DHAKA: Jubilant and confident, Bangladeshis on Friday welcomed their new interim government led by Nobel Prize-winning economist Muhammad Yunus and made up of renowned lawyers, academics and leaders of the student movement that toppled the previous regime.
The new administration was sworn in on Thursday evening at the presidential palace in Dhaka, three days after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was forced to resign and fled to neighboring India following weeks of nationwide demonstrations and a bloody crackdown on protesters.
“The brutal and autocratic regime is gone,” Yunus said in a televised speech after being sworn in by President Mohammed Shahabuddin along with more than a dozen members of his caretaker government.
He promised that “democracy, justice, human rights and full freedom of expression without fear will be enjoyed by all, regardless of political affiliation.”
The 84-year-old economics professor will lead the country as “chief advisor,” and his cabinet members will also be titled advisors, not ministers.
They include Nahid Islam and Asif Mahmud, key leaders of Students Against Discrimination, a group that led the protests that toppled Hasina, and civil servants such as former attorney general AF Hassan Ariff, former foreign minister Touhid Hossain, and Salehuddin Ahmed, an economist and former governor of the country's central bank.
Also present are Adilur Rahman Khan, a prominent human rights activist, Syeda Rizwana Hasan, an internationally awarded environmental lawyer, and Asif Nazrul, a public intellectual, writer and law professor at Dhaka University.
When the new administration took office, the citizens of Bangladesh welcomed the appointments with enthusiasm and were hopeful for the future of their country.
“After our total anarchy and a very serious uprising that we experienced very recently, this is a new dynamic,” Gautam Barua, an academic and researcher, told Arab News.
“I have a lot of hope, a lot of hope for this interim government… I think they will bring about a wonderful change.”
He was happy to see that famous lawyers and economists would be at the helm.
“I think this government has the best representatives of the country… They are recognized globally and nationally,” Barua said.
“The current economy of the country needs a notch… It fell quite drastically during the regime of the last government. So, I think they can bring it up. They can turn the wheel of the economy.”
There was also the pride of having a government full of famous intellectuals and technocrats.
“I think they can bring us a positive change,” said Mahfuz Kaiser, a student from Dhaka. “Dr. Yunus is a very famous person. He is a Nobel laureate. The first Nobel laureate in Bangladesh.”
A professor of economics, Yunus is a social entrepreneur and banker who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his pioneering work on microfinance, which helped alleviate poverty in Bangladesh and has been widely adopted around the world.
“It will help us rebuild this nation,” said Jannatul Ferdous Mawa, who is pursuing a degree in media studies and participated in recent protests.
“I think whatever is happening right now is good for us because we are learning something. From this protest, we learned one thing: that if we are together, we can rebuild this nation.”
The political transition in Bangladesh, ending 15 years of Hasina's rule, comes after protests across the country that began in early July against a quota system for government posts that was widely criticized for favoring those with ties to the ruling party.
The demonstrations soon turned violent as security forces clashed with protesters, resulting in at least 300 deaths.
After deadly clashes and a week-long blackout, the Supreme Court eventually abolished most quotas, but the ruling was followed by a crackdown on protesters.
The arrests of 11,000 protesters, mostly students, sparked fresh demonstrations last week, culminating in a civil disobedience movement that forced Hasina to resign on Monday.
A day later, the president dissolved parliament, clearing the way for the interim administration, which will now preside over new elections.
“There are a lot of expectations from this government because this government is led by Nobel laureate Prof. Dr. Yunus. I think everyone is eager to see his work, his progress, his vision. He used to say there are three zeros: zero poverty, zero unemployment and zero net carbon emissions. So, I think he will work on these three issues,” Dr. Rawnak Khan, who teaches anthropology at Dhaka University, told Arab News.
“Our institutional infrastructure, the whole situation, we have to build it. The government has to be transparent, accountable. My expectations of this government are very high. Not just mine; I think everyone's expectations are high because it is led by Prof. Yunus and depends on his ability to navigate the complex political landscape of Bangladesh.”
