No exit in Dhaka(Bangladesh)

In Dhaka, there is a sense of a lull before the storm. At the beginning of last year – nearly 16 months ago – a quasi-military interim government swept into power riding on popular sentiment and vowing to put an end to the country's endemic corruption and acrimonious politics. Today, that government is coming apart at the seams. Meanwhile, a repressive state of emergency, coupled with the omnipresence of military fatigues in the corridors of power, is providing the enforcement of this non-elected government's authority on the streets. But any façade of moral authority or popular endorsement once wielded by either Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed's cabinet or the army leadership that backed it is fast crumbling. As rumours abound that the intelligence agencies are tightening their grip on the sceptre of power, Dhaka has become a city of whispered conspiracies.

Every public pronouncement by the government is greeted with smiles of assent by the country's elite, but next to nothing is taken at face value. In the anxiety that their worst fears of full military rule are about to be confirmed, ordinary Bangladeshis have taken to seeing the black hand of intrigue behind every major political, economic and social development. It can become quite convoluted. This includes the current rice crisis (which has its roots in high world cereal prices), but also the three spells of flooding and the devastating Cyclone Sidr that took place last year. All of this is, one way or another, being seen by many as a conspiracy to discredit the civilian face of the current regime, which will allow the army leadership to take charge as their 'patriotic duty'.