New York Times article on Bangladesh: Up against a hyperreality, mere rebuttals don’t work

Illustration: TBS

You surely remember 16 July 2024. 

The image of Abu Sayed, arms stretched out to embrace death, shook the conscience of an entire nation.

We first came to know Abu Sayed through that image. Before that, most of us were not even aware of his existence. 

Yet, the butterfly effect of his final moment led to the downfall of a 16-year-old autocratic regime within just 20 days.

This is a testament to how powerful a single image or visual narrative can be — an idea explored in depth in British historian Alex von Tunzelmann's 2021 book Fallen Idols: Twelve Statues That Made History.

One of the cases detailed in the book is the toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue in Baghdad's Firdos Square in 2003. This event was deliberately framed as the ultimate symbol of US "victory" in Iraq.

In the following days, Fox News aired the footage every 4.4 minutes, and CNN every 7.5 minutes, reinforcing a narrative that Saddam Hussein was definitively defeated and brought to the ground. 

In reality, he remained in hiding for another seven months. But the myths and aura surrounding him perished that day. The public perception that he had lost was so deeply ingrained that no real force remained to fight back in his name.

Von Tunzelmann explains this phenomenon using Jean Baudrillard's concept of hyperreality. 

According to Baudrillard, whether something is happening in reality is secondary; the media has the ability to construct a hyperreality that convinces people an event has occurred.

If that is materialised, the effect becomes indistinguishable from reality and truth.

Sheikh Hasina's autocratic regime understood this principle well. By showcasing images of infrastructure projects like the Padma Bridge and the metro rail, she crafted an illusion that Bangladesh was on a fast track to development. 

At the same time, her government not only courted but actively nurtured some Islamist extremist groups to tighten its grip on power, all while masterfully curating a narrative for the Western media that portrayed her as the only fierce opponent of Islamist extremism in Bangladesh.

For 16 years, this strategy worked. In the end, however, she was forced to concede defeat to the outstretched arms of Abu Sayed.

Ironically, despite numerous achievements, the current interim government led by Professor Dr Muhammad Yunus lacks the political foresight to construct a globally convincing and indisputable public perception of Bangladesh's progress. 

Instead, it is allowing the Western world to reinforce existing stereotypes, paving the way for a negative hyperreality to take root.

Take the latest New York Times report on Bangladesh, for example. 

The images they used include a "March for Khilafah" rally by the banned outfit Hizb ut-Tahrir, a women's football match with a caption highlighting its previous cancellation due to extremist threats, and the ruins of a shrine of the Ahmadiyya Muslims.

In recent months, the interim government seems to have gained a better grip on the situation and has taken steps to contain extremist elements. What they failed to do, however, was to publicise these actions as prominently as the initial reports of the extremists' resurgence — missing out on an opportunity to send a strong message both to the West and to extremist supporters within the country.

None of these images are false. They depict real events.

Additionally, the report describes how a convicted sexual harasser was garlanded with flowers upon his release. This too is factual.

Through such images and narratives, the Western media can construct a fragmented reality of Bangladesh — a concern that many had been voicing for long. The New York Times report simply confirmed those fears.

But of course, these complaints simply cannot be made without proper context — which the said New York Times report too touches upon to some extent, but also misses out on some. 
During Hasina's 16-year authoritarian rule, all kinds of dissent and free speech were systematically suppressed. 

Naturally, after her government was overthrown, people began to reclaim their long-lost voices. In this environment, some Islamist extremist elements also began to resurface, making their presence more noticeable than in the previous decade.

Due to the weakened police force — plagued by corruption, unchecked power and a lack of integrity during Hasina's regime — law and order in post-Hasina Bangladesh remained fragile. This too hindered the interim government's ability to effectively contain these elements in the beginning.

Furthermore, when these incidents happened, local media had also reported on them, but the interim government ignored concerns. At those times, the Press Wing — usually swift to brand any critical report as "misleading" — also kept mum. 

David Bergman, a British journalist known for his investigative reporting on Bangladesh's political landscape, described the NYT piece as a "generally fair representation" of the growing influence of Islamist extremism in civil society. 

According to Bergman, the collapse of the Awami League has created a power vacuum, which has allowed previously suppressed religious political movements to regain strength.

In recent months, however, the interim government seems to have gained a better grip on the situation and has taken steps to contain Hizb ut-Tahrir and other extremist elements. 

What they failed to do, however, was to publicise these actions as prominently as the initial reports of the extremists' resurgence — missing out on an opportunity to send a strong message both to the Western world and to extremist supporters within the country.

Meanwhile, the interim government has achieved several other successes as well. For instance, the Press Wing's statement highlights that 2,999 women's football matches were conducted successfully, compared to just one that faced disruption.

Yet, why does global concern focus solely on that single event?

This proves that when statistics clash with imagery, the latter is far more powerful. A single failure can overshadow 2,999 successes if that failure is framed as a hyperreality.

The New York Times report underscores that neither the interim government nor student leaders — those who claim themselves to be the stakeholders of Bangladesh 2.0 — are taking visibly "sufficient action" to counter the negative hyperreality being crafted about Bangladesh.

And this term — sufficient action — is now the bottom line. It cannot be achieved through mere statistics or rebuttals. 

Counter-narratives must be visually established to challenge the existing negative imagery. Proper initiatives should be taken against anyone trying to bring Bangladesh to a bad light, be whoever that may be.

That is the only way to issue a true statement against Western propaganda and hyperreality.