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27 August 2024

Lessons From Sri Lanka: How Bangladesh Can Secure Its Democratic Future

Tasnim Odrika

Parallels between the economic and democratic trajectories – or the lack thereof – of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have long been noted by external experts. In a 2022 ANI interview, which has recirculated in light of the recent mass uprising in Bangladesh, a reporter asked longtime Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina if she foresaw the country facing a “Sri Lanka-type crisis.” Hasina was quick to dismiss the concerns with a brief “Not exactly.” However, when recent videos of Bangladesh’s mass protests emerged, showing demonstrators storming the Ganabhaban, it echoed the Sri Lankan protesters who stormed the presidential palace in 2022.

For the past 15 years, Bangladesh, like Sri Lanka under the Rajapaksa family, has been governed by the Awami League. Both countries have experienced authoritarianism under dynastic rule, characterized by rampant corruption, nepotism, and extravagant projects designed to distract citizens from issues such as debt and money laundering. Both the Sheikh and Rajapaksa families built their political empires on their families’ wartime leadership stories, with little else to bolster their legitimacy as current political leaders.

Hasina might have failed to see the parallels to Sri Lanka and predict the outcome of her authoritarian rule, but we can still derive lessons from the aftermath of the Aragalaya to ensure the reformation of Bangladesh’s democracy.

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