In Muhammad Yunus, Bangladesh is pinning its hopes on one of the nation’s most acclaimed intellectuals to bring stability to a country scarred by coups and political upheaval. Yunus, whose work alleviating poverty won him a Nobel Peace Prize, was named the head of a new interim government on August 6 following the sudden ouster of Sheikh Hasina as Prime Minister a day before. Though he has mostly stayed away from politics, Yunus is one of Bangladesh’s most famous faces and brings considerable clout with Western elites.
“I’m looking forward to going back home, see what’s happening and how we can organise ourselves to get out of the trouble we are in,” he told reporters on August 7 before boarding a flight at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport for Dubai where he was to connect to Dhaka. “Be calm and get ready to build the country,” he said in a statement earlier that day, urging calm after weeks of violence. “If we take the path of violence everything will be destroyed,” he added.
Bangladesh’s military chief Gen. Waker-Uz-Zaman said that the interim government headed by Yunus would be sworn in on the night of August 8. In a televised address on the afternoon of August 6, he said the responsible for the violence since Hasina’s resignation would be brought to justice.
The military chief, flanked by the chiefs of navy and air force, said that he spoke to Yunus and would receive him at the airport on August 8. Zaman said he was hopeful that Yunus would take .