Sheikh Mujib and Ziaur Rahman get top rating in the latest opinion survey, reflecting disenchantment with Yunus’s regime
By P.K.Balachandran
Colombo, September 26 – Bangladesh is changing, but not in the direction expected during the Gen Z-led, violent agitation in July-August 2024.
A survey done in mid-September by a reputed Dhaka agency showed disillusionment with the Interim Government (IG) led by Dr.Muhammad Yunus among the urban, educated classes, including Gen Z.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, denigrated and vilified in the extreme during the revolution last year, is now rated as the best past President of Bangladesh, getting the highest percentage of the top score of 100.
The People’s Election Pulse Survey (PEPS) conducted by the Dhaka-based firm “Innovision Consulting” between September 2 and 15 covered 10,413 eligible voters across all eight divisions and 64 districts of Bangladesh. Included were 9,398 household respondents and 1,015 university students.
Respondents were asked to rate leaders across five bands: 100%; 71 to 99%; 50 to 70%; 1 to 49%; and 0%.
Sheikh Mujib received the highest percentage of 100% endorsement among Gen Z voters (those born between 1997 and 2012). He got 20.8% in this best category. President Ziaur Rahman got a 100% rating from 15.5% of the voters. His wife, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, got 10.6%, Sheikh Hasina got 8.6% and H.M. Ershad, 4.4%.
But the Millennials (those born between 1981 and 1996) placed Ziaur Rahman slightly ahead of Mujib. 23.8% gave Zia a full score of 100, followed closely by Mujib who got 22.9%. Khaleda Zia received 14.4%, Hasina 9.1% and Ershad 5.1%.
Nearly half of all respondents gave Mujib and Zia above 70%, with their strongest support coming from voters aged 60 and above
Sheikh Hasina received the highest number of “ zero” scores. 21.6% of respondents gave her the lowest rating.
While Sheikh Mujib was the acknowledged Father of the Nation, Ziaur Rahman was the first Bengali military officer in the Pakistani army who revolted against Pakistan. He made a declaration of independence from a captured radio station.
The ratings of Mujib and Zia are a blow to the student-led National Citizens Party (NCP) and the Jamaat-i-Islami. They have been wanting the liberation struggle and its leaders to be forgotten and their place given to the “anti-Fascist July-August 2024 revolution” which the students led and the Jamaat supported.
Key findings
39.5% of the respondents said that the performance of the Interim Government (IG for short) led by Dr.Muhammad Yunus as “good” and another 39.2% said it was moderately good.
But the government’s approval ratings were lower among younger, more educated, and urban respondents as compared to the less educated and rural folk.
This is surprising in as much as it was Gen Z and the urban-educated who brought about the July August 2024 revolution and forced Sheikh Hasina out power.
The public are largely confident in the IG’s ability to hold a free and fair election in February 2026 as promised. 69.9% expressed a positive view. 77.5% also said that they would be voting without fear.
But again, the younger, educated and urban voters were less hopeful about the elections as they questioned the impartiality of the police and the administration.
56.6% felt that “extortion” had increased in the past six months. This perception is more pronounced among urban residents, the younger generation, and those with higher education and higher incomes. This is because criminal gangs and political party-affiliated thugs are more active in the urban areas than in the rural areas.
86.5% of the respondents agreed that the election should be held in February 2026 as planned, and 94.3% intended to vote. Again, enthusiasm about the elections among students, educated individuals, and some professionals, was less. A noticeable section of them wondered if they should vote at all.
Reforms at Snail’s Pace
Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus’s initial pledge was “reform followed by elections”. But soon it morphed into “reform, trials and elections”. But no reform is in sight though a year has passed. The proceedings against Sheikh Hasina are in their earliest stages. There is doubt if without reform and the trial, Yunus government will hold an election on the promised date.
There is suspicion that Yunus and the bureaucracy would like their unelected government to continue indefinitely. The student-led National Citizens Party (NCP), the Jamaat e Islami and the NGOs who are part of the Interim Government, are seek reforms as per their wishes before elections are called. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) wants elections before constitutional reforms as only an elected body should draft a new constitution.
In an assessment of the Yunus regime, The Daily Star said that reforms have been noticeably absent in areas like corruption control, policing, health or education. Wahabbist Islamic radicals have vandalized over a 100 Sufi shrines and the institutions of the Ahmadiyas. Hefazat-e-Islam has asked the government not to appoint music teachers in schools, as music is “un-Islamic”.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said in its report in July that religious minorities and Muslim women emphasised that they continued to face societal-level discrimination from more hardline Islamic groups, and that attacks along religious lines, while sporadic, continue.”
Ain O Salish Kendra (AOSK), a rights organisation, said on August 7 that women were “living in an environment of widespread insecurity. Oppression of women is not limited at the individual level, but rather, it has taken the form of structural violence, increasingly narrowing the avenues for women’s social, political, and economic empowerment.”
Adding to this the The Daily Star said: “Far from being isolated instances, the spectacle of a few gruesome executions, mob violence, and public assault of women were symptomatic of the overall deterioration of law and order of the past year. The government’s denial, and labelling reports as ‘fear mongering’ have hardly helped matters.”
“Despite all its rhetoric and promise of good governance, the interim government has not been able to stop murder cases being filed against hundreds of people, directly or remotely connected to the previous regime. Hundreds of people, perceived to be beneficiaries or sympathisers of the Awami League regime, have found themselves accused of murder. These have included journalists, politicians, judges, lawyers, film stars and even former sportsmen. Many of them have been arrested and denied bail. At least 266 journalists have been implicated in various cases, many for murder, related to the events of July and August last year.”
According to Human Rights Watch, between August 6 and September 25, 2024, police lodged cases against 92,486 people, most of them related to murder. Nearly 400 former ministers, members of parliament, and other Awami League officials have been named in over 1,170 cases, which also include hundreds of unnamed individuals.
“The government’s one year in office has been marked by its lack of resolve. It has baulked and backed down in the face of protests no matter how unreasonable the demands. Repeated reversal of its own decisions clearly betrayed a lack of coordination within itself. The interim government’s silence and inaction in situations that demanded immediate intervention only exposed imprudence and callousness,” The Daily Star said.
The Dhaka Metropolitan Police have urged city residents to provide information if any leaders or members of the banned political party, the Awami League, or its affiliated organizations are active in residential houses, flats, or hostels in the capital. This, despite the fact that the Awami League is not officially banned yet, only its students wing the Chhatra League has been officially banned.
Against such a background, no wonder people, particularly the youth and the educated classes, are feeling the absence of inspiring leaders like Sheikh Mujibur Rahman ad Ziaur Rahman.
Brutal repression has not prevented Awami Leaguers from staging sudden marches in Dhaka. Meanwhile, Awami League supporters in New York greeted threw rotten eggs at the political delegation that came with Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus to attend the UNGA session.
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