Craig Baxter

Bangladesh in 1990: Another New Beginning?

For the first ten months of 1990, it seemed that Bangladesh was having a relatively uneventful year. There was the endemic, low-level opposition to President Hussain Muhammad Ershads government, and there had been rather uneventful elections at the upazila (subdistrict) level. Then in the final two months of the year, a popular surge of opposition against Ershad swept him and his government from office and installed a caretaker regime charged with holding an election no later than March 1991. The economy was, at best, stagnant and was hit by the sharp increase in the cost of petroleum after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, which also led to the return of Bangladeshi workers from much of the Gulf area and the loss of their remittances. In foreign affairs, despite the travels of the peripatetic Ershad and visits by the Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers, nothing concrete was accomplished in the disputes Bangladesh has with the two other successors to the former British Indian empire. In the fall, Bangladesh sent troops to join the international force in Saudi Arabia.

Bangladesh Military: Political Institutionalization and Economic Development

As Bangladesh completes 18 years of freedom it will also complete almost 14 years of military government or governments dominated by the military. This chapter examines the praetorian regimes of late President Ziaur Rahman (1975-81 ) and President Hussain Muhammad Ershad (since 1982) who took over the reign of government soon after the assassination of President Zia. Although both leaders used a similar approach their strategies and tactics were different. Zia sought initial support from the military/civilian bureaucracy but dealt harshly with military uprisings during this regime and later reduced resource allocation to the military/civilian bureaucracy channeling more resources to the business groups and rural areas. Ershad on the other hand continues to maintain the support of the military/civilian bureaucracy by providing them with more resources while at the same time seeking rural support. Neither has gained legitimacy although Ziaur Rahman came closer to attaining it.