Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus took over as head of Bangladesh’s interim government on Thursday, days after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country amid violent protests.
Yunus, who had just returned from France earlier in the day, said he was ‘trying to save the country from turmoil’, according to local media.
Military chief General Waker-uz-Zaman, who has temporarily taken control in Hasina’s absence, said on Wednesday that a new government would be formed on Thursday with Yunus as its ‘chief adviser’.
On Tuesday, President Mohammad Shahabuddin dissolved parliament, where Hasina’s ruling Awami League party has a majority of seats. New elections will be held under the caretaker government.
Local media reported attacks on Awami League officials since Hasina’s government was ousted. In a statement on Wednesday, Yunus hailed the end of the former government as a ‘victory’ but urged people to ‘refrain from all forms of violence’.
Former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, leader of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, who was released from house arrest after Hasina’s departure, also made an ‘anti-revenge’ speech on Wednesday.
There is currently no clear procedure for the formation of an interim government in Bangladesh following Hasina’s constitutional amendments. The country’s political groups will coordinate on how to proceed, following the model of previous caretaker governments.
Who is Muhammad Yunus?
Muhammad Yunus, 84, who will head the caretaker government, is a banker who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his work in microfinance, which he said would help reduce poverty in Bangladesh.
He founded the Grameen Bank in 1983, claiming to fight poverty through microcredit. The bank has grown rapidly, with branches and similar models now operating around the world. Yunus and the Grameen Bank were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 after lending a total of nearly $6 billion in housing, student and micro-enterprise loans.
However, critics have viewed Yunus and the Grameen Bank with scepticism. As a banker, Yunus has been criticised on the grounds that high interest rates impoverish borrowers and that lenders make large profits on small loans. Yunus claimed that his aim was ‘not to make money, but to help the poor’.
Hasina, who resigned, had repeatedly criticised Yunus for ‘sucking the blood of the poor’ during her tenure. Yunus has been charged with ‘tax irregularities’ and most recently in June with embezzlement.
Yunus is also a favourite of the Western media.
