ReutersBangladesh’s new president is obvious: this was not his rebellion, and this was not his desire.
But Muhammad Yunus was aware of this fact the moment he answered the phone call from the student on the other end of the spectrum next week.
And the kids had decided that Prof. Yunus, an 84-year-old Nobel prize, should move into the power vacuum created by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s abrupt departure and form the new interim government. He accepted quickly.
He states in a personal presentation for some of the reporters at his business in the Jamuna State House that” I’m doing this because this is what the youth of the country wanted, and I wanted to help them do it.”
” It’s not my dream, it’s their dream. I’m sort of assisting them in making it appear true.
Prof Yunus was sworn in on Thursday after months of student-led protests culminated in the fall of the government, and is still trying to gauge the scale of the job in front of him.
Most pressing, he says, is the safety situation. The authorities in the South Asian nation had almost vanished after the murder, which left more than 400 people dead, and the police union had announced a affect. Customers was being directed by the students, and hundreds of authorities stations had been destroyed by fires.
ReutersAccording to Prof. Yunus, “law and purchase is the first requirement for people to sit down or work.”
As police officials took to the streets again on Monday, there were the earliest indications of progress. It is a second step, but safety is far from the only concern.
The government completely “disappeared” after Sheikh Hasina fled the country, Prof Yunus says.
” A mess, full mess” is what was left behind in the 15 years of increasingly autocratic rule.
” Even the government, what they did, whatever they did, just simply does n’t make sense to me… They did n’t have any idea what administration is all about”.
And still in the face of the conflict is “lots of hope”, Prof Yunus highlights.
” We are below: a fresh new experience for them, for the land… Because finally, this instant, the dragon is gone. So this is pleasure”.
Transformation is key, according to Prof Yunus. The initial spark of the protest movement was a straightforward demand for reform of a quota system that reserved some common sector employment for the family of war soldiers who fought for the country’s independence from Pakistan in 1971.
However, it was the terrible and fatal security services ‘ subsequent assault that caused Sheikh Hasina to become a target.
EPATransformation is sorely needed, says Prof Yunus, pointing to freedom of speech- greatly restricted under Sheikh Hasina’s state, the prison filled with people who sought to speak out against her.
He asserts that the restrictions on freedom of conversation actually affected him. Prof. Yunus, a lauded for his pioneering usage of microloans but viewed by the former prime minister as a common enemy, was given a six-month prison term for what he has called a politically motivated situation.
But there are other, more extreme, thoughts in the pipeline.
Each department will have a chair for students in it as a reminder of the important contribution they made to ending the previous administration.
Now, Nahid Islam and Asif Mahmud, learners who led the anti-government demonstrations, stay in his case.
And then there is reformation of the court. Now, the kids have put pressure on the main justice to retire.
Prof. Yunus claims that the court was acting independently and instead allegedly relied on commands from” some superior authority.”
” In the technical terms, he was the main justice”, he says. ” But truly, he was only a hangman”.
There may, he acknowledges, get decisions made that not everyone agrees with, but he hopes it will be better than what has come earlier.
” Whatever knowledge I have in my work… So I’m not saying I can move a state. I’m saying that I have some knowledge of running some institutions. I’ll try to get that to happen. There will be both admirers and detractors. However, we must continue with it.