If dictatorial regimes and/or monarchy were always success story as you are trying to argue, Africa as a continent would now be the richest in the world given the amount of natural resources is available in that continent. We would see Europeans flocking to Africa to work, not the other way around.
You are citing UK, France, US, Holland and Japan as examples for success of autocracy. You need to take the historical contexts behind those examples. What you are not taking into account is that all these nations had imperialistic agenda. They needed to grow their empire through force. And force is derived through economic power. Even though US had democracy albeit imperfect, it inherited the imperialistic mentality from Europe. Japan was never colonized by the west because it had always been a colonizer itself,
If you are to compare Bangladeshi autocracy story with other countries, you need to pick post-WW2 economies.
Let's look at some of the stories from Asia and also their background -
**I will not take city states/territories like Singapore and Hong Kong into account when comparing with a country with large population like Bangladesh.
**I am taking GDP per capita as a measure to simplify the comparison.
1. South Korea - Economically very successful at per capita GDP of 34,994. However, let's not forget they have an active enemy to the north. So even though the South Korean dictators were corrupt, they had to ensure the country is economically sound to fight the North Koreans. The Samsungs and all other Korean rich business families benefitted from the corrupt system. The society suffers from income inequality.
US did assist ROK with billions for years after the Korea war which built the foundation for what Korea is now. Does Bangladesh have such rich and powerful sponsor?
2. Indonesia - Now they are growing and moderately successful at per capita GDP of 4,691. Indonesia became independent on 1945, way before Bangladesh. Indonesia has natural resources and tourism, and yet their GDP per capita is little above Bangladesh. If dictatorship was so great, why isn't Indonesia in the mid-10K per capita GDP by now?
3. Vietnam - Growing and moderately successful at per capita GDP of 4,122. One party style government similar to China.
4. Myanmar - Still developing, with GDP per capita at 1,285. Myanmar received independence in 1948. It had been under military junta for the most part since 1960s. We clearly seeing their development aren't we?
The notion that dictatorship is the best way to economically succeed is absolutely wrong. A corrupt dictatorship is no better than a corrupt democracy.
I will agree that a benevolent and just dictatorship will be more effective than any democracy. But, the Sheikh Hasina government does not fall in that category. The corruption is rampant. There is literally robbery going on with government funds. This cannot sustain in the long run.
I have been to Bangladesh this year after many years, and apart from some fancy roads and bridges, not much have changed. It still took me 3 hours to go from one end of Dhaka to the other. The power outage wasn't there when I visited, but now I hear it's back again because of Bangladesh's reliance on fuel powered plants.
14 years is a long time to fix these basic necessities. The fact that these haven't been fixed yet, means its time for Hasina to step down. But unfortunately, there won't be any peaceful power transition. I was in Dhaka when the last time people were getting burnt or being beaten to death with wooden boat paddles, until the army stepped in and arrested both the bibis. It will be the same again this time if not worse.
Pakistan providing support to BD to restore democracy !
