Title: Behind Bangladesh’s Protests: Rising Frustration
Author: Aparupa Bhattacherjee
Date: August 22, 2018
During the first week of August 2018, thousands of Bangladesh high school and college students flooded the streets of Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, demanding for stricter traffic regulation and enforcement of road safety after two students were accidentally killed when a speeding bus collided into them on July 28th. The peaceful protest of the Bangladeshi youths soon turned into a violent chaos when the government turned to violence to silence their voices. Reports of the use of tear gas and rubber bullets by the police force as a measure of crowd control, local journalists being detained, as well as sexual assaults of female protesters and journalists have surfaced. The government then shut down mobile internet access for 24 hours to keep the news within their border before initiating the Road Transport Act 2018 to appease the protesters who still remain skeptical of this new law as Bangladesh’s transport sector is regarded by many as corrupt and dangerous.
I chose this article because the majority of the protesters were very young, mostly high school students like me, and some even as younger as thirteen. The article mentions that student protests around the world have brought great changes, which reminded me of how the younger generations were one of the forefronts of the protest that led to the impeachment of the former president Park Geun-hye. My reaction to the news of the Bangladesh protest was disgust towards how the Bangladeshi government decided to handle the protest. The rubber bullets, tear gas, regulating media, and limiting free speech reminded me of numerous tyrannical authorities like past political repression in the Soviet Union. The issue of fighting against political repression has been the center of many revolutions and this issue has become another example of people coming together to stand against “the way it has always been”. They didn’t overthrow a government or a leader but forced their administration to act to ensure the safety of its citizens on the road and rendered their government’s attempt to silence them ineffective by weaponizing social media and garnering help from outside their country. The young Bangladeshi protesters took to social media, the most the most popular tool of the millennials, and turned it into a lifeline between them and worldwide news outlets. This event has taught me a different, revolutionary use of something that I’m always carrying in my pocket. In my opinion, the Bangladeshi protesters have shown the public what kind of changes can resolve an issue as intimidating as an oppressive government. They decided that they were no longer going to tolerate the inaction of their government, and when the government decided to villainize them, the protesters did not step back. Instead, the Bangladeshis flooded BBC and CNN Facebook pages and commented on every single one of their articles begging for reporters to cover what was happening in Bangladesh. To find the courage to speak up against those who have power and to do so with solidarity is what this event offers as a solution to oppression. Using social media to garner support from all around the world is another important aspect of this solution as well. This is what ultimately leads to a just society.
