Real change or new face?

Heroic as the young people's rebellion in Bangladesh may be perhaps it is too early to celebrate. Questions such as what are the ideological moorings of the various groups that participated and is this movement about more than just revamping the civil service quota system remain to be answered. To recall, the 1972 uprisings were also heroic and so was the fairly recent Arab Spring but the absence of a political vanguard and clear ideology lead to their failure. The absence of peasants and workers in the movement is not encouraging. Let us hope it succeeds in bringing about real change and not just a changing of the guard.

Kamal Hyat

Lahore