Muhammad Yunus likens leadership task to clearing up after tornado

Bangladesh’s temporary leader says he felt “dazzling” when he was asked to take over after the Prime Minister was expelled for a long time from the authority last year.

“I had no idea that I would lead the government,” Mohamed Yunus told the BBC. “I have not been running a government machine before and I had to obtain the buttons correctly.

“Once we settled, we started organizing things,” said Nobel Prize -winning economist, adding that restoring the law and order and reforming the economy was priority for the country.

It is not clear whether Hasina, who fled to exile in India, and her party will participate in the elections that Yunus hopes to hold later this year. It is required in Bangladesh Crimes against humanity.

“they [the Awami League] “You must decide whether they want to do so, I cannot decide for them,” Yunus said in an interview with the BBC at his official residence in Dhaka.

“The Electoral Committee decides to participate in the elections.”

He said: “Peace and order is the most important thing, and the economy. It is a broken economy, a devastating economy.

“It seems as if there were some terrible hurricane for 16 years and we are trying to pick up the pieces.”

Sheikh Husaynah was elected in 2009 and Bangladesh was ruled by an iron fist. The members of its league government in the Awami League are not calming from the opposition. There were widespread allegations of human rights violations, the crime and imprisonment of political competitors while the Prime Minister was.

A The uprising led by students, Mrs. Hasina, imposed on his post in August. At the request of the demonstrators, Yunus returned to Bangladesh to lead the new interim government.

He says he will hold elections between December 2025 and March 2026, depending on the speedy of his government to reform reforms that are believed to be necessary for free and fair elections.

“If repairs can be made at the speed we want, then December will be the time when we will hold the elections. If you have a longer copy of the reforms, we may need another few months.”

“We come from a complete disorder,” he said, referring to the violent protests that were flooded last summer. “People are shot, they were killed.”

But after nearly seven months, people say in Dhaka that the law and order has not been restored yet, and that things do not improve.

“The best is a relative term,” he said. “If you compare it to the past year, for example, at the same time, it looks well.

“What is happening now, is not different from any other time.”

Younis blames many current Bangladesh problems for the previous government.

“I do not support that these things should happen. I say that you have to think, we are not an ideal country or an ideal city we suddenly made. It is a series of countries that we inherited, and it is a country that has been working for many years.”

The victims of the Sheikh regime remain brutally. Thousands of demonstrators have moved to the streets in recent months, demanding that they be tried for the fatal campaign against student demonstrators.

A court in Bangladesh issued an order to arrest herBut India has not yet.

Now, under Yunus, there are questions about the safety of those belonging to the Sheikh Husaynah political party.

In February, many members of the Awami League, including the founder of Bangladesh – the father of Hasina, the late Sheikh Mujib Al -Rahman – were sabotaged after its supporters were told that it would give a title on YouTube.

In a post on social media, the Awami League accused the interim government of justifying violence.

When the BBC was asked about the Awami League members’ demands that Bangladesh was not safe for them, Yunus was quickly defending his government.

“There is a court, there is a law, and there is a police station, they can go and complain, and register their complaints,” he said. “You just don’t go to the BBC’s complaint, and go to the police station and see if the law takes its path.”

Trump administration The decision to reduce external aid and end all the programs funded by the United States Agency for International Development, almost effectively It will have an impact on countries like Bangladesh.

“It is their decision,” says Yunus.

“It was useful. Because they were doing things we wanted to do, such as fighting corruption and such things, which we could not bear immediately.”

The United States is the third largest resource for the official development assistance of Bangladesh. Last year, the United States committed $ 450 million of foreign aid.

When asked how this deficiency will be, Yunus says, “When that happens, we will do.”