How Hasina used fallen dictator Ershad to build her despotic regime

Illustration: TBS

Among many of her desperate efforts to either return to power and/or cling to power, the blatant use of fallen autocrat general Ershad as a pawn to ascend the prize chair has made Sheikh Hasina a real life example of a power-hungry politician who ultimately emerged as supreme leader of a despotic regime.

Behind Hasina's unprecedented rise, Ershad and his party were all along forced to contribute most to implement Hasina's plans to materialise her political ambition regardless of democratic norms and values and even her promises to the people.

Enemy turned 'friend'

Once Ershad was considered a "common enemy" by both Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia and the two alliances of the political parties they were leading to intensify the street agitation to topple the autocrat who grabbed state power in March 1982 by ousting the then elected government. The leftist 5-party alliance also joined the efforts.

When years of anti-Ershad agitation gained momentum in late 1990, the three alliances came up with a joint declaration full of lofty promises among which were such assertions that the general elections would be held under a non-partisan caretaker government, and most importantly, Ershad and his associates would not be accommodated by any of the parties. They also announced an agreed code of conduct for them to establish genuine democracy by ejecting Ershad, his cronies and their corrupt policies from power.

Ershad resigned in a mass uprising on 6 December 1990, putting the top office vacant and up for grabs. Hasina and Khaleda were the main contenders for the chief executive post of the country.

In the election held in February 1991, Hasina and her party senior leaders who were overconfident to win it were shocked by a defeat to BNP-led by Khaleda Zia, with a swift knee-jerk allegation that the election was "rigged".

Hasina had no choice but to wait for the next election to be held in early 1996. But the then constitutional provisions allowed the then prime minister Khaleda Zia to stay in office during the next polls.

Hasina knew that none of the parliamentary elections held under a partisan government after the country's independence were either free or fair. The 1991 election was held under the justice Shahabuddin Ahmed led non-partisan caretaker government installed after the resignation of Ershad.  A free and fair election was a must for her party to return to power.

Hasina came up with the demand for introduction of the caretaker government system in the constitutions ensuring that Khaleda Zia would not be in office during the next election – a demand rejected outright by Khaleda and her party. Hasina started street agitation programmes to press home her demand.

An autocrat turns democrat

Ershad who was elected MP while still imprisoned in the 1991 election instructed his party to take to the streets with the same demand. Jamat-e- Islami that extended support to Khaleda Zia after the 1991 election to form the government also took to the streets with the same demand.  

The Magura by-election in March 1994 was marred by widespread allegation of rigging by the ruling BNP candidate that handed just the right ammunition to the opposition to add fuel to the fire of agitation.

Hasina used the weapon effectively to force Khaleda Zia to concede to the demand of the caretaker government during the election. She did not hesitate to form a liaison committee with Jatiya Party and Jamaat and waged a movement that often included violent hartals.

On 28 December 1994, Awami League, Jatiya Party and Jamaat resigned from parliament as part of their agitation programme, leaving no other option for the Khaleda Zia government but to go for a large-scale by-election. But this option was all but impossible given the then political situation.

The political situation continued worsening amid the opposition's continuous agitation programmes such as non-stop hartals.

Khaleda Zia gave in to the pressure and called for an election to be held in February 1996 dissolving the parliament before completion of its five-year tenure. The election was boycotted by AL, JP, Jamaat and others. Khaleda Zia was sworn in as the prime minister for a second consecutive term. The parliament formed through the one-sided election hurriedly amended the Constitution introducing the non-partisan election time government and Khaleda resigned on 30 March 1996.

In the election held in June 1996 under Justice Habibur Rahman led caretaker government, Hasina won but did not have the necessary majority to form a government. The resulting hung parliament came as a blessing for Ershad who took on the mantle of a kingmaker sitting in his jail cell!

BNP, which had won 116 seats, reportedly offered Ershad to form the government in an effort to prevent Hasina from becoming the prime minister as she ahd already turned into an enemy of the BNP by forcing Khaleda Zia to step down.

Ershad wins from prison

But Ershad, who was again elected MP from the prison, was resentful against Khaleda who had kept him in jail for more than five years. He opted to support Sheikh Hasina. His party wrote to the president extending its support to Hasina to be appointed as the prime minister.

The rules of the game got more complicated now.

The earliest sign of a crack in the joint declaration of the three alliances not to accommodate Ershad and his close associates was seen when BNP nominated in the February 1991 parliamentary election at least two former bureaucrats who had been close to Gen Ershad who was ousted from power just a month ago.

During the agitation against the Khaleda Zia government, that commitment to send Ershad to wilderness was itself sent into oblivion as their common target was to force Khaleda to introduce the non-partisan caretaker government. They joined hands.

Despite being in jail, Ershad won in five constituencies in the 1991 national election and his party secured 35 seats in parliament. He won in five constituencies in the election of 1996 and his party won 33 seats. He managed a cabinet berth for his party's secretary general by extending support to Hasina to form the government. Thus, the tyrant who was ousted through a mass upsurge found his way back into politics. And in exchange for extending support to Hasina to form the government in June 1996, he bought his freedom and announced that he would continue his support "for sister Hasina forever".

Khaleda-Ershad alliance

He walked out of jail after he was granted bail in dozens of cases filed against him after his fall. Within the next two years of his free life, he joined hands with Khaleda Zia against Hasina and became a component of the BNP-led four-party alliance. This act of doublecrossing did not sit well with Sheikh Hasina and the Hasina government put pressure on him to quit the BNP-led alliance.

The pending cases against him were brought back to the front burners. Ershad was sentenced by the trial court in a graft case during the regime of Khaleda Zia. But in that case, the final judgement came from the Appellate Division during the regime of AL upholding his conviction. He lost his membership in parliament and was disqualified from contesting the 2011 election.

The Jatiya Party experienced its first split as Ershad's party secretary general, who joined Hasina's cabinet, refused to resign from the government. Ershad's party faced another split when he quit the BNP-led alliance before the election as a group of his party leaders formed a faction of JP and remained in the BNP-led alliance before the 2001 parliamentary election.

As the pending cases against him gathered steam again during the BNP government formed after the 2001 election, he tried to buy time by announcing that his party would join the BNP led alliance to contest the 2006/7 election together.

Again to AL's lap

But amid many twists and turns, he finally joined the AL-led alliance in 2006 at the fag end of the Khaleda Zia government. Political crisis worsened as the opposition alliance led by Hasina refused to join the election under the Iajuddin Ahmed led caretaker government resulting in declaration of emergency and cancellation of the election scheduled on 22 January 2007.  

His party joined the December 2008 parliamentary election under the AL-led alliance which won a landslide. His younger brother Ghulam Muhammed Quader was inducted into Hasina's cabinet.

The strongest support Ershad was forced to extend to Hasina was before the 2014 election held under Sheikh Hasina government after cancellation of the caretaker government system. BNP and other opposition parties boycotted the polls. Ershad too attempted to quit the electoral race and ordered his party candidates to withdraw their candidacies. He himself withdrew from one constituency, but was not allowed to withdraw from another one. He was forcibly admitted to the Dhaka CMH.

He was seen at Bangabhaban at the oath taking ceremony of Hasina for second consecutive terms after the one-sided parliamentary election. He was also made special envoy to the prime minister with the status of a minister.

Jatiya Party's strange role in parliament

His party MPs however refused to perform only the opposition role in the new parliament. They demanded ministerial berths in Hasina's cabinet. Three MPs were made ministers. Thus JP appeared with a dual role in the parliament formed through the 2014 one-sided election.  Without the Jatiya Party there was none in that parliament to act as the opposition party.

As the BNP joined the 2018 election, Ershad's party returned to the AL led alliance to defeat the BNP-led opposition alliance. That election was rigged at midnight before the election day. Ershad was elected from a Rangpur constituency, withdrawing his candidacy from Dhaka-17 constituency for the AL nominated candidate and said he quit from Dhaka constituency 'for sister Hasina' who nominated once popular movie actor Akbar Hossain Pathan Farooque. As Ershad's party won more seats than the BNP, he was recognised as the leader of the opposition in the parliament formed through the 2018 election.

 Ershad died in July 2019, passing the baton of his party to his younger brother GM Quader.   

Again in the January 2014 election to be held under the Hasina government the BNP and other opposition parties announced boycott of the polls as no free and fair elections were held under the AL government, GM Quader too attempted to boycott the election but failed conceding to the pressure built up by the AL. After the polls, though it won only 11 seats, the party became the main opposition in parliament again.

In all three parliaments formed after the elections in 2014, 2018 and 2024, Jatiya Party became the main opposition which is needed in a parliamentary democracy. But the party has been labelled as government friendly opposition.

The rest is history as Hasina emerged as an all-powerful leader keeping the three parliaments under her thumb alongside her efforts that deeply politicised the law enforcement agencies, judiciary and all economic and political institutions. Thus she built a perfect despotic regime in which Ershad and his party were all along used as pawns. But her luck is not like the one of Gen Ershad who did not flee the country.

Hasina's dubious distinction

Just seven months before her fall, Hasina made Bangladesh first in the year of the global festival of electoral democracy by holding the January parliamentary election.

Half of the global population in more than five dozen democracies are exercising their right to franchise in national elections in 2024 making the year a rare one seen never before in the global history of electoral democracy.

Being the leader of Bangladesh, Hasina also became the first to rob people's voting rights by holding the stage managed election in January once again as she did in previous two occasions in 2014 and 2018 to  cling to the power emerging as 'Asia's Iron Lady'.

And it is none other than Hasina who became the world's first leader  to abruptly resign and hastily flee in face of an extraordinary students- people uprising.