Bangladesh must go beyond describing Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year rule as authoritarian and instead define the true nature of the regime to ensure such a system never returns, Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, an adviser to Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, said on Friday.

Speaking at the launch of Mubashar Hasan’s book Narratives of Authoritarianism: From Exile, Speaking Truth to Power at Bishwo Sahitto Kendro in Dhaka, Titumir said the country needed a deeper debate on what kind of political system had existed under Hasina, questioning whether it resembled “a Mussolini-style fascism or something even worse.”

“The debate is necessary not only to understand the past but also to ensure that such a system never returns,” he said.

Titumir argued that one of the biggest obstacles to state-building had been the role of “compliant intellectuals”, who legitimised authoritarianism through “intellectual servitude” rather than independent scholarship.

Referring to Hasan’s book, he said it challenged that culture by documenting critical academic writings produced during Hasina’s tenure.

“When data is distorted, theory becomes even more distorted,” Titumir said, arguing that the manipulation of information had weakened universities, policymaking and public debate.

He also said Bangladesh must define the previous regime because it had systematically eroded public institutions, including education, healthcare, the economy and labour rights, while acting against the will of the people.

AAM Saleh Shibly, press secretary to Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, said that the interim government under Muhammad Yunus had several limitations and had fallen short of expectations in some areas but said it should not be equated with “15 years of fascism” under Hasina.  

“We do see tendencies like that, and we have to be vocal against those tendencies."

Mushfiqul Fazal Ansarey, Bangladesh’s former ambassador to Mexico, said Hasan’s writings had helped document alleged abuses during Hasina’s rule and became important references in engagements with the international community.

“We cited his articles countless times in our engagements with the US State Department and the United Nations,” Ansarey said. “At a time when many media outlets in Bangladesh would not even mention our names, his writings gave us credible references.”

In his remarks, Mubashar Hasan, the author of Narratives of Authoritarianism: From Exile, Speaking Truth to Power, said the book compiled analytical essays and opinion pieces written during Sheikh Hasina’s rule to challenge what he described as the government’s dominant narrative of development.

“If you remember, during Sheikh Hasina’s rule there was a dominant narrative, both at home and abroad, that Bangladesh was marching towards development,” Hasan said. “This book is a collection of analytical and academic writings that sought to show, at the time, the gaps and contradictions in that development narrative.”

Hasan said the book also sought to preserve intellectual resistance to authoritarianism.

“When an authoritarian regime kills someone, it does not only kill the body. It also tries to kill that person’s identity and their ability to think,” he said. “This book is part of the resilience against that. It preserves the narrative of that period.”

He described the book as a witness to its time and said he hoped it would encourage future writers and researchers to continue examining authoritarianism from different perspectives.

Hasan’s mother recalled the family’s anguish during the 44 days when her son was forcibly disappeared in 2017.

“Whenever a car stopped outside our house, we would panic, wondering what had happened,” she said. “Those who were closest to us know the unbearable days we went through.”

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