the old neoliberal technocrats are already swimming like sharks around the interim government. In their ranks are those who favor the BNP and the Islamists.

I wonder if they are getting Western backing/money.

If the student committee now formed a bloc with the trade unions, particularly the garment worker unions, there is the possibility that they might indeed form the opening for building a new democratic and people-centered Bangladesh.

I’m pessimistic, I’m old enough to have seen many promising movements fade/disappear.

If they are unable to build this historical bloc, they may be pushed to the side, just like the students and workers in Egypt, and they might have to surrender their efforts to the military and an elite that has merely changed its jersey.

So it goes. And as long as the US, et al. exist this is how things will continue to go.