Bangladesh and the Military Takeover

In focusing on India and Pakistan, we sometimes forget the other countries in the region, and their influence on the world stage. For example, today's story in the Wall Street Journal about Bangladesh brings up some very interesting points.

An interesting point about this story (linked above and requiring subscription) is that Bangladesh, before the January coup, was the second largest Muslim democracy in the world. The first being Indonesia, of course.

It was also of of the most corrupt countries in the world and that's why the general public supported the army when they canceled the upcoming elections and banned most political activity. The one smart thing, in terms of international relations, that the military did was in placing a technocrat as the figurehead. Also the initial results (economic and social) were very positive.

Another development was that this coup was supported by the United States and, more interestingly, the United Nations. However, this support has recently started to shake as the military government has shown signs that it will neither give up the power or hold elections anytime soon.

Corruption is endemic in countries in South Asia and Bangladesh is no different. Additionally, the military is the most trusted structure in these countries. So, generally, the people support the military when it overthrows the civilian government. However, after some time they realize that there is no difference between the civilian and non-civilian institutions and the people start protesting against the military leaders. At that time, there are elections and a civilian government comes to power. Then the cycle starts up again.

The Bangladeshi military leaders are correct in stating that it takes time to incorporate actual reform and that the international community needs to give them that time. The actual result of this coup will come when a civilian government does come to power. Then we will see if this coup served a purpose. Since human rights weren't respected by the civilian governments, the fact that the military government is not respecting these rights, is nothing new to the Bangladeshis. The true test will come in two steps: (1) If they go too far and there are mass disappearances; and (2) If, as mentioned above, the new civilian government follows the same pattern.