In the political history of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina is now branded as an “Unstoppable Leader” and so do her name will be engraved in the minds of people as a leader of courage as she didn’t allow the country to get defeated at the hands of anti-liberation forces. Her positive mind drew the political map of Bangladesh to keep it on track with liberal thoughts of Islam.
Beyond question, she has successfully terminated the Islamic Militants as an essential spirit of the liberation war of Bangladesh that her father and the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman dreamt of for his people. True, this fight is still on because the internal orthodox forces and external conspirators are still active in the country, and with an extended motive, they are on to eliminate her.
Also, a strong rating must be offered to her as she brought back the parliamentary system and ensured people’s voting rights. When the country was under autocratic rulers, she was on the street and made her voice high for democracy, the parliamentarian system. She regularly says, “Democracy won’t be protected without maintaining constitutional process, while the economic emancipation of the people won’t come without the protection of democracy.”
You Can Also Read: FOILED ASSASSINATION PLOT: UNRAVELING SHEIKH HASINA’S REMARKABLE SURVIVAL STORY
In this year of 2024, she was sworn in as the Prime Minister for the fifth time and fourth in consecutive order, and thus, she retained her title as the world’s longest-serving female head of government. As we all know, after the shocking days of 1975, two decades later in 1996, she led her party Awami League to victory by a huge margin, and the government led by Sheikh Hasina was formed. During this time, the historic Hill Tracts Peace Treaty and the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty with neighboring India were signed.
AL President Sheikh Hasina and BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia were imprisoned on corruption charges in 2007 after a coup by a military-backed government. The whole process was based on the minus-two formula-oriented conspiracy of the non-political opportunists quarters. But over the positive leadership, Sheikh Hasina conquered the hearts of the people and returned to power chair.
Again she led her party to win the ninth on December 29, 2008, the tenth on January 5, 2014, and the eleventh parliamentary elections on December 30, 2018. During this time, the execution of the verdict of the murder of Bangabandhu, the trial of the war criminals, and the implementation of the verdict, the establishment of the legal rights of Bangladesh in the Bay of Bengal. The longpending land boundary demarcation and exchange of enclaves with India were signed.
Congratulations Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina! Congratulating you is neither a formality, nor an artificial comment-show, but from the bottom of my heart, as I do consider her the leader of the time from the global perspective, I do admit her as the leader of courage who holds the crown of courage to rescue her country people from every economic fragile condition, from every mental weakness not to grow further with liberal thoughts to develop a living worthy society.
We have observed that once again the Prime Minister assured the people that her government’s main target is to ensure a liberal and modern society and corruption-free administration. The government promises bound to establish good governance for the people on the line of “Smart Bangladesh.”
People will remember her because she fought against poverty and hunger successfully. The war criminals of 1971 including the killers of Bangabandhu were put on trial and punished. Sheikh Hasina as a great leader of the country will be given respectful credit for encouraging her administrative team and youths to brand Bangladesh across the globe. A country’s branding is essential on the international stage for covering political, economic, and cultural dimensions. It predominantly acts as a strategic tool to boost a country’s competitive advantage and ensures its favorable reputation with the target audience. Branding a nation is important because it catalyzes economic growth as well as bolsters its diplomatic ties with multiple nations.
STRENGTH OF THE SPRINT
After a relentless journey in the last 15 years to achieve a huge height of development, she has maintained the scale of democracy that the people require here. I prefer to echo, “While many attribute development to an ‘economic miracle,’ meaningful prosperity is multi-dimensional. It requires the formation of effective institutions that then support accountable and representative politics. Whereas many improvements to human life have been seen in countries with a variety of political beliefs, it is only liberal democracies that allow the fullest extent of human flourishing.” having quoted this, I sign confidently it that Sheikh Hasina exactly had followed this conception for the People of Bangladesh. For a better understanding of the mood of democracy, I refer to a quote from Marc F. Plattner’s writing, “Today the most liberal regimes in the world, those of the advanced Western countries, are typically referred to either as liberal democracies or, more often, simply as democracies. This reflects one of the most striking ways in which twentieth-century liberalism differs from the older liberalism that emerged in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.”
In reality, we are experiencing that the Western countries are advocating for their voices for democracy wherein their deep national interests are being benefited. This means, apart from the Western voice of mastery, every country must have its own pattern of democracy and that is exactly what Bangladesh is serving to the people with a better life standard with human rights insurance.
Sheikh Hasina will be remembered as the longest-serving premiere of Bangladesh who survived miracles multiple times from direct grizzly attacks. It must be a global record that 19 assassination attempts were made on her. There were two major assassination attempts during the rule of General Hussain Muhammad Ershad, four during the 1991-1996 BNP rule under the premiership of Begum Khaleda Zia, four during the Awami League tenure in 1996- 2001, four during the BNP-Jamaat government in 2001-2006, one during the military-backed caretaker government and four other assassination attempts during the tenure of Awami League. All of those were heinous but Khaleda Zia’s elder son and incumbent Acting Chairman of BNP Tarique Rahman plotted and operated grenade attacks in 2004 that were unprecedented. She survived narrowly amidst rain down of grenades while delivering a speech at a public meeting in front of the Awami League’s head office at Gulistan, on the spot, but 24 lives were lost.
Despite all those brutal attempts to eliminate her, she never behaved venomously. Rather, sitting in the power position, clearly and transparently she allowed the law and justice to follow courses. Allowing the rule of the law is one of the strongest elements of democracy, relating this, we do see, having a heavy and gloomy heart for the assassination of her father, mother, three brothers, and two sisters-in-law along with other close relations on the dark night of 15th August 1975, she paid full respect to the country’s conventional court procedures. Such a beauty of respect for the judicial system is a unique reference in the world, I can say for sure.
Furthermore, if one examines the reality of any other regular case, fact shows that provocations are always there for any person sitting in the highest chair of the state to go to camera court to punish killers of won family members, normally Sheikh Hasina should not be an exception, but she behaved civic and kept patience and respected the justice system. She waited long enough that every accused had to get defense lawyers to support to claim clean, and this is the highest proof of her paying respect to democracy as well as feeling for establishing the institutions for the nation-building methods.
UPRISING DEVELOPMENT GRAPH
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s works will be echoed in the upcoming years as landmark efforts to provide a better economic and modern life to the people that the country could place on the global map with a progressive identity.
Bangladesh has now graduated to the status of a developing country from a least developed country. Due to the able leadership, courage, bold steps, and timely decisions of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the Padma Bridge, built with the own funding of the Government of Bangladesh, today stands as a symbol of pride of the nation. Her courageous leadership has proved that dreams can be translated into reality. With the marked confidence, big projects like Karnaphuli Tunnel, Metro Rail, and Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant are now symbols of pride, too.
She is constantly struggling to improve the fate of the people of the country and has taken various steps for the welfare of the people, including providing housing for the homeless and introducing a universal pension system, which are bringing positive changes in the socio-economic condition of the people of the country.
In continuation of the successful implementation of the vision ‘Vision 2021’, she has adopted the Bangladesh Delta Master Plan (Delta Plan 2100) along with the ‘Vision 2041’ program to turn the country into Sonar Bangla as dreamt by the Father of the Nation. With the implementation of Digital Bangladesh, a developed and prosperous country will be built under the leadership of the Prime Minister. She directed the integrated plan of Vision 2041 at a meeting of the National Economic Council in October 2015. During this period, a target has been set to transform the per capita income into a developed country by increasing it to US $ 12,500. And the second is to reduce poverty to zero and transform the country into a golden Bangla (Sonar Bangla). Several strategic goals and action plans have been set to implement these two important visions of Vision 2041.
DETAILED DEVELOPMENT BLOCKS
In the meantime, the government has started its journey to build an affordable, sustainable, intelligent, knowledge-based, innovative smart Bangladesh centering on the four main foundations of smart citizen, smart society, smart economy, and smart government. Multiple programs were introduced for the homeless and displaced people, such as shelter for the homeless with the slogan “one house and one farm”, old age allowance, and widow’s allowance. Besides, scholarships for girls and distribution of free books to primary school students were started to increase the participation of women in education. However, since 2009, it is worth noting that the scope of social security has been increasing continuously to reduce poverty and inequality.
In this phase of development analysis, hope that readers won’t see me complicated on Nobel Laureate Dr. Yunus, but I must introduce the ground reality of microfinance mobilization in Bangladesh. We do admit that Microfinance projects have a role to play in reducing poverty inequality in Bangladesh, but Dr. Muhammad Yunus is not the champ of it. No surprise though, indeed, he used his explicit propaganda machines for personal branding as the initiator as well as the sole hero of success for reducing the poverty level in our country. The story tells that in 1979 he started an experimental microcredit project in his native village of Jobra under the Chottogram District and achieved success. However, Grameen Bank’s institutional nature of taking a large percentage of interest from poor women has caused them, in many cases, distress, and this story is untold to the world. But for the first time, back in 2010, internationally known multi-award-winning Danish journalist Tom Heinemann rocked the entire world through his investigative documentary titled ‘The Micro Debt’ which exposed the real face of Dr. Muhammad Yunus.
What were the real instruments for reducing poverty and inequality in Bangladesh? It was that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina initiated a huge scale of social security programs and in addition, the implementation of digitalization has also played a key factor in turning Bangladesh into a middle-income country. Along with various initiatives of the present government, the latest initiative to launch a universal pension scheme is being appreciated by all quarters.
The Ashrayan project is a unique example of how a home can be a tool for overall family welfare and social development. With the latest progress, 4,42,608 landless and homeless families have been rehabilitated in barracks and single houses so far. People from small ethnic groups have not been kept out of this map.
This is why the UNDP report, in September 2022, mentioned, “The country saw its Human Development Index (HDI) scores persistently improve over the past consecutive years, including in 2021. With a current value of 0.661, it ranks at 129 out of 191 countries and places among medium human-development countries. Bangladesh is also one of South Asia’s better performers, with its HDI value above the regional value of 0.632. It proves the economic philosophy that to build a poverty free country, growth must be inclusive and poverty-alleviating.
HASINA’S PRUDENT MANEUVER IN DIPLOMACY
Sheikh Hasina, no wonder, is maintaining a balanced relationship between the East and West amidst the ongoing crucial and complex international order. She is firm based on our foreign policy, “friendship to all, malice to none.” Bangladesh is in a very important position in the strategic aspect of security as the Bay of Bengal is in the waters of the Indian Ocean. Because of this aligned position in the Bay of Bengal, the importance of Bangladesh in the future economic, political, and especially international arena depends on how much we can take advantage of it. Keeping it on the policy table, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is always been cautious about balancing relationships. While examining geopolitical factors, the politics of friendship is constantly changing one after the other due to the polarization of the economy and military policy. Due to Bangladesh’s geopolitical location, naval and road communication routes, etc., every super and major power is keeping an eye on Bangladesh to get friendship engagement.
Overtly we do see that the major players of the world want to get Bangladesh into their won block. But it believes in inclusiveness, to realize this policy, Bangladesh’s Foreign Ministry has introduced the Indo-Pacific Outlook.
GLOBAL APPRECIATION FOR SHEIKH HASINA
Why Sheikh Hasina will be in the hearts of the people while playing in the global order? I quote infamous columnist Abdul Gaffar Chowdhry, “One of the most influential American magazines Foreign Policy has published a list of 100 top global thinkers of the present decade and Sheikh Hasina is one of them. Four years ago, in 2015, Foreign Policy published another list of 100 great global thinkers of the world. Hasina was included in that list also. In the decision makers category 13 top intellectuals were selected and Hasina was included there. Foreign Policy said that Hasina faced the greatest challenge in the field of defense and security but she handled the opposition with tolerance. She did not oust the 7 lakh Rohingya refugees from her country but gave them shelter.”
For her outstanding role in multiple international forums, she has been appreciated greatly by major leaders of the world. Over the 2024 election victory, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin has extended his heartfelt congratulations to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
“Russian-Bangladeshi relations have been traditionally developing in the spirit of friendship. Hopefully, your activities as the head of the government will further contribute to strengthening the constructive bilateral cooperation for the benefit of the people of our countries”
reads a letter sent by Putin to the Bangladesh premier. The Russian president also wished Sheikh Hasina success, sound health, and well-being”
Chinese President Xi Jinping said that over the past 49 years, since the establishment of diplomatic relations, the two countries have always respected each other, treated each other equally, and achieved mutual benefits and win-win results.
“China and Bangladesh firmly support each other on issues that bear on each other’s core interests, and jointly pursue the development and revitalization of each country, bringing tangible benefits to the two peoples,” he further said.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated in November last year, “India is proud to be Dhaka’s’ “biggest development partner” and will continue to support Hasina’s idea of ‘Smart Bangladesh’. Last year in May, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak lauded Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as a “role model” and a great source of inspiration for him. “My wife and two daughters are your fans,” Sunak told Hasina during a 35-minute bilateral meeting at the Marlborough House of the Commonwealth Secretariat in London.
And, despite known and unknown relationship stresses between the AL government and the Biden administration of the USA, the letter of congratulations just received by Sheikh Hasina. US President Mr. Biden said, “”The United States is committed to supporting Bangladesh’s ambitious economic goals and partnering with Bangladesh on our shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
“We have a long and successful history of working together to solve problems, and our strong people-topeople ties are the foundation of this relationship,” the US president said.
PARTIALITY TO LEADER: THE CROWN OF COURAGE
There is nothing impartial in the world! No state’s policymaker is beyond the frame of yielding results for their own country, and I am the same fit into this chamber, hence, my partiality is for my leader Sheikh Hasina as she has been making a non-stop journey as a premiere to show the lights of growth to the people. This is simply a great job that she has done and no one is a match for her.
Without any doubt, she holds the courage, and dignity of feeling to express herself for the country and people. In many humanitarian cases and conflicting zones at present, her voices reach the positive people in the different corners of the world.