In Bangladesh, weeks of protests against a quota system for government jobs turned into an uprising that forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee the country.
The demonstrations began peacefully last week and were mainly led by students frustrated with a system they say favors those with ties to the ruling party. But it quickly turned into violence that resulted in the deaths of nearly 300 people.
See also:The US will continue to monitor the situation in Bangladesh, the White House said
Students or other young people often play a key role in popular uprisings around the world that challenge governments or force them to change policies.
As in Bangladesh, widespread protests in Sri Lanka in 2022 could topple the government, and youth have a key role to play.
Scattered demonstrations have turned into months of protests since March 2022 as the Indian Ocean island nation’s economic crisis worsens, leading to shortages of fuel, cooking gas and other essentials as well as longer power outages.
In April, protesters, mainly led by university students and other young people, occupied an esplanade near President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s office in the capital Colombo, demanding that he and his government step down.
More and more people joined each day, creating a camp dubbed “Gota Go Gama,” or “Gota Go Village,” the President’s “Gota” nickname. Camp leaders, many of whom are university students, hold daily media briefings and regular speeches, while the crowd is entertained by bands and plays.
The government responded by imposing a curfew, declaring a state of emergency, allowing the military to arrest civilians and restrict access to social media, but failed to stop the protests.
Under pressure, many Ministers resigned but President Rajapaksa and his brother, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa remained.
In May, Rajapaksa supporters stormed a protest camp, drawing widespread condemnation from across the country and forcing Prime Minister Rajapaksa to resign.
Mr. Gotabaya remained in power until July, when protesters stormed his official residence, forcing him to leave the country. He later withdrew, after taking temporary refuge in the Maldives.
His successor, Ranil Wickremesinghe, in one of his first moves as the new President, evicted the protesters from the government building they occupied and closed their camp – dismantling their tents in the middle of the night.
The situation began to calm down, and Mr. Wickremesinghe was able to overcome the shortage of food, fuel and medicine and restore power.
Complaints continue, however, about tax and electricity bill increases that are part of the new government’s efforts to meet International Monetary Fund loan requirements. And the Rajapaksa family hopes to return to power with Namal Rajapaksa, Mr. Mahinda’s son, who will contest the presidential election this September.
Uprising in Greece
In November 1973, students at the Polytechnic University of Athens rose up against the military junta that had ruled Greece with an iron fist for more than six years.
Military officers seized power in a coup in 1967, establishing a dictatorship marked by the arrest, exile and torture of political opponents.
The regime’s brutality and hardline rule led to growing opposition, especially among students, culminating in the November uprising.
The protest began peacefully on November 14, with students staging a strike at the Athens Polytechnic university and occupying the campus. In the following days, thousands from all over Athens joined in support of the students and the demonstrations grew, as did the calls to end the dictatorship.
On November 17, the military crushed the rebellion when a tank attacked the university gates in broad daylight, killing several students.
Days after the uprising, another military officer staged a coup and imposed a harsher regime, but it did not last long.
American students had long protested US involvement in Vietnam when President Richard Nixon authorized an attack on neutral Cambodia in April 1970. On May 4, hundreds of students at Ohio’s Kent State University gathered to protest the bombing of Cambodia, and the authorities called in Ohio. National Guard to disperse the crowd. After failing to quell the protest with tear gas, the National Guard advanced and some opened fire on the crowd, killing four students and injuring nine others.
It led to a strike by 4 million students in the US, temporarily closing 900 colleges and universities. The event also played an important role, according to historians, in changing public opinion towards the conflict in Southeast Asia.
As Communist governments in Eastern Europe fell in 1989, demonstrations spread across Czechoslovakia after riot police suppressed student protests in Prague on November 17.
On 20 November as the anti-Communist protests grew, the students were joined by several others and an estimated 5,00,000 took to the streets of Prague.
Dubbed the “Velvet Revolution” due to its non-violent nature, the protests led to the resignation of the Communist Party leadership on 28 November.
On December 10, Czechoslovakia had a new government and on December 29, Vaclav Havel, a dissident playwright who had spent years in prison, was elected the country’s first democratic President in decades by a parliament dominated by Communist hardliners.
In 1992, Czechoslovakia peacefully split into two countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
