The first appeal to the public from Muhammad Yunus, Nobel laureate and the head of Bangladesh’s interim government, after he landed in Dhaka from Paris on Thursday, was to “save the country from chaos and violence”. The octogenarian pioneer of microfinance is taking charge of the country at one of its most tumultuous phases. Days after former Prime Minister and Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina resigned and left amid violent mass protests, the nation of 170 million people remains on edge as violence refuses to recede. Law enforcement officials are missing and the state bureaucracy has become non-functional in the absence of a government. Extremist sections have used the chaos to target Hindus, Ahmedis, a minority sect in Islam, and Awami League functionaries. According to the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, the houses and shops of minorities were looted in several districts. Offices of the Awami League were vandalised and dozens of party functionaries and supporters were killed. Mr. Yunus, who was sworn in on Thursday (August 8, 2024), condemned the violence and appealed for calm. As the banker begins his role as an administrator, his challenge would be to bring Bangladesh back from the brink and restore the rule of law.
By appointing Mr. Yunus, someone who is acceptable to the student protesters and the political opposition, the military and Bangladesh President Mohammed Shahabuddin have shown signs of reconciliation. At a time when there is much hostility among political parties, an interim government headed by a technocrat is a pragmatic first step. But Mr. Yunus does not have the political machinery to back him up and will have to be dependent on the mainstream parties or the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement. He also faces three critical medium-term challenges. First, he has to make sure that the military stays in the barracks. The military has an infamous past and it took years of mass movement, led by Ms. Hasina and Khaleda Zia, the BNP leader, to bring the dictatorship to an end in 1990. Second, Mr. Yunus has to build at least temporary peace in Bangladesh’s polity. Ms. Hasina’s fall has empowered the Jamaat and the BNP. Jamaat, a majoritarian Islamist group, has had a particularly bloodied past, while the years the BNP was in power were marked by political violence and vendetta. Lastly, Mr. Yunus’s administration should facilitate free and fair elections at the earliest. Only an elected government with popular legitimacy can steer the country out of the troubles it is in today. The success of Bangladesh’s uprising is dependent on the will and the ability of the country’s new rulers to tackle these challenges.
