Muhammad Yunus was born in Chittagong in southeast Bengal at the height of the Second World War when the Japanese captured Myanmar and threatened parts of eastern India. By the time he turned three, Japanese bombers flew over the skies of Chittagong where they would release anti-British pamphlets. One day, a Japanese bomb fell nearby and demolished a part of his house, forcing the whole family to shift to a village. Uncertain circumstances at home inculcated the importance of dialogue and compromise within him. Over the past year, as the Chief Adviser to the interim government of Bangladesh, Mr. Yunus, 85, has displayed some of the skills he gathered during his early life.
In his latest nationally televised speech delivered on August 5, marking the first anniversary of the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government, Mr. Yunus was more emphatic about the promises that he had made upon taking charge on August 8, 2024. Bangladesh was teetering on the brink with an expanding power vacuum after Ms. Hasina fled to India. As Mr. Yunus held his first press interaction on landing at Shah Jalal Airport of Dhaka, there was an air of uncertainty around him and it was not clear if he would be able to hold the government consisting of ‘advisers’ together. A year later, he appears to be the undisputed face of the interim government. To deal with the deteriorating law and order situation and the breakdown in the political system, he promised to hold election in February 2026. “We will step into the final and most important phase after delivering this speech to you and that is the transfer of power to an elected government,” Mr. Yunus said.
