Yunus-led interim Bangladesh govt sworn in; diverse members include 2 student leaders

Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus was sworn in Thursday to lead Bangladesh’s interim government following a three-day power vacuum that resulted from Sheikh Hasina quitting as prime minister and fleeing the country.

The 84-year-old microcredit pioneer faces a massive task of restoring law and order, steadying a limping economy and setting the stage for free and fair elections. No mention was made at the ceremony of how long the interim government will be in power.

Bangladesh President Mohammed Shahabuddin, whose role is largely symbolic, administered the oath to Yunus and the others at the presidential palace in Dhaka.

“I will uphold, support and protect the constitution and will perform my duties sincerely,” Yunus said as part of his oath.

Yunus now has the title of chief advisor and leads a body of 16 who comprise the rest of the interim administration. 

Taking the oath alongside Yunus were more than a dozen individuals from diverse fields, including two university students who became familiar faces to Bangladeshis in recent days. 

The Dhaka University students, Nahid Islam and Asif Mahmud, were key figures in student protests that turned deadly and became a mass movement demanding Hasina step down.

The interim government also includes human rights activists, legal experts, two ex-diplomats, a doctor and a former governor of Bangladesh’s central bank. A BenarNews reporter at the scene did not see anyone from Hasina’s Awami League party.   

The swearing-in ceremony, which began around 8 p.m. was attended by judges, NGO leaders, chiefs of the three branches of the military, the country’s new police chief, foreign diplomats and leaders of political parties. 

Yunus won the Nobel for lifting millions out of poverty by lending them small amounts of cash – microloans – to open small businesses. His microlending model has been replicated in more than 100 countries – though he was reviled by Hasina and, according to supporters, subjected to judicial harassment during her administration.

A student in Dhaka, Salma Akhter, of Tejgaon College, was excited at the prospect of Yunus heading the new government.

“He is a reputed person. What we need is a visionary leader who will not amass wealth through corrupt practices. And will not involve him in corrupt practices,” she told BenarNews.

“We hope the government will carry out institutional reforms and restore democratic institutions before holding national elections.”

Yunus had been in Paris when it was announced that he had been selected to lead the interim administration and arrived back home just hours before the oath-taking ceremony, on Thursday afternoon. 

He was welcomed at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport by the Army chief Gen. Waker-uz-Zaman, some student leaders and civil society representatives.

Upon landing, he alluded to the fact that Hasina had bent state institutions to her will, including security agencies. But he urged people not to take the law into their own hands. 

“Restoring the law and order situation is our first job. We cannot take further steps until the law and order situation returns to normalcy,” Yunus said.

More than 108 people have been killed in new violence since Hasina decamped on Monday, after weeks of civil unrest in which some 300 died.

Bangladeshis needed to regain faith in independent state institutions – faith they had lost during the 15 years of Hasina’s continuous rule, Yunus said Wednesday.

“It is critical that trust in government be restored quickly,” Yunus said in a statement, according to U.K.’s Financial Times.

“We need calm, we need a road map to new elections, and we need to get to work to prepare for new leadership in order to fulfill the extraordinary potential of Bangladesh.”

Greeting those who had come to receive him, Yunus was visibly emotional when students approached to shake his hand. With tears in his eyes, he ignored their outstretched hands and embraced them instead.

Bangladesh has an opportunity to start afresh thanks to the country’s university students, he said at the airport on Thursday. 

“Today is a glorious day for us . . . they [the students] protected and gave this country a rebirth,” Yunus said after he landed.

“We have to protect it,” he added.

Following Hasina’s resignation, the Students Movement Against Discrimination group proposed that Yunus lead the interim government, a choice South Asia observers viewed approvingly because the Nobel laureate is respected at home and abroad. 

The group’s students led the initial protests that turned deadly when security forces and Awami League supporters joined the fray in an attempt to disperse them. The violence angered people nationwide and the agitation became a mass movement demanding Hasina’s resignation.

BenarNews spoke to some newly appointed interim government members about what they believe should be the administration’s first priority.

Among the issues mentioned by Saleh Uddin Ahmed, a former governor of the country’s central bank, was the economy.

“The first step will be bringing back law and order, reactivating the slow economy, working for the people’s welfare, and resuming the academic environment,” he told BenarNews. 

Referring to the lives lost in recent weeks, human rights activist Adilur Rahman Khan said there needed to be accountability.

“We took this responsibility by standing in blood. We need to ensure justice, we need to bring public traitors to justice,” he said.

15 years

Asif Mahmud, one of the two students named advisor on Thursday, said the interim government would “reform” state institutions, hold a free and fair general election and hand over power to an elected government.

“But that will not be possible without reforms to institutions such as the Election Commission,” he told journalists after the oath-taking ceremony outside the presidential palace.

Holding fair elections “will not be possible without its reform,” Asif said.

According to the country’s constitution, an election must be held within 90 days of parliament being dissolved. That happened on Tuesday, Aug. 6, which means the interim government’s term ought to end early November 

But one retired United States diplomat told BenarNews this week that may be unrealistic – that is, too short.

Hasina and her Awami League party had caused too much damage over her 15 consecutive years in power, said Jon Danilowicz, who has served three assignments in Bangladesh.

“I don’t think we can say at this point how long the country will take to be ready for an election. Considering the degree to which the Awami League politicized the administration, security forces and judiciary, the task of unraveling all that will be very difficult and take very long,” he said.

“But without doing that, it will not be possible to hold free, fair and credible elections.”

Shailaja Neelakantan in Washington contributed to this report by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news organization.