Bangladesh: Muhammad Yunus likens leadership task to clearing up after tornado

Samira Ali

Dhaka, a journalist for BBC South Asia

BBC Muhammad Yunus interview with the BBC at his official residence in DhakaBBC

After Sheikh Hasina, a long-serving prime minister, was removed from power last year, Bangladesh’s time leader claims he felt “dazzled” when asked to take over.

Muhammad Yunus told the BBC,” I had no thought I would be in charge of the government.” I had to get the buttons right because I had never previously operated a federal system.

The Nobel-prize-winning analyst said,” We started organizing things once that settled over,” adding that the nation’s top priorities were restoring law and order and fixing the economy.

It’s unclear if Hasina, who fled into exile in India, and her party will participate in elections Yunus hopes to hold later this year. She is wanted in Bangladesh for alleged crimes against humanity.

In an interview with the BBC at his personal property in Dhaka, Yunus said,” They [the Awami League ] have to determine if they want to do it, I cannot chose for them.”

The election committee selects the candidates for the office. “

He stated that the market and peace and order are the most crucial things. It’s a heartbroken business, a shattered economy.

It appears as though we have been battling a severe storm for 16 times and are attempting to recover the items. “

Sheikh Hasina, who won the election of Bangladesh’s prime minister in 2009, swore with ferocity. Her Awami League government’s people viciously suppressed opposition. While she was perfect minister, there were numerous complaints of human rights violations, as well as the crime and imprisonment of political adversaries.

A student-led uprising forced Ms Hasina from office in August. At the behest of protesters, Yunus came back to Bangladesh to lead the new interim government.

According to him, he predicts that elections will be held between December 2025 and March 2026, depending on how quickly his government will implement the reforms that he sees are needed for free and fair elections.

” December would be the year we would hold elections if changes can be carried out as quickly as we wish,” he said. We may have a few more times if you have a longer type of changes. “

Reuters Smoke rises from a fire that was set on the street during a protest by students demanding the stepping down of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, following quota reform protests, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, August 4, 2024.Reuters

He said,” We are coming from complete disorder,” referring to the bloody protests that took place in Bangladesh last summer. Citizens are being killed, shot. “

But about seven months later, citizens in Dhaka claim that law and order has not yet been restored and that items are not improving.

Better is a relative word, he said. It looks good if you compare it to the previous year at the same occasion, for instance.

” What is going on right now is unaffected by anything else.” “

The previous government is responsible for many of Bangladesh’s present problems, Yunus claims.

I don’t agree that these issues may occur. I’m saying that you must take into account that we are never a perfect country or city that we created. It is a continuation of the nation we inherited, a nation that has endured for a long time. “

Sufferers of Sheikh Hasina’s brutal government still rage. In recent months, hundreds of protesters have taken to the streets and demanded that she be charged with the deadly attack on undergraduate activists.

A court in Bangladesh has issued a warrant for her arrest, but India has yet to respond.

Under Yunus’s management, questions still exist regarding the safety of Sheikh Hasina’s social party members.

After her followers were told she would address an address on YouTube, many houses of Awami League people, including that of the leader of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, were vandalized and set on fire in February.

The Awami League accused the time government of justifying crime in a post on social media.

When asked by the BBC about accusations made by Awami League individuals that Bangladesh was unsafe for them, Yunus quickly defended his state.

They may go and worry, register their complaint, he said,” there is a judge, there’s a laws, there’s a policeman place.” Simply put, you go to the police station to talk and check whether the law is roiling. You do not go to a BBC journalist to talk. “

The Trump administration’s decision to cut foreign aid and effectively end almost all programmes funded by the US Agency for International Development will have an impact on countries like Bangladesh.

Yunus says,” It is their choice.

It has been good, she said. Because they are carrying out tasks that we wanted to complete, such as battling corruption, and stuff like that, which we don’t purchase straight ahead. “

Bangladesh receives the third-largest amount of official growth aid from the United States. The US committed$ 450 million in international assistance next month.

When asked how it will make up the shortfall, Yunus replies,” When it happens, we may create would. “