Former interim government adviser Mahfuj Alam has warned that pursuing a strategy of politically annihilating opponents—similar to the approach taken against Jamaat in the past—and attempting to eliminate the Awami League in the same manner would ultimately backfire, pushing the state toward deeper authoritarianism.
He made the remarks yesterday (29 January) at a conference titled “Cracks in the Old Settlement, Reform and the Reimagining of Democracy” held at BRAC Centre Inn in Dhaka, where he reviewed the interim government’s activities and experiences over the past 15 months.
Mahfuj said that following the July Uprising, there had been hopes for a truth and reconciliation process. He cautioned against repeating a political culture rooted in elimination rather than reconciliation, noting, “We do not want to create another monster.” Suppressing a major political force, he explained, would necessitate increasingly repressive laws, making the state more coercive and authoritarian, and ultimately producing outcomes similar to those of the past.
Reflecting on broader interim government failures, Mahfuj said the vision for a “new political arrangement” after the uprising was never clearly communicated to the public, especially students. He also acknowledged the government’s inability to dismantle the entrenched “triad of power” within the civil and military bureaucracy. “This bureaucracy still exists and will continue to exist in the future. This is where everything has stalled,” he said.
On the economy, he noted that the government largely focused on keeping the system afloat rather than implementing structural reforms. While there had been some improvements in transparency and efficiency, fundamental issues such as land reform and wealth redistribution remained unresolved, and he warned that the economy could “collapse any day.”
Mahfuj also acknowledged that despite intentions to end killings and enforced disappearances, such incidents have persisted over the past year to year-and-a-half. He criticised parts of civil society and the media for becoming “crippled” over the last 15 years by legitimising the Awami League and stressed that political parties and civil society must operate in clearly separate spheres.
Ending on an optimistic note, he expressed confidence in the younger generation, saying that their experiences of pain and trauma have sharpened their sense of the need for reform. “Governments may fail, but the aspirations of a generation have not failed,” he said, adding that there is still ample time to learn from past mistakes and correct course.