Julian Kuttig

Fragile Victory: Can #Bangladesh's Interim Government Avoid the Pitfalls of the Past? A perspective on the challenges ahead: recentglobe.hypotheses.org/3309 @CRG,@ReCentGlobe

Neue Veröffentlichung! Zusammen mit Christian Wagner analysiere ich in unserem neuen @SWPBerlin-Aktuell die politischen Entwicklungen und Herausforderungen in Bangladesch nach der Juli-Revolution. 👉 swp-berlin.org/publications/p…

@nomhossain I know what you meant (-; and it is indeed fascinating where all these commentators suddenly come from.

@jbkuttig I didn’t mean people like you! I meant people who make stuff up based on a dangerously little knowledge. I didn’t mean serious scholars like yourself

This oddly uninformed tweet got 1.5 thousand likes. If we know one thing after this Bangladesh uprising, it is that we cannot allow total outsiders to dominate international discourse about Bangladesh because they know so very very little about it. 🇧🇩

My take on the Bangladesh uprising / revolution / liberation 2.0 for @ContextNewsroom

@FondOfBeetles How about Turner or Klinefelter Syndrom or Mosaicism? Can this clearly be categorized within a binary? It’s an honest question, I am no expert.

And I’ll eat his hat for dessert. Swyer Syndrome involves no testes nor ovaries. Individuals with Swyer Syndrome don’t get through puberty without extensive hormonal intervention. And both of these boxers have very clearly been through puberty.

@TheDavidBergman I hear of quite a number of counter-killings already.

For some Bangladeshis the fall of the Awami League is the end of fear. For others, however, it may well be the beginning of fear. It is difficult for people not conversant with Bangladesh to understand how for Bangladeshis (living both inside and outside the country) who wanted to express an opinion or view against the Awami League government, its fall has resulted in such an extraordinary release of fear. The AL was in power since 2008, and certainly since 2015, if not earlier, people understood that speaking out could have significant repercussions, and as time went on the level or repercussions increased. These there not just repercussions for oneself but one's family: Bangladeshis could not speak out in the UK, knowing that their family was vulnerable in Bangladesh. Kanak Sarwar, a popular YouTuber, highly critical of the government, lived in the US. As a result, the government arrested his sister on completely spurious charges and was arrested and jailed for over 6 months, without trial. So as a result there is huge relief from government critics or just Bangladeshis who wanted to speak their mind. However, that is just one side of the coin rights now. The other side is that with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and other parties in the ascendent, the Awami Leaguers, or people who are known supporters of the Awami League, are receiving threats and are scared to come out in the public. I heard today that a very senior lawyer, not particularly pro-Awami League, was chased down the corridor and had to quickly jump into his car. I also heard about another Awami League lawyer deciding not to come to court right now because he is scared of what will happen to him as he has received threats. There are also confirmed reports of attacks against Christian schools and Hindu temples - the minorities perceived by the opposition parties to be supporters of the Awami League. One could see this as teething pains of the new dispensation particularly where there is not yet even a functioning government. In addition one could argue that in light of the terrible killings that took place in recent weeks (effectively authorised by the Awami League) it would be naive not to realise that in the immediate days after such events, there will be a lot of anger directed at the former governing party, but that it will reduce quickly. Perhaps. However there is no reason to think that the opposition parties have suddenly learned any lessons from their own victimhood over the last 15 years and that they have become more tolerant of their political rivals. If Bangladesh is not careful, the country will be replacing one repressive government for another. It is not inevitable, but it is also difficult to know how one can stop this from happening.

@nomhossain Looking at some recent developments I am not sure we might soon experience just another side of the same coin.

Workers, organized labour, MUST be part of this interim government, or we will end up with another round of crony capitalism, and a development model that feeds the rich. #Bangladesh 🇧🇩

@ZohaWaseem Well, I’ve been working on student politics and autocratization in BD for quite some time and it’s true, now suddenly they all focus puzzled on BD and don’t understand much.

@stagerbn Oh man, bitte mehr lesen. Es ist deutlich komplizierter: recentglobe.hypotheses.org/2917

Was ist in Bangladesch los? Glaube ich dem ÖRR, haben Studenten die Regierung gestürzt, um Demokratie zu erreichen. Glaube ich den Trends hier, sind eher Islamisten am Werk. Dass es dort Pogrome gegen Hindus und Christen gibt, ist aber wohl unstrittig.

Across multiple locations in Bangladesh, people were seen demolishing statues of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the father of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The @albd1971 , has long been centered around a cult of personality focused on Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Revered as the nation's founding father who led Bangladesh to independence in 1971, Mujib's popularity soared in the immediate post-independence years. However, over time, his administration became marred by corruption and nepotism among party members and close relatives. In 1975, a too-confident Mujib established a one-party system, banning newspapers and dissolving opposition parties. This autocratic shift drastically eroded his public support and culminated in the tragic assassination of Mujib and his entire family. Sheikh Hasina's government, which gained power for the second time in 2008, appears to have followed a similar trajectory. Her administration has been criticized for implementing the draconian Digital Security Act, abolishing the caretaker government system, and allowing unchecked corruption to spread, effectively creating a classic fiefdom. The opposition parties have been rendered almost non-existent, with hundreds of thousands of @bdbnp78 and @BJI_Official members imprisoned on what are widely considered to be false charges. Hasina established total control under the guise of democracy, only to find herself facing a fate similar to the one she once dictated for others—forced to flee the country.

#Bangladesh update from journalist on ground in Dhaka at 6am (Uk time) 11am (Bangladesh time). 1. Thousands of heavily armed troops and police men were deployed in Dhaka and its entry points as the students urged people to march to the capital to force Hasina to resign. The students have called for the resignation of Hasina in a massive rally in Dhaka on Saturday. 2. Protesters have hit the streets again on Monday morning. There are several reports of clashes including one at the Shaheed Minar, the Language Martyrs Memorial, where the students have planned to stage a major rally on Monday. 3. Mobile internet was shut down from Sunday afternoon. Broadband internet was not affected yesterday. But from Monday morning, broadband internet was also suspended. Bangladesh has 141 million internet users. Of the total only 14 million use broadband internet. Social media such as Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp have been shut down. 4. Garment manufacturing has been heavily hit by the protests. All 3,500 garment manufacturers who make apparel for top brands such as Zara, H&M and Mango have been shut on Monday. Several garment factories were torched last night, police said. Dozens of garment manufacturers openly defied Hasina and expressed their solidarity with the students. 5. Former generals including at least two former army chiefs have asked the military to send troops back to barracks. In a press briefing, much respected military chief General Ikbal Karim Bhuiyan said they want a UN-led investigation to probe the killings of hundreds of students. At least a dozen former generals backed his call. 6. Public and private offices and banks have been ordered to shut down for three days starting from Monday. The country's top court has been shut indefinitely. Indefinite curfew has been imposed from 6pm Sunday. No movement of cars or buses on the roads. Some rickshaws can be seen moving in narrow neighbourhood alleys.

@nomhossain There are “supporters of AL” Facebook groups posting generic content, ridiculed openly in comments. Senior BCL leaders push the AL narrative, believing paid opposition activists caused most violence from day 2, justifying police actions in this bipartisan zero-sum game ideology.

It doesn’t seem like the government has much support on this website. Do they have any supporters on Facebook? Or anywhere? They are keeping very quiet.

Meanwhile in #naples. #Bagladesh #StudentsUnderAttackInBangladesh #StudentProtest #Bangladeshstudentprotest

@TheDavidBergman I am not sure if it is simple ignorance, holiday season, lack of knowledge or part of their “virtue based foreign policy”. But as an editor of a big German media outlet told me: “Bangladesh is far away and doesn’t interest our readers.”

There is not a SINGLE statement from any government - whether it be UK, US, European Union, German, Canadian, Australian etc etc - that directly condemns the shooting of unarmed civilians by the #Bangladesh law enforcement authorities even though there was available, right from the start, so many public source videos showing exactly that. All the statements basically say, in one form of words or the other, the "violence should stop" without saying who was responsible for the violence! So for example: UK: "We urge an end to the violence" EU: "The EU is deeply concerned by the violence" Canada: "We are shocked by the violence" Germany: "escalation of violence in recent days needs to be investigated" This is an extraordinary benefit to an authoritarian government whose security services in sight of everyone, shot dead nearly 200 students/protestors. (The statements could also, of course have condemned protestors for committing criminal damage.) The lack of any single condemnation - yet alone a joint one - of the law enforcement killings gave the Awami League a green light to continue shooting, which is what happened. And it also gave it a green light to order the hugely repressive measures which are now ongoing involving the rounding up students and opposition activists, disappearing some of them for short periods of time and torturing them.

In today's issue of #Thedailystar, Bangladesh's largest circulating English-language newspaper. For an unedited version of Reiner Ebert’s witness report of a clash between anti-quota protesters and the Chhatra League in Dhaka on July 16, please see rainerebert.com/2024/07/26/acc…

I request the immediate release of Nurul Haque Nur. I know him personally, he has visited my residence several times. He is a serious, dedicared and courageous patriot of Bangladesh. He should be freed to receive medical care. The new generation of young politicians moving beyond the traditional bipartisan political structure are and must be the future of the country.

In #Bangladesh, students are challenging the Awami League's autocratic rule. The situation has escalated with a harsh crackdown, leading to many casualties. @jbkuttig @ugent analyzes the crisis in our #globaldynamics blog. 📃🇧🇩➡️ recentglobe.hypotheses.org/2917

@ZulkarnainSaer @Dawn_News Here is a written take on this: recentglobe.hypotheses.org/2917

Explained the historical context and underlying factors of the ongoing student protest to @Dawn_News youtu.be/8hFPu_1YmdA?fe…

The Battle for Bangladesh: Students Lead the Charge Against Autocracy recentglobe.hypotheses.org/2917 via @hypothesesorg