Staff Reporter:
Nobel laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus described Bangladesh as a “free country” following the resigna-tion of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday after weeks of violent protests.
“We were an occupied country as long as she (Sheikh Hasina) was there. She was behaving like an occu-pation force, a dictator, a general, controlling everything. Yesterday all the people of Bangladesh feel liberated,” Dr. Yunus told The Print in an interview.
Dr. Yunus, who has faced over 190 charges by the Awami League government, accused Hasina of de-stroying her father, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s legacy. He said the violence and vandalism by protesters were expressions of anger against Sheikh Hasina and “an expression of the damage she has done.”
He also expressed hope that the same students and young people will lead Bangladesh in the right direc-tion in the future.
Yunus explained that the seething anger against Sheikh Hasina could not be expressed politically due to a series of rigged general elections. “So that came out as a simple demand for quota changes. It immedi-ately caught up because the government behaved the same way, attacking them rather than listening to them because they are not in a listening mood at all,” he told The Print.
Currently on bail, Yunus hopes to see significant changes once a fair general election is held in Bangla-desh. He advised Bangladeshis to be wary of past mistakes and to adhere to democratic principles. “As long as we stick to that, you remain a strong country. We can be a beautiful country,” he added.
In an earlier development, Nahid Islam, a key coordinator of the Anti-Discrimination Student Move-ment, announced in a late-night video message that Dr. Yunus has agreed to lead an interim government. The full list of proposed interim government members will be disclosed on Tuesday morning, he said.
