DHAKA: To hersupporters, Sheikh Hasina is Bangladesh's "mother of humanity" forgiving Rohingya refugees shelter, but to her detractors she's a creepingautocrat who has jailed opponents and muzzled dissent. Hasina, the daughter ofBangladesh's founder, won a historic fourth term as prime minister with alandslide victory in Sunday's election that the opposition claimed was rigged.The 71-year-old is lauded by supporters for overseeing a decade of impressiveeconomic growth in the impoverished South Asian nation that was more commonlyknown for its frequent floods and cyclones.
Opponents,however, accuse her of jailing arch-foe Khaleda Zia on politically motivatedcharges, of orchestrating mass arrests, enforced disappearances and passingdraconian anti-press freedom laws to try to cling to power. Hasina was abroadin August 1975 when a group of renegade military officers assassinated herfather, Bangladesh's first president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, his wife and threesons. She started her political career as a hero of the people, returning fromexile in 1981 to take over as Awami League leader and begin a long struggle torestore democracy in Bangladesh. Hasina joined forces with Zia's BangladeshNationalist Party (BNP) to help oust military dictator Hussain Muhammad Ershadin 1990 but the pair soon fell out and were branded the "BattlingBegums".
Economic growth
Their rivalry hasdominated Bangladeshi politics for the last 30 years. Hasina was first electedprime minister in 1996 but she struggled to emerge from the shadow of herfather during her first term and lost the 2001 contest. The pair were thenimprisoned on corruption charges in 2007 by a military-backed government whichhad taken power in a coup.
The charges weredropped and they were freed to contest the December 2008 election, which Hasinawon by a landslide. She has been in power ever since, presiding over economicexpansion of more than six percent every year since 2009. GDP growth last yearwas 7.86 percent and Hasina has promised to take that into double digits. Underher watch, Bangladesh is on course to graduate from a least-developed countryto a middle-income nation.
Poverty has beenbrought down to around 20 percent and nearly 90 percent of the country's 165million people now have access to electricity. Her fans also praise her foropening Bangladesh's doors to some one million Rohingya refugees fleeing amilitary crackdown in western Myanmar. She has earned plaudits from Western nations for allowing the refugeesto stay in camps in Bangladesh's southeast, while her supporters insist sheshould be given a Nobel Peace Prize.
Going afterIslamists
Hasina's fanshave lauded her for cracking down on Islamist extremists in the Muslim-majoritynation, after five homegrown terrorists stormed a Dhaka cafe, killing 22 people-- including 18 foreigners -- in 2016. She also launched trials of the powerfulIslamist opposition over crimes committed during the 1971 independence war.Five top Islamist leaders and a main opposition stalwart were executed.
Her opponentsbranded the war crimes trials a farce, saying they were a politically motivatedexercise designed to silence dissent. Instead of healing the wounds of war, thetrials have triggered mass protests and deadly clashes. Hasina showed similarresolve in holding the trial of her main opponent and two-time former premierZia, who was sentenced to 17 years in jail in two separate graft cases earlierthis year.
Analysts said thejailing effectively ended Zia's political career and weakened the oppositionahead of Sunday's parliamentary vote, the country's 11th sinceindependence. They say Hasina's regimehas slid into authoritarianism since she pushed on with an uncontested generalelection in 2014. "She has crushed the opposition and created a one-partydominant political system in Bangladesh," says Ataur Rahman, a politicalscience professor at Dhaka University.
Hasina marriednuclear scientist MA Wazed Miah in 1968. They have two children, who are bothUS citizens, including son Sajeeb Wajed, who is an advisor to her government.Hasina ignored calls by opponents to let a neutral government oversee Sunday'selection, which extended her reign as Bangladesh's longest-serving leader aftera campaign marred by violence and arrests of opposition activists. - AFP