The announcement came hours after protesting student leaders set a deadline to dissolve parliament. - Photo: AFP
DHAKA: Nobel winner Muhammad Yunus said on Tuesday (Aug 6) he was ready to head an interim government in Bangladesh after mass demonstrations forced long-time ruler Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee the country.
“I am honoured by the trust of the protesters who wish for me to lead the interim government,” he said in a written statement to AFP.
“If action is needed in Bangladesh, for my country and for the courage of my people, then I will take it,” he said.
“The interim government is only the beginning. Lasting peace will only come with free elections. Without elections, there will be no change.”
Earlier on the same day, President Mohammed Shahabuddin dissolved Parliament, paving the way for an interim government and new elections.
His office also said that Hasina’s arch-rival, Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairwoman Begum Khaleda Zia, a former prime minister, had been freed from house arrest.
Student protesters had threatened more demonstrations if Parliament was not dissolved.
They also wanted Dr Yunus as the chief adviser to the interim government, and his spokesperson earlier said he had agreed.
Nahid Islam, a key organiser of the campaign against Hasina, said in a video message: “Any government other than the one we recommend would not be accepted.”
Student leaders also said that they had received reports of sectarian attacks on minority groups, including on Hindu temples in the Muslim-majority country, and urged restraint as this could undermine their movement.
Dr Yunus, 84, and his Grameen Bank won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for work to lift millions out of poverty by granting tiny loans of under US$100 to the rural poor of Bangladesh.
He was indicted by a court in June on charges of embezzlement that he denied.
The movement that toppled Hasina rose out of demonstrations against public-sector job quotas for families of veterans of Bangladesh’s 1971 independence war, seen by critics as a means to reserve jobs for allies of the ruling party.
About 300 people had been killed and thousands injured in violence that ripped through the country since July.
“Youth have voiced their need for change in our country,” Dr Yunus said.
“The Prime Minister heard them by leaving the country. This was a very important first step taken yesterday.”
He added: “The courage of these youth is boundless. They have made Bangladesh proud and shown the world our nation’s determination against injustice.”
After demonstrators stormed and looted the prime minister’s lavish residence on Aug 5, the streets of the capital Dhaka were again quiet on Aug 6, with traffic lighter than usual and many schools and businesses that shut during the unrest still closed.
Garment factories, which supply apparel to some of world’s top brands and are a mainstay of the economy, remained shuttered with plans to reopen to be announced later, the main garment manufacturers’ association said.
The decision to dissolve Parliament was taken following meetings with the heads of defence forces, leaders of political parties, student leaders and some civil society representatives, the presidential statement said.
Hasina’s flight on Aug 5 ended her 15-year second stint in power.
She had ruled the country for 20 of the last 30 years, having inherited the political movement of her father, state founder Mujibur Rahman, who was assassinated in 1975.
Since the early 1990s, she had feuded and alternated power with her rival Zia, who inherited her own political movement from her husband Ziaur Rahman, a ruler himself who was assassinated in 1981.
Protests against Hasina were fuelled in part by poverty.
After years of strong economic growth as the garment industry expanded, the US$450 billion economy struggled with costly imports and inflation, and the government sought a bailout from the International Monetary Fund.
Hasina was accused of becoming increasingly authoritarian, with many of her political foes jailed.
Her resignation was greeted wildly by jubilant crowds, who stormed unopposed into the opulent grounds of her residence after she fled on Aug 5 and took away looted furniture and TV sets.
President Shahabuddin had said earlier that an interim government would hold elections soon after it takes over.
Army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman was due to meet student leaders to discuss the formation of the government.
Hasina flew to India and is staying at a safe house outside New Delhi.
India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told Parliament that New Delhi had repeatedly “counselled restraint and urged for the situation to be defused through dialogue”.
Dr Yunus told Indian broadcaster Times Now in a recorded interview that Aug 5 marked the “second liberation day” for Bangladesh after its 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.
But he said Bangladeshis were angry with neighbour India for allowing Hasina to land there after fleeing Dhaka.
“India is our best friend...people are angry at India because you are supporting the person who destroyed our lives,” he said. - AFP, Reuters
