Dastagir Jahangir | Editor, The Voice
In the evolving political landscape of Bangladesh, one phrase has suddenly and decisively entered the national lexicon: “No Bloody Corridor.” It is not mere rhetoric—it is a resolute rejection. Delivered by Bangladesh’s Army Chief, General Waker-uz-Zaman, this powerful declaration slams the door shut on an interim government initiative led by Nobel laureate-turned-political caretaker Mohammad Yunus. The proposal in question sought to establish a so-called “humanitarian corridor” through Bangladesh into Myanmar’s volatile Rakhine State. But for the armed forces, and arguably a large swath of the public, it represents something far more insidious: an opening to foreign manipulation, sovereignty erosion, and regional destabilization.
The supposed purpose of the corridor—facilitating aid delivery to war-affected Rohingya populations in Myanmar—on its face appears altruistic. But the military, which has long been vigilant over Bangladesh’s territorial sanctity and regional balance, interpreted the move as a geopolitical trojan horse. General Waker’s rebuke was unambiguous: such a consequential policy cannot and should not be forged by an unelected interim body acting without military consultation or parliamentary mandate.
This rebuke is more than institutional posturing. It signals a growing internal dissonance between the country’s security establishment and the civilian interim regime. Since its installment in August 2024 under controversial and still opaque circumstances, the Yunus-led government has sidestepped both electoral legitimacy and broad-based political consensus. Its reliance on opaque international coordination, sidelining of democratic forces, and attempts to restructure core state institutions without public mandate have fueled suspicions of an administrative overreach with dangerous implications.
It is not lost on observers that General Waker tied his rejection of the corridor to a broader demand for a return to democratic norms—specifically, a call for national elections no later than December 2025. His message is a warning to both the interim rulers and the international backers that stability cannot come from diplomatic pageantry or transnational technocratic experiments. It must stem from popular sovereignty.
Indeed, the term “No Bloody Corridor” has now transcended military parlance to become a political rallying cry. It captures the unease of a nation that has been plunged into governance without consent, where elite negotiations are conducted in foreign capitals while domestic voices remain silenced under emergency decrees and media crackdowns.
The military’s stance—while inherently problematic in a democratic context—has paradoxically become the last institutional check against a dangerously unilateral interim regime. That reality reflects a deeper crisis: the hollowing out of democratic structures that leaves space for generals to speak the language of sovereignty and democracy more credibly than civilian appointees.
It is imperative that international actors tread cautiously. Any attempt to instrumentalize Bangladesh’s internal politics—whether through humanitarian façades or geopolitical gambits—will only deepen the legitimacy crisis. The Yunus government must heed the warning: without elections, without accountability, without consent—no corridor, no reform, no governance initiative will be seen as legitimate.
In that sense, “No Bloody Corridor” is not just a rejection of one proposal. It is a line in the sand—a declaration that the era of technocratic overreach cloaked in noble intentions must come to an end. The people of Bangladesh deserve nothing less than their full sovereign voice.
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Dastagir Jahangir is the Editor of The Voice and US Bureau Chief of Press Xpress. He covers diplomacy, democracy, and South Asian geopolitics.
Dastagir Jahangir | Editor, The Voice