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【Text/Observer Network Yang Rong】

"If I had handed over the sovereignty of St. Martin and allowed the United States to control the Bay of Bengal, I could have continued to govern." According to reports from Indian media such as the Economic Times and India Today on August 11, former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is currently in India, broke her silence for the first time and made "explosive" accusations in a statement, implying that her forced resignation was related to US interference.

The Economic Times said Hasina provided the above statement to the newspaper through her confidant. As protests against the government's "civil servant quota system" turned violent, Hasina resigned and fled to India on the 5th. There are reports that she had planned to make a national speech before leaving Bangladesh, but was dissuaded. According to India Today, the statement is the original text of the speech that Hasina failed to deliver.

Hasina said she resigned "to avoid seeing the marchers turned into corpses" and "they wanted to step on the bodies of students to get on stage, but I did not allow it." She stressed that if she continued to stay in Bangladesh, more people would die and more facilities would be destroyed, so she made the "extremely difficult decision" to resign. "I came with your victory, you are my strength, you didn't want me, and then I left by myself."

She also clarified that she had never called the protesting students "Razakar," a term used to refer to East Pakistani militias that helped the former Pakistani authorities suppress the independence movement during the Bangladesh independence movement. In Bangladeshi political terminology, Razakar is synonymous with traitors and reactionary forces.

Hasina had mentioned the term in a speech on July 14 while trying to justify a quota of government jobs for descendants of "freedom fighters," veterans of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. "Why is there so much resentment against freedom fighters? Are the children of freedom fighters not talented, and only the children of Razakar are talented? If the children of freedom fighters are not getting the quota benefits, then should the children of Razakar get the benefits?" she said.

The public speech was considered to be one of the important nodes that intensified the conflict between the government and the protesting students. In this regard, Hasina explained in her latest statement that her words were "misinterpreted". "I want to reiterate to my young students that I never called you Razakar... I ask you to watch the full video of that day. There is a group of people who took advantage of you. I believe you will realize this one day."

As for who exactly was "using" the protesting student groups, Hasina hinted in her statement that the United States was plotting to overthrow her government and that she could have continued to hold public office if she had accepted the US conditions. "If I had surrendered the sovereignty of St. Martin and let the United States control the Bay of Bengal, I could have continued to rule," Hasina said. "I plead with my people: 'Please don't be manipulated by radical elements.'"

Hasina reportedly said she would give more in her speech if there was still an opportunity in the future. She promised that she would return to Bangladesh "soon". "My heart is crying after receiving news that many leaders of (Bangladesh Awami League, Hasina's ruling party) have been killed, workers have been harassed, homes have been vandalized and set on fire... By the grace of Almighty Allah, I will be back soon."

Saint Martin Island is a small coral island in the northeast of the Bay of Bengal, located at the southernmost tip of Bangladesh. India Today said on the 11th that although the island is only 3 square kilometers in area and has a population of only about 3,700, it has become the center of geopolitical topics in recent months and has attracted widespread attention.

India's The Print newspaper pointed out that for decades, there has been a rumor in Bangladesh that the United States wants to "take this key strategic island for itself." Last June, Hasina accused the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, of planning to sell St. Martin Island to the United States to build a military base in exchange for victory in the January general election.

In the end, Hasina's People's Alliance won the National Assembly election and she became prime minister for the fifth time. Just a few months before Hasina announced her resignation, she revealed that during the election, someone offered her an easy "path" to re-election on the condition that she allowed foreign countries to build air bases in Bangladesh.

Hasina also said that this was not the first time she had received such an offer. Although Hasina only said that the above proposal came from "a white man from a certain country", it is generally believed that she was referring to the United States. According to Hasina, someone is planning a conspiracy to overthrow her government, carve out a piece of land from Bangladesh and Myanmar, and establish a new "Christian country" like East Timor. The US State Department denied it.

The current round of nationwide violent protests in Bangladesh began in June this year when the High Court ruled to restore the "civil servant quota system". In addition to reserving 30% of government jobs for the descendants of veterans, another 26% of jobs were allocated to women, the disabled and ethnic minorities, leaving only about 3,000 vacancies, which aroused dissatisfaction among students and youth groups. Among the 170 million people in Bangladesh, nearly 32 million young people are unemployed.

On July 21, the Bangladesh Supreme Court ruled to drastically reduce the proportion of public sector jobs allocated by quota from 56% to 7%, but it failed to completely quell the protests. Liu Zongyi, director of the South Asian Studies Center of the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies and Chinese director of the Center for Chinese Studies (Bangladesh), told Observer.com that after the Bangladesh Supreme Court ruled to amend the quota system, the students' demands were basically met and the situation was moving towards calming down. But after the curfew was lifted and the Internet was restored, the situation changed.

"My observation is that the leadership of the movement has changed. It is no longer dominated by students, and the goal of the movement has shifted. The goal is very focused, which is to force Hasina to step down. It has turned into a political movement."

Liu Zongyi believes that it is doubtful whether there is any external force involved in the mass arrest of opposition leaders. "Or as some news reports say, this movement was guided by external forces from the beginning. In fact, in mass movements, the group is unconscious and very easy to be induced and suggested. Once this force is aroused, the destructive power is very large."

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