Two Warnings, One Nation:Learn from 1/11 and 5 August Before It’s Too Late

By Sunahwar Ali

For those of us who have spent decades fighting for justice—whether in the East End of London or for our homeland of Bangladesh—the past two decades have offered two searing national lessons.
They are etched into the memory of every Bangladeshi.

The first was 1/11—January 11, 2007 , when a military-backed caretaker government seized power, detained the leaders of both major parties, and plunged our nation into darkness.

The second was 5 August 2024, when a spontaneous student-led movement rose up and overthrew the Awami League government, ending 15 years of authoritarian rule.

Both events carry the same warning:
When those in power become arrogant, when they lie to the people, and when they treat the nation as their personal property, the people will rise up and sweep them away.
Now, as I watch the new BNP-led government settle into power after the February 2026 elections, I hear troubling echoes of the very arrogance that led to both of those historic upheavals.

1/11: The Warning from the Past
The year 2007—1/11—was a dark chapter.
A corrupt and arrogant BNP-Jamaat government had mismanaged the nation.
The streets were filled with violence, the economy was mismanaged, and the people had lost all faith. The military saw an opening, and they took it.

Both Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina were detained. Democracy was suspended.
The people of Bangladesh suffered immensely.

That catastrophe was caused by ignorance and arrogance—the belief that those in power were untouchable.
The BNP learned that lesson the hard way.
They were routed in 2008, and it took them nearly two decades to recover .

5 August 2024: The People’s Revolution
Fast forward to 2024.
The Awami League, which had ridden to power on the wave of popular anger against the BNP, had become everything they once opposed. Corruption was institutionalised. Opposition was crushed.
The media was silenced.
And when the students of Bangladesh took to the streets demanding justice for their peers killed in quota reform protests, the government responded with bullets.

The world watched as young Bangladeshis—students, workers, ordinary citizens—faced down a regime that had grown deaf to the cries of its own people.
On 5 August 2024, the Awami League government fell. Sheikh Hasina fled to India, where she remains to this day.

That was not a military coup. That was a people’s revolution.
It was a reminder that no government is permanent.
No leader is above the people.

The Lesson for Today’s Government
The BNP—now led by Tarique Rahman as Prime Minister—won a landslide victory in February 2026 .
They were given a mandate because the people wanted change.
They were trusted because they had suffered under the previous regime.
They were embraced because they promised a “Bangladesh First” policy based on equality, mutual respect, and non-interference .
But with power comes responsibility. And I am seeing signs that the new government is forgetting this.
Arrogance is creeping back.
I hear reports of ministers “getting out of line”—telling lies to the nation, acting as though they are entitled to their positions rather than answerable to the people.

Misinformation is spreading. Social media is flooded with baseless claims.
Just recently, the Ministry of Finance had to publicly deny a fake Facebook event created in a State Minister’s name.
While that particular case was a rumor about a minister, it shows how easily the line between truth and falsehood is blurred in today’s Bangladesh.

Dependency remains a weakness. Despite the rhetoric of sovereignty, Bangladesh remains dangerously dependent on India and the United States. The interim government signed a reciprocal trade deal with Washington that effectively locks Bangladesh into American economic and strategic priorities.
India, meanwhile, remains the dominant regional power, and our relationship with Delhi is still defined by the unequal treaties of the Awami League era.

The Three Ministers Problem
It is being said that three ministers in the current government are “getting out of line”—spreading falsehoods, acting without accountability, and forgetting that they serve the nation, not themselves.

I do not know their names. But the people of Bangladesh do. And they are watching.
If these ministers are allowed to continue with impunity, if the government tolerates lies and arrogance in its own ranks, then the same forces that brought down the Awami League on 5 August 2024 will eventually turn on those who now hold power.

The students who led that movement did not risk their lives for one party over another.
They did it for justice.
They did it to end authoritarianism. They did it to restore the dignity of the people.

They will not hesitate to do it again.

Remember 1/11. Remember 5 August.
To Prime Minister Tarique Rahman and his cabinet,
I say this:
Remember 1/11. Your party suffered under military rule because it lost the trust of the people. Do not repeat those mistakes.

Remember 5 August.
The Awami League, once untouchable, was swept away by students with nothing but courage and a demand for justice.
No government is immune from the will of the people.

Do not allow ignorance and arrogance to poison your administration. Hold your ministers accountable. Stop the spread of lies.
End our dangerous dependency on foreign powers. Rule with humility, because power is not a birthright—it is a trust.

The diaspora in London, New York, and across the world is watching.
We have not spent our lives fighting racism and injustice in the UK to watch Bangladesh fall into the same cycles of corruption, arrogance, and misinformation that we fled from.

The people gave you power.
They can take it away.
Learn from history—or be consumed by it.

Sunahwar Ali is a former Chief Whip of Tower Hamlets Council and a long-time anti-racism, anti-corruption campaigner based in London. He is a contributing writer online for bojrokontho.