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Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus will be the new leader of Bangladesh’s interim government after the dramatic exit of long-time prime minister Sheikh Hasina following a popular uprising.
Mr Yunus, who is an 84-year-old acclaimed economist and one of the most prominent political rivals of Ms Hasina, has been announced as the chief adviser of the interim government by president Mohammed Shahabuddin’s press secretary.
His appointment was favoured by student protest leaders who have led a mass movement against Ms Hasina since late June and rejected any possibilities of accepting a military-led government.
Mr Yunus will be in charge of restoring normalcy in violence-hit Bangladesh after a protest started against a quota system in government jobs turned into anger against the long-running government of Ms Hasina, leaving almost 400 people dead in mass demonstrations.
The decision came during a meeting that included military chiefs, organisers of the student protests, prominent business leaders, and civil society members.
In a statement on Wednesday, Mr Yunus urged everyone to stay calm and refrain from violence. “I congratulate the brave students who took the lead in making our Second Victory Day possible and to the people for giving your total support to them. Let us make the best use of our new victory. Let us not let this slip away because of our mistakes,” he said.
“This is our beautiful country with lots of exciting possibilities. We must protect and make it a wonderful country for us and for our future generations,” he said.
In a separate statement, Prof Yunus said he was initially reluctant to accept the student’s request but agreed “given the sacrifices of the students, especially those who have lost their lives for our nation’s liberation”.
“I am not in a position to say no to them,” he said, according to the Financial Times.
But he said he has no intention to seek any elected or appointed office beyond his role as chief adviser for the interim period.
“In the coming days, I will talk with all of the relevant parties about how we can work together to rebuild Bangladesh and how they can help,” he added.
“It is critical that trust in government be restored quickly,” Mr Yunus added.
Other members of the new government would be decided by Wednesday after discussions with political parties and other stakeholders to overcome the current crisis and pave way for elections, student leaders have said.
Mr Yunus is in Paris and will be returning to Dhaka.
Mr Yunus, awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, is an economist and banker who mostly stayed away from politics as he spent much of his time in courtrooms defending the more than 100 cases filed against him under the Hasina administration. His supporters describe these cases as a politically motivated vendetta designed to undermine his position as a potential rival.
Mr Yunus won the Nobel for pioneering the use of microcredit to help impoverished people, particularly women. He is known as the “banker to the poor” for founding Grameen Bank and pioneering microcredit.
Mr Yunus has never run for office but considered forming a new political party in 2007 after the Bangladesh government split up and the military seized power. But he scrapped the idea within a few weeks.
In January he was sentenced to six months in jail after he was convicted of violating labour laws, in a trial that was criticised as politically motivated ahead of the country’s general election.
He, however, remains a respected figure in Bangladesh and has an international clout among elite businessmen, economists, heads of governments, and European royals.
The president on Tuesday dissolved parliament paving the way for the new interim government after student protesters’ ultimatum threatening more protests.
Mr Shahabuddin also ordered the release of opposition leader Khaleda Zia, a longtime Hasina rival who was convicted of corruption charges in 2018, from her house arrest.
Hundreds of people gathered at a rally in Dhaka called by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, whose leader and former prime minister Ms Zia, 78, was freed from house arrest by the president on Tuesday.
Appearing via video link, Ms Zia vowed to uphold democracy and not indulge in revenge politics.
Meanwhile the ousted prime minister, who is currently taking refuge in India, was reported to be exploring options to seek asylum in the UAE, Saudi Arabia or Finland.
Ms Hasina’s focus appeared to have moved away from her preferred choices of the UK or the US, with reports suggesting she did not receive a favourable response from either.
Her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, who has been speaking to the media on behalf of the family since Ms Hasina’s resignation, denied that his mother had sought asylum in the UK or another country. He told NDTV that she could yet travel to meet her family members in the US, the UK or Finland.
