Bangladesh named country of the year, Syria runner-up

The UK-based media house, The Economist has named Bangladesh as “Country of the Year,” claiming that the nation has “shown the most remarkable improvement over the past year.”

Bangladesh, a neighbour of India, has seen extensive student-led anti-government protests which were followed bythe  ouster of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, the interim government headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus and reports of atrocities against minorities, especially Hindus.

But why Bangladesh?

The Economist clarified that the country it selects every year as winner is not the richest, happiest or most virtuous place, but the one that has improved the most in the previous 12 months.

“Our winner is Bangladesh, which also overthrew an autocrat. In August student-led street protests forced out Sheikh Hasina, who had ruled the country of 175 million for 15 years. A daughter of an independence hero, she once presided over swift economic growth. But she became repressive, rigging elections, jailing opponents and ordering the security forces to shoot protesters. Huge sums of money were stolen on her watch,” The Economist report said.

The report further said that Bangladesh has a history of “vengeful violence” when power changes hands. “The main opposition party, the BNP, is venal. Islamic extremism is a threat. Yet the transition has so far been encouraging.”

It further said that Yunus-led interim “technocratic” government is backed by students, the army, business and civil society and has “restored order and stabilised the economy.”

‘Bangladesh has to repair ties with India’

The Economist report said that in 2025, Bangladesh will “need to repair ties with India and decide when to hold elections—first ensuring that the courts are neutral and the opposition has time to organise.”

“None of this will be easy. But for toppling a despot and taking strides towards a more liberal government, Bangladesh is our country of the year,” it further said.

The runner-up in the race

Syria was the runner-up and a late entrant in the race, the report said.

Reasoning, The Economist said that the ousting of President Bashar al-Assad on December 8 ended half a century of “depraved dynastic dictatorship.”

“In just the past 13 years civil war and state violence have killed perhaps 600,000 people. Assad’s regime used chemical weapons and mass torture against perceived opponents, and resorted to industrial-scale drug-dealing to raise cash,” it further said.

The report then said that Assad’s fall brought “joy to Syrians and humiliation to his autocratic backers — Russia, which lent him air power to drop barrel bombs, and Iran, which counted Syria (with Hamas and Hezbollah) as part of its ‘ axis of resistance’.”

5 countries were shortlisted

The Economist said that it shortlisted five names this year for the ‘Country of the Year’ title. “Two took a stand against bad government.”

To claim the title, Bangladesh surpassed Syria, Argentina, South Africa and Poland.
Previous winners

Among the previous winners are Greece (2023) for “dragging itself out of a long financial crisis and re-electing a sensible centrist government, Colombia for ending a civil war, Ukraine for resisting an unprovoked invasion and Malawi for democratising, the report said.