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Transnational Thursday for July 18, 2024

Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

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Hasina is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh, who led its freedom movement

It is important to put this in context. All direct and extended members of the Rahman family were murdered in cold blood, children and all. Hasina is the only* living member of her family, that's only because she was in Europe at the time.

This is a muslim majority country that's lived through a major genocide (in 1971), multiple bloody coups and is still attempting to be a democracy. Just the fact that that a muslim country is trying to be democracy is already a tall task.

Under her tenure as prime minister, Bangladesh has experienced democratic backsliding. Human Rights Watch documented widespread enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings under her government

Wikipedia being tone deaf as usual. Practically every non-Hasina Bangladeshi leader has a genocide or dictatorial military coup on their hands. Bangalesh can't experience democratic backlisliding beceause it started at the bottom.

These fledgling countries need time. If you don't want military coups every 3 years, you need to keep them well fed. Yes, that means 100x better perks than civilians. But, it is better than having your head chopped off. Yes, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan are genetically and historically quite similar. But, only India has shown a genuine affinity for democracy. The other 2 are still figuring it out. There are obvious reasons for why, but that's a whole another discussion.