Want Bangladesh 2.0, don't want to go back to the old style

Muhammad Yunus, the chief advisor to the interim government, says that now is the greatest opportunity that Bangladesh has ever had for change and that a new society has to be built.

Referring to the challenge of taking the reins of the government after the fall of Sheikh Hasina and the Awami League, Yunus told US public broadcaster NPR.

"It's very exciting. You look at the negative. I look at it in a very positive way. I said this is the greatest opportunity this nation got. Never, ever, all these people, the country is unified on one thing: We need change," he said.

The people do not want to get to Bangladesh 2.0 without fixing everything, he said. reports bdnews24.com

"That's precisely what version 2 means. We don't want to go back to the old style. Then what is the meaning of giving all these lives? It has no meaning because everything that we did, we destroyed everything. So we have to begin to build a new one."

Yunus also spoke about the young people who had given their lives to fight for the revolution in the country.

"People die. Nearly a thousand young people died, stood in front of the gun to take bullets. Literally, young people came and sacrificed themselves. When they are coming out of their homes to join the demonstrations, they're saying goodbye to their parents. They're saying goodbye to their siblings; 'I may not come back.' That's the spirit in which the whole thing happened."

'REVENGE PERIOD ONLY A COUPLE OF WEEKS MAYBE'

Asked about the vigilante killings, mob lynchings, and attacks on Hindu and other minorities in the country since the government changeover, Yunus said that there was a revolutionary mood in the country and that the attacks may have been more due to the links between the Hindu community and the Awami League rather than attacks on minorities.

"People are in the mood for revolution. So this is a revolutionary situation. They were killed. So they are looking for people who made their colleagues die. So people were attacking the followers of the party headed by Sheikh Hasina. When you say minority community being attacked, that minority community, particularly Hindu community, was associated with her. So you cannot distinguish whether they were attacked because they're followers of Sheikh Hasina or they were attacked because they are Hindu," he said.

However, when the interim government took over, they attempted to bring peace and convince people not to attack each other over differences of opinion, the chief advisor said.

Asked whether that anger could be redirected to reform instead of revenge, he told NPR:

"Revenge period was only a couple of weeks maybe. But then normalcy started coming back so we are running the country. But there are demonstrations, not revenge demonstrations. Most of the demonstrations are about demanding their pay rises, demanding their jobs, which they were fired from before by the regime. So they said, we are mistreated by the past government and we lost our jobs for nothing - because we happened to belong to another political party. So everybody is trying to settle their scores because they were deprived. We were trying to convince them. Look this is 15 years of your grievances. We cannot solve it in 15 days. Give us some time so that we can go back. You have a very difficult situation and we have to resolve it so that it's done systematically."

BEING ASKED TO LEAD GOVT WAS 'BIG SURPRISE'

Yunus, who had been facing several cases over alleged corruption that he describes as political persecution by Hasina, was attending the summer Olympics in Paris as the mass uprising was taking place in Bangladesh.

Hours after Hasina's ouster on Aug 5, he received the call to take on the leadership of the new interim government.

"I was in Paris trying to see if I go back, I'll be arrested, because she will be angry at me and put me in jail. So I was thinking of delaying my return. And suddenly I got a phone call from Bangladesh that now she has left. We want you to be the head of the government. That was a big surprise," he said.

Asked what he was thinking at the time, Yunus said:

Whether I should get involved in running the country at all. It's a very difficult political situation. But when the students called me up and explained what the situation is, finally I said, 'Yes, you have given lives for this. If you can give lives, I can remove all my other considerations. I can be of your service. I'll do that.'"

Yunus said that he hopes the Bangladesh he had dreamt of would be coming soon.

"Not the ultimate. But I will be very happy, it's on the way. Institutions are right. Policies are right. Young people are committed to change the world that they belong to and they play a role within the country and a global role," he told NPR.

"But we have to work together. I always give importance to the youth because they are the ones who will be building the future and they should be in the leadership position anyway, because this is the planet they have to inherit. You mentioned I'm 84. I don't have a long part ahead of me, but they have their whole life ahead of them."

Asked how long he would remain as the head of the government and what he hoped to achieve, Yunus said that there was much speculation on how long reforms would take.

"People are throwing out these numbers. How many months, how many years as they feel are needed. Some say it should be done quickly because if you go longer and longer, you'll be so unpopular and everything will be messed up. Some say no, you have to finish the reform. So you stay this long period because we don't want to get to Bangladesh 2.0 without fixing everything. So this is the debate going on," he said.