Nobel winner Yunus returns to Bangladesh, hails 'second independence'
Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus has returned home to Bangladesh after a trip to Paris for the
00:04Olympics. He's set to lead an interim government after the country's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
00:09resigned and flew to India on Monday pending an asylum request to the United Kingdom. Yunus is
00:15set to be sworn in this Thursday and says his first task is to restore law and order. Take a listen.
00:22Today is a glorious day for us. Through this revolution,
00:31Bangladesh has created a new victory day.
00:38We must continue in an even stronger way, keeping the revolution before us.
00:46Muhammad Yunus speaking after his arrival in Dhaka. For more on this story, we can bring in
00:52our chief foreign editor Rob Parsons. Rob, good afternoon. Tough days ahead for Muhammad Yunus.
00:57Yeah, I mean, a really tough day. He said, you know, that the first task is restoring law and
01:02order. And it's absolutely clear that that is the case because in the days since Sheikh Hasina fled
01:09the country, the situation on the streets of Bangladesh has been pretty critical. The police
01:13have essentially disbanded because of attacks on them following their violence against protesters
01:20earlier on. And there's been communal violence, there's been looting and people are scared. So
01:27as he says, the first task is restoring law and order. And he has sufficient goodwill probably
01:33to be able to do that. The bigger question, I think, will be how do you establish a functioning
01:40democracy in a country like Bangladesh? And there the problems that face him are going to be much
01:45more difficult. But apart from the distrust of the police, and to a degree also distrust of the army,
01:51which had quite a close relationship with Sheikh Hasina and has a track record of interference in
01:57politics in Bangladesh, you know, there's the question of the state of the economy as well,
02:03with external debt up 239% over the last 15 years or so, unemployment very high. And that's one of
02:11the issues that led to the demonstrations in the first place. So how do you deal with all these
02:16problems? First of all, how do you deal with the relationship between the people and the police,
02:22the people and the army? And then there's the problem of building a structure, institutions,
02:30a political system that will function. He's talking about a new opportunity. And in a sense,
02:35it is a new opportunity. He's calling it, you know, a bright new day and saying people are excited.
02:40But there's complete distrust of the Awami League, the biggest political party in Bangladesh.
02:46There's distrust of the Bangladesh National Party. There's distrust of the Islamist parties.
02:52And there's a movement of students. How do you bring all that together and make it work?
02:58It's interesting, because as you were speaking there, we're showing images of Muhammad Yunus,
03:0184-year-old Muhammad Yunus, surrounded by the students that actually led these demonstrations.
03:06But I want to ask you about the neighbourhoods itself, because Bangladesh is sandwiched between
03:11India on one side and China on the other.
03:13It's a tough neighbourhood. Yeah, it's always had to balance its relationship with China and India.
03:19And Muhammad Yunus will certainly try to continue to do that. But the fact of the matter is that
03:25Sheikh Hasina herself, her family, has tight ties with India as well. That's where they went to when
03:33they fled. And so many people in Bangladesh will look askance now at India. But they will have to
03:40remember, too, that India is by a long way their biggest market. And they will have to be aware,
03:47too, that Hindu nationalism is very much on the rise in India at the moment. And people in India
03:54are already looking with considerable concern at what is happening in Bangladesh, where the
04:00communal violence has, to a large extent, been directed against Hindus. There are 13 million
04:06Hindus in Bangladesh, about 8% of the population. And many of them are on the border area with India.
04:15Five Indian states border Bangladesh. The biggest of them, West Bengal, has a border that's over
04:202,000 kilometres long. People in India are already talking about the dangers of refugees flooding
04:27into the country, talking about figures as high as 10 million. That's ludicrous speculation, which
04:33is not designed to help matters at the moment. But these are issues that are already being spoken
04:38about in India, with some religious leaders, Hindu leaders, saying maybe it's time for India
04:44to intervene. That is one of the reasons why Muhammad Yunus is saying it is absolutely vital
04:50that we deal with the problem of law and order first. We'll see how things pan out in the days
04:54to come. Things are definitely moving faster. Thank you very much for that, Rob Parsons.