DHAKA: Jubilant and hopeful, Bangladeshis on Friday welcomed their new interim government led by Nobel-winning economist Muhammad Yunus and staffed by prominent lawyers, academics and student movement leaders who ousted the previous regime.
The new administration was sworn in at the presidential palace in Dhaka on Thursday night, three days after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was forced to resign and flee to neighboring India following weeks of nationwide demonstrations and a deadly crackdown on protesters.
“The brutal, autocratic regime is gone,” Yunus said in a televised speech after he was sworn in by President Mohammed Shahabuddin along with more than a dozen members of his interim government.
He promised that “democracy, justice, human rights and full freedom of fearless speech will be enjoyed by all, regardless of party affiliation.”
The 84-year-old economics professor will lead the country as “chief adviser” and the titles of his cabinet members' advisers too, not ministers.
They include Nahid Islam and Asif Mahmud, top leaders of Students Against Discrimination, a group that led the protests that toppled Hasina, and officials such as former justice minister AF Hassan Ariff, former foreign minister Touhid Hossain and Salehuddin Ahmed – an economist and a former governor of the country's central bank.
There is also Adilur Rahman Khan, a prominent human rights activist, Syeda Rizwana Hasan, an international award-winning environmental lawyer, and Asif Nazrul, a public intellectual, writer and professor of law at Dhaka University.
When the new administration took office, Bangladeshis were enthusiastic about the nominations and hopeful for their country's future.
“After our total anarchy and a very serious insurgency that we experienced very recently, this is a new dynamic,” Gautam Barua, an academic and researcher, told Arab News.
“I am very hopeful, very, very hopeful about this interim government … I think they will bring about a beautiful change.”
He was pleased to see that famous lawyers and economists would be at the helm.
“This cabinet, I think, has the finest of the country's fines … They are globally recognized, and they are nationally, nationally, recognized,” Barua said.
“The current economy of the country needs a boost… It has gone down quite drastically in the regime of the last government. So I think they can get hold of that. They can turn the wheel of the economy.”
There was also pride in having a government full of celebrity intellectuals and technocrats.
“I think they can bring us a positive change,” said Mahfuz Kaiser, a student in Dhaka. “Dr. Yunus is a very famous person. He is a Nobel laureate. First Nobel laureate in Bangladesh.”
Yunus, a professor of economics, is a social entrepreneur and banker who was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his pioneering microfinance work that helped alleviate poverty in Bangladesh and has been widely adopted worldwide.
“He will help us rebuild this nation,” said Jannatul Ferdous Mawa, who is pursuing a degree in media studies and took part 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.”
Bangladesh's political transition, which ends 15 years of Hasina's rule, comes after nationwide protests that began in early July against a quota system for government jobs, which was widely criticized for favoring those with ties to the ruling party.
The demonstrations soon turned violent as security forces clashed with protesters, leaving at least 300 people dead.
After the deadly clashes and a week-long communications blackout, the Supreme Court eventually scrapped most of the quotas, but the ruling was followed by a crackdown on protesters.
The arrests of 11,000 participants in the demonstrations, mostly students, sparked new demonstrations last week, culminating in a civil disobedience movement that on Monday forced Hasina to resign.
A day later, the president dissolved parliament, paving 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 looking forward to his work, his progress, his visions. He used to say that there are three zeros: zero poverty, zero unemployment and zero net carbon dioxide. 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 up. The government has to ensure transparency, accountability. My expectations for this government are very high. Not only mine; I think everyone is because it is led by Prof. Yunus and it depends on his ability to navigate the complex political landscape of Bangladesh.”
