Sahidul Hasan Khokon/Dhaka (Bangladesh)

When the Covid pandemic happened, all the western outlets came up in unison with a veritable projection for the youngest nation in South Asia. They had a doomsday projection for the top leadership. Their premature judgement was that that the Prime Minister should not be spared as the pandemic would result in millions of deaths due to collapse of the health system.

Take the Economist story in mid-June 2020, that cited the Icddr chief Dr John D Clements, but peddled misleading information claiming that Dhaka city had as many as 7,50,000 cases of Covid-19 patients at that time.

On June 11, 2020, taking a dig at the leadership, Telegraph published a report titled "Coronavirus exposes the deep divide in Bangladesh society" claiming that a segment of the population was critical of the government's decision to relax the lockdown quite early, enabling the rapid spread of Covid-19. German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle in another report titled "Coronavirus: Economy down, poverty up in Bangladesh" published on June 10, 2020, claimed that at the height of pandemic the country was experiencing a high degree of poverty.

Joining the bandwagon, on April 7, 2020, Al-Jazeera ran another scary piece citing WHO where they claimed that two million people could die in Bangladesh due to Covid-19, as the authorities were not prepared to cope with the outbreak's challenges.

But just a year down the line, all such doomsday projections were proved wrong.On the contrary, the emergence of the country as the top performer in South Asia, according to global projection, tore apart the inherent bias of a section of western press reportedly. Bangladesh's goof performance on muliple fronts  helped in exposing the western media for peddling biased narratives.

In Nikkei's Covid-19 Recovery Index, Bangladesh emerged top performer while all global powers including the United States, Japan and top global body WHO showered glowing endorsement of the deft and judicious leadership of Sheikh Hasina, a lesson worth following with lower death toll, an array of safety net schemes to offset poverty and higher vaccination record.

Described by eminent columnist Petula Dovrak as “woman of force”, Sheikh Hasina, who steered her country with steely resolve to offset the dire impact of Covid 19, turns 77 today.

She has already made her mark as the longest serving woman leading the country. Sheikh Hasina has survived at least 19 assasination attempts and her raw couerage cannot to be compared to that of the former German Chancellor, Angela Merkel or the New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Arden.

Anchored on the motto “Friendship to All, Malice to None”, her foreign policy paid reach dividends for the country as vaccines were collected from India, China, U.S. and the global alliance.

Now take the case of her determined leadership in the face of the World Bank's hasty refusal to fund the Padma Bridge, country’s largest infrastructure project, on grounds of flimsy evidence of corruption. Following WB’s pullout, she went ahead with a bold move to build the bridge with self-funding and demonstrated to the world how adversity can be converted into opportunity.

As of September 20, the bridge over the mighty treacherous river has crossed the milestone of Tk1,000 crore in toll collection since its inauguration on 26 June last year. This proves why the bridge is needed for connecting the entire southern region with the capital.

Just like it did with the pandemic, this green delta can ride out the latest hurdles too. The economy has endured some real troubles, thanks to her decisive leadership.

Here is a look into the trials and tribulations of Sheikh Hasina on her 77th birthday.

Relentless struggle

Driven by the strong conviction, inherited from her father to set people free from oppressiom, in her student life. Sheikh Hasina was instrumental in defying the Pakistan army in the country’s struggle for independence. . She was active in student politics in her college days and was elected the vice-president of the students' union at Government Intermediate College (now Begum Badrunnesa Government Girls' College) for the 1966-67 term. She showed exemplary fortitude after the grueling massacre of her father 'Bangabandhu' Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, mother, brother and almost all family members. Defying military rule, she returned to the country and waged a battle against the rule of the then military dictator General Ershad’s rule. This struggle went on for nine years and came to be known as the “fight for people’s right to vote.''

Hasina and her sister alongwith their children survived the 1975 massacre as they were abroad. For someone who had seen almost the entire family wiped out in a violent coup, the call to continue in politics requires an audacious urge to finish the unfinished agenda of her father : build Sonar Bangla- a country her father envisioned free of hunger and poverty. Nothing could stop her indomitable courage- not even nearly 19 assassination attempts by terror groups and radical forces backed by opposition party BNP.

She was arrested without warrant by the military-backed caretaker government in 2007, faced a daunting times in prison and braved smear campaigns carried out against her during that regime. This was later reported by Mahfuz Anam, editor of the country’s leading English daily. Mahfuz said that he produced unverified information fed by the country’s intelligence agency DGFI.

Fight against Terror

The last regime of BNP Jamaat, Bangladesh found a mention in the international media for all the wrong reasons. Leading analysts like Bertil Litner described the country “a cocoon for terror”in the  Far Eastern Economic Review, April 4, 2002. Elisa Grisworld predicted an Afgan style Islamist revolution in the article “The next Islamist Revolution”, published in New York Times on January 23, 2005. All these articles including the one by Alex Perry’ on the “Deadly Cargo” in Time Magazine (October 14,2002) are some among a litany of investigative pieces that appeared back then detailing the state patronage of militant backing. A deep rooted nexus existed among those likeTarique Rahman who had then emerged as defacto leader. Militants and transnational terrorists went scot free. But gone are those days of terror and militants-thanks to the courageous leadership of the Premier. 

Distributive justice: leaving no one behind

For a country that topped the global corruption index under BNP-Jamaat rule for almost five years, reducing poverty, achieving gender parity in school education, and bringing down maternal mortality are some achievements that many other developing countries should take a cue from. Sheikh Hasina’s biggest success was how her policies turned around millions of lives. Under her watch, homes for the homeless — a scheme rolled out by her office — has paid dividends for thousands of lives with a target to end homelessness. Moreover a record 4000% rise in social safety net, meteoric rise in different human development indices, advancement of girls education with stipends are some core features likely to set her apart from any other political leaders. A recent survey by IRI revealed she remains the most popular leader of her country. Even during the pandemic, her stimulus packages for the affected families and some cash incentives alongside food rationing helped lower-income groups survive unprecedented crises like lockdowns.

Humanitarian face

Ever since the Myanmar junta launched crackdown on Rohingays that triggered one of the largest migration crisis, Sheikh Hasina, unlike many western nation leaders, opened up the natio's borders and hosted more than a million Rohingya people. Despite limited resources, Bangladesh has provided basic provisions such as food, shelter and healthcare to the Rohingyas, in a coordinated approach with UNHCR. Almost five years have elapsed and the world is doing little but the stateswoman remains resilient and continues to provide shelter and food to these people.

(Sahidul Hasan Khokon is a Bangladeshi journalist living in Dhaka.)