Streets don't just fill up for no reason. This is exactly what is happening in Bangladesh.
The death of a student leader was the last straw. But the issue did not begin and end with that death. That incident made visible a reality that had been suppressed for a long time. Problems that had been swept under the surface of society were suddenly in the public eye.
The youth in Bangladesh have been in the same predicament for years. They enter university, they graduate, but they face the wall of unemployment. In the jobs that are available, merit is questionable. The quota system applied in government positions creates a deep sense of injustice, especially among young people. “We work hard but don't get what we pay for” is no longer an isolated complaint, but a widespread state of mind. This is not just an economic crisis; it is a loss of hope for the future.
Allegations of police brutality are not new. Arbitrary detentions, harsh interventions and crackdowns on the right to protest have been voiced for a long time. But these criticisms were ignored for years. Until the death of a student put everything in front of the public in an undeniable way.
The targeting of media buildings shows the extent of the anger. This is an extremely dangerous picture for press freedom. But it also points to another reality: The public now clearly sees the gap between what they are told and the reality they live in.
At the core of what is happening in Bangladesh is a crisis of trust. Young people do not trust the state, do not trust institutions, do not trust the future. This loss of trust can be permanently suppressed neither by harsh security measures nor by repression. History is full of examples of this.
The lesson here is actually very clear:
If young people in a country believe that they cannot get anywhere by working, if those who object are only silenced, if their demands for justice are constantly postponed, the problem there is not in the streets but in the understanding of governance.
This is exactly what is happening in Bangladesh.
This is not “news from a distant country”.
This is a record of how problems that were ignored have returned.
And history has shown time and again:
You can suppress the questions.
But you cannot suppress the problem itself.