Today, Bangladesh will welcome an interim government under the leadership of Nobel Peace Prize-winning economist Muhammad Yunus. The development comes after Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was forced to resign followed by violent student protests.
In an interview, Yunus told reporters, “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.”
One of Bangladesh's most brutal protests prompted the intervention of economist and entrepreneur Muhammad Yunus who will now lead the country. On his path to leadership, he will encounter several challenges like reinstating law and order, building up the economy, and guaranteeing free and fair elections.
Former World Bank economist and director at Bangladesh’s Policy Research Institute. Ahmed Ahsan noted that: “is the man of the hour, chosen by the students who led the entire movement.” “He commands enormous respect both in the country and in the world”, he further added.
The third of nine children, Muhammad Yunus, was born in 1940 in a village near Chittagong, which was then part of East Pakistan. In 1961, Yunus completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Dhaka. He later pursued a PhD in economics on a Fulbright scholarship at Vanderbilt University in the US, graduating in 1969. He then became an assistant professor at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
During the liberation war in 1971 against the Pakistan military, the Bangladesh Independence Movement witnessed the active support and participation of the Nobel laureate. In Nashville, Yunus established a citizens’ committee. He co-managed the Bangladesh Information Centre in Washington, DC, which persuaded the US Congress to discontinue military aid to Pakistan. Yunus returned to Bangladesh after the country gained independence in 1972. There, he briefly with the Planning Commission before joining the University of Chittagong’s economics department.
In 1976, as part of his fieldwork at the university, Yunus visited the famine-affected villages near Chittagong. He lent $27 to 42 villagers and found that each one of them repaid the amount within the scheduled period. This experience highlighted the transformative impact that microcredits or small loans had on the poor villagers. Traditional banks were unwilling to lend money to the poor which resulted in them resorting to reprobate moneylenders. Identifying this issue, Yunus established the Grameen Bank which aided the poor with microcredits and helped them start a business.
Since then, Yunus has been called the ‘Banker of the Poor’, who has played a vital role in alleviating poverty among millions of people.
Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank were awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for their efforts to “create economic and social development from below”. By that time, the Grameen Bank had helped over seven million villagers with more than $7 billion in loans. 97 per cent of the borrowers were women, and the repayment rate was close to 100 per cent. Weighing up the impact of his work, Yusuf commented, “I see poor people are getting out of poverty every day … we can see that we can create a poverty-free world… where the only place we’ll see poverty will be in the museums, poverty museums.”
Muhammad Yunus will now encounter complexities of politics which lie far beyond the reams of economic theory. His biggest task at hand is to restore order in the country following five weeks of violent and deadly protests. However, the bigger challenges loom for the interim government to fight the ongoing economic crisis, heightened by surging food prices and a slugging private job market.
According to Ahasan from the Policy Research Institute, “The new government will need to stabilise the economy and contain inflation … and stabilise exchange rates.”
Former U.S. Diplomat, Jon Danilowicz, who spent eight years in Bangladesh, believes that Yunus is well suited for the role. He notes that Yunus’ international standing, especially in the US, will play a pivotal role in garnering support for Bangladesh.
Being a board member of a human rights NGO in Bangladesh, Danilowicz has identified three key immediate challenges that the interim government will be facing: tackling the ongoing economic crisis, depoliticisation of the country’s institutions like the civil service, police and judiciary, and addressing the issues of accountability for grave human rights violations.
He notes, “He (Yunus) must establish civilian control and supremacy early on and make sure that the army goes back to its normal role of supporting the civilian administration.”
On the diplomatic front, Yunus must cultivate a positive and healthy relationship with India as a hostile relationship between the two countries could create considerable challenges for Bangladesh. This prompts the need for cooperative relations between the two nations.
