Bangladesh Clears a Hurdle

Bangladesh, so often in the news for poverty and disaster, assassinations and coups, has just marked a happier milestone. Sheik Hasina Wajed has completed a full five-year term as prime minister, the first person to do that in the country’s 30 years of independence.

Hasina is the daughter of Sheik Mujibur Rahman, who with the immense help of the Indian army led what then was East Pakistan to freedom. Mujibur was assassinated in 1975. His daughter, a generation later, has steered the country through the unfortunate annual litany of flooding and other deadly calamities.

Hasina won’t be enshrined in the pantheon of democracy. It was her Awami League party that led the often-violent demonstrations in 1996 that caused the ouster of the government of Khaleda Zia. And Zia was the widow of the assassinated Prime Minister Ziaur Rahman, a former general.

Hasina’s success in finishing her term does lend hope that stability is possible in South Asia. After Hasina leaves office Thursday, a transitional regime will be in power until parliamentary elections in October. Balloting free from the violence and vote-rigging that too often have marred elections in Bangladesh would be another welcome sign of political maturity.