as I learned on a trip to Bangladesh a year ago, it can be especially complicated in a nation that hasn’t experienced it in a while.
That doesn’t make it any less important.
Why Bangladesh matters
As I’ve written before, the United States has much to gain from a successful and prosperous Bangladesh.
Bangladesh is in a region of the world rife with poverty and corruption. It is an important ally and trading partner in South Asia, aiding in regional security and counterterrorism.
For Bangladesh to establish a free government would shine a bright light that puts pressure on neighboring countries to do the same.
Has that happened? The answer I keep getting is that it’s too soon to know.
“We are a bit anxious about the future,” Alam told me in an interview Friday morning over WhatsApp, as election results were gradually becoming clearer. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party, one of two major parties that have ruled the country for years, was on its way to a victory.
Alam worried a decisive win may embolden the party to ignore the lessons of a bloody student uprising and its hard-won freedoms. “I think there will be a lot less checks and balances,” he said.
Alam’s opinion is important. A 31-year-old activist, he was a chief architect of the revolutionary uprising in the summer of 2024 that overthrew former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and persuaded Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus to become the nation’s interim leader. That uprising cost the lives of about 1,400 people, the United Nations has estimated. Alam has been Yunus’ adviser to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for much of his interim tenure.
Relief and caution
I also texted via WhatsApp with Tathira Baatul, a recent college graduate who served as my interpreter in Bangladesh.
“Now that the BNP has won, there’s a noticeable sense of relief among many people,” she said, adding that the relief stemmed primarily from learning that Jamaat-e-Islami, an ultra-conservative fundamentalist Islamic party, would not gain control.
“I wouldn’t describe it as overwhelming optimism, but more like cautious hope,” she said. “Young people are still skeptical about how much real change will happen especially in terms of economic opportunity, employment and democratic freedoms, but for now it feels like we avoided what many saw as a more alarming outcome.”
A friend to Utah
Yunus has been a frequent visitor to Utah, where he has touted his microcredit programs designed to help the poorest of the poor learn entrepreneurial skills to lift themselves out of poverty.
He was a reluctant leader when the heads of the revolution asked him to take over in 2024 and to transition the country away from corruption and toward a free and fair election. In an interview a year ago, he told me his biggest surprise after taking over was learning the depth and breadth of corruption in the government, something he said he wouldn’t have time to fix entirely.
In the end, the elections took place nearly completely free from violence or intimidation, even though the government had outlawed Hasina’s political party, the Awami League.
As of Friday, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party was on track to win 94 of the 299 seats in Parliament. Fifty parties fielded candidates.
The presumptive new prime minister, Tarique Rahman, has been in exile since 2008, after he was charged with bribery and corruption. The New York Times calls him “the scion of a political dynasty ... in a country often described as a kleptocracy.”
But, as I said, democracy can be hard.
Complications
The elections were complicated when a new student-led National Citizens Party allied itself with Jamaat-e-Islami for political reasons. That led Alam and others to leave the party. On Friday, Jamaat was expected to win 19 seats.
On the bright side, Thursday’s ballot also asked Bangladeshi voters to approve a new national charter that includes an independent judiciary, a limit of two terms for prime ministers, a bicameral parliament and greater representation for women. The New York Times reported that almost 70% of voters approved.
For now, the victorious Bangladesh Nationalist Party has asked supporters not to celebrate victory but to offer prayers instead. The focus, a party leader said, is on the future and forming a government.
That seems to be everyone’s focus.
“For many young people, what matters most right now is whether political actors follow through on commitments rather than simply using them as campaign language,” Baatul said.
Despite the solidarity exhibited by the uprising, student activists are now divided “by many factions and in many ideological frontiers,” Alam said.
“They do not have any common voice,” he said. “They will have difficulties bargaining for reforms and democratic institutions. This is somewhat backsliding from our aspirations. Our power and our collective strength was compromised. We have to rebuild it and we have to rebuild a whole political language again.”
Yes, democracy is hard, but Alam is ever the optimist. He is forming a new political platform called “Alternatives.” He insists the uprising in July 2024 changed Bangladesh for good. The spirits of those who died “will be here along with us.”
“We will be reinvigorated again and again. They will be alive in our generation. We will look up to them for inspiration.”