Leaked calls of Hasina: a socio-political analysis

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Serajul I Bhuiyan | Published: November 19, 2024 21:06:38

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Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's leaked phone conversations, reportedly broadcast from her location in India, have become a sensation among the Bangladeshi people and reveal the extent of her influence over the Awami League loyalists in Bangladesh. During those calls, she allegedly mobilises her followers to resist and disrupt the interim government of Dr Muhammad Yunus. But instead of dividing or anarchising, these discussions have apparently mobilised that very spirit of resistance which ended up toppling her government. Political and social theories are guidelines toward understanding both Hasina's strategies and how those strategies have unexpectedly influenced Bangladeshi society.
THE PERSISTENCE OF CONSPIRACY NARRATIVES: One critical dimension of the phone calls of Hasina is an insistence on highlighting that the fall was out of international conspiracies and not an organic people's uprising. Several theories of social and cognitive psychology, particularly cognitive dissonance, explain why she clings on to this narrative. Cognitive dissonance occurs when individuals encounter information that is inconsistent with their self-concept or beliefs. To Hasina and her allies, recognising the movement as a legitimate cry for justice and democracy could well demolish their pretensions of moral and political authority. The plot framing allowed Hasina to skirt corruption, excesses of power, and episodes of authoritarianism that marked her regime. But this sounds like a poorly told story. Rather than convincing the people, her denial of reality seems to be feeding the revolutionary fervour. Each interview that confirms her in denial serves just to underline how removed she is from the woes of common Bangladeshis and increases the determination of those who saw her government go. The conspiracy theories are for many a fair reminder of how her administration treated the will of the people as something with no value, and thoroughly entrenched the need for systemic change.
THE THEORY OF POWER AND RESISTANCE: What is highly relevant here is the theory by Michel Foucault, who argued that power does not lie with the state alone but it is diffused through networks and enacted through social structure and associations. According to Foucault, power and resistance are interdependent, and the former generates a definite counter-reaction or resistance related to each application of power. Hasina's attempt, by exile, to continue wielding influence within grassroots networks of the AL was diffuse power. Rather than strengthening her position, it has led only to intensified resistance from below. Her calls for disruption are seen not as a rallying cry but as evidence of her desperation, illustrating Foucault's idea that when power attempts to dominate, it often spurs counter-movements. The protests and students' movement that have continued to expand in response to Hasina's phone calls lend credence to a fact that people resist attempts to regulate them through some form of authoritarian legerdemain. People in Bangladesh, particularly those amongst the youth, translate this resistance into collective actions that aptly depict the Foucauldian view that power is fluid and can be grasped by those who are prepared to challenge an entrenched order. In this way, this public empowerment shows that what little control Hasina attempts to exert through remote influence has only been met with equal forbearance by a pent-up desire for justice, one which disrupts her efforts at reinstating authority.
THEORY OF HEGEMONY AND COUNTER-HEGEMONY: Antonio Gramsci's theories on hegemony and counter-hegemony offer an insight from an angle at which acting by Hasina is conserving opposition forces inadvertently. Gramsci argued that ruling elites maintain power not just through the threat of violence but through cultural and ideological influence, establishing a "hegemony" that legitimates the authority of the rulers. More than a decade into Hasina's rule, that hegemony came from placing party loyalists in public institutions and dominance over the media, judiciary, and police. But in July-August, the revolution finally broke that hegemony, and her telephone calls only enforce the feeling that her leadership is out of step with the reality of the people's demands. The counter-hegemony in Bangladesh-a combination of students, civil society, and various opposition groups-seized this moment in order to contest hegemonic ideology. Hasina's remote instructions to the local leaders are seen as the last desperate acts of a regime losing its grip on both power and an opportunity for the opposition to consolidate and deepen its influence. Public reaction to Hasina's calls shows that people no longer buy into the hegemonistic narratives her party espouses-a societal values shift that prizes accountability and justice above authoritarian control.
THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AND PUBLIC DISCOURSE: Social media has played an indispensable role in amplifying the phone calls of Hasina to a wide audience and shaping public discourse. Agenda-setting theory, which states that media influence decides the "salience of issues on the public agenda," leads toward explanations of even how these leaked conversations become the points of focus for discussion and action. Every word transmitted over the digital media exposed her to accusations of countering an ordinary citizen's wish, while strongly reinforcing the narratives of corruption and authoritarianism in AL that would lead to her fall. Moreover, young people resorted to social media to plan demonstrations, share information, and retighten their solidarity in confrontation with Hasina's maneuvers. Hasina's calls-Clifford Parker-Hasina's appeals-to destabilize the interim government have instead become rallying cries for the revolution, as with each new leak a reiteration was provided through social media to the public of the demand for meaningful reform. In these ways, social media has provided a site of digital contention in which Hasina's attempts at influence are met with overwhelming public resistance, a function of agenda-setting in shaping the political landscape.
THEORY OF CHARISMATIC AUTHORITY: Max Weber's concept on charismatic authority can come in handy in assessing Hasina's long-lasting influence upon AL members. In charismatic authority, the basis is devotion to an individual with perceived exceptional qualities, often depending upon emotional allegiance without rational or legal forms of power. Hasina's leadership was built on this charisma for years, with her status as part of Bangladesh's history fostering loyalty in the ranks. This loyalty allowed her to mobilize AL members even in exile. However, Weber noted that charismatic authority is inherently unstable, especially once the leader is post facto incapable of delivering tangible returns to their followers. Her present remote leadership is likely to further undermine her authority as the members of AL suffer from the consequences of following dictates that run counter to their interests in Bangladesh. The backlash from the people and the less-than-effective results of her instructions are likely to undermine the loyalty of grassroots leaders of AL. As Hasina's commands continue not to yield the wished-for result, her authority might shift from charismatic to increasingly tenuous, forcing her followers into reevaluation of loyalty.
DURKHEIM'S COLLECTIVE CONSCIENCE: Émile Durkheim's concept of the collective conscience-that is, the shared values, norms, and beliefs which unite a society-is alive and well in the student-led resistance against Hasina's calls. The July-August uprising created a strong, collective conscience of justice, transparency, and democratic reform. The incendiary instructions of Hasina, which aimed at scarring this collective ethos, only managed to reinforce unity among students and citizens alike in a paradoxical way: They are perceived as threats to the integrity of the struggle, and hence it is a rallying point for solidarity, building cohesion. In effect, Hasina has allowed the complete disregard of collective conscience and heightened the resolve of the students and the public-at-large that facilitated the ouster of her government. Her telephone calls remind them of what the public is against, while the attempts to pass reform by the interim government remind them of what the public is for. Durkheim's theory underlines that no powerful attempt can defeat a society with a unified collective conscience, especially if those attempts are perceived as threats to the ideals they harbour together.
UNINTENDED STRENGTHENING OF PEOPLE'S POWER: Sheikh Hasina's unremitting contacts with local AL leaders from abroad are designed to demoralize the interim government and regain people's support in her favour. But her instructions, wrapped in conspiracy theories and strategies of resistance, have brought forth unintended consequences: instead of causing splits in opposition, they have cemented the revolutionary spirit and marked peoples' demand for reform. Hasina's inability to relate to the ground realities only highlights her disconnect, turning her into a symbol of what the people rose against. Her efforts, as theoretical perspectives indicate, reveal the enduring power of people. Cognitive dissonance within her denials, building up counter-hegemony in response, and a collective conscience binding students and citizens are a sure-shot indication that Bangladesh is acquiring a final overthrow of authoritarianism. Hasina's continuous attempts to wield power from abroad managed only to seal in the people's resolve for a new political order cantered on transparency, justice, and democracy. But contrary to hastening the destruction of this interim government, leaked phone calls have become rallying points for a fully alert public. It is this revolutionary spirit, brought on inadvertently by Hasina's words, that more than likely will remain one of the cornerstones in forging ahead with a more just and representative Bangladeshi society.
Dr. Serajul I Bhuiyan is a professor and former chair of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications at Savannah State University, Savannah, Georgia. USA. And a Georgia Governor's
AI Teaching Fellow at Louise McBee Institute of Higher Education, University of Georgia,
Athens, USA. sibhuiyan@yahoo.com