The 'banker to the poor' was convinced to help Bangladesh.

It took six hours on Thursday between the arrival of Bangladesh’s new interim prime minister at the capital’s airport and his swearing-in in Dhaka. The economist Muhammad Yunus, returning from the Paris Olympics, told reporters traveling with him that “it could be a very beautiful country.” It was a deep desire of the student movement that drove Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s departure that Yunus would take over as chief adviser.

In Bangladesh, Yunus, 84, is widely admired. The “banker to the poor” was the first Bangladeshi to win the Nobel Prize in 2006. He studied economics at Dhaka University, Vanderbilt University in the US, and became interested in poverty alleviation in the wake of Bangladesh’s independence in 1971. The young country immediately experienced a severe economic crisis, culminating in a severe famine in 1974.

In his research into the economic situation of farmers and poor households, Yunus discovered that microcredit could be extremely effective. Through microcredit, they could tap into new sources of income. Regular banks would not easily extend such loans to the poorest. Yunus continued his field research by founding the Grameen Bank. The Nobel Peace Prize report awarded to Yunus and Grameen Bank praised him for “practical action on behalf of millions of people.”

In the years that followed, Grameen Bank acquired an increasingly diversified portfolio. Yunus also focused on other social issues such as sustainability, on which he had an advisory role during the Games. The micro-lending principle was adopted around the world – although a few decades later there were also criticisms of its impact.

opposition

Yunus and Grameen Bank have also faced increasing opposition from the Bangladeshi government. Late last year, rights group Amnesty International filed “more than 150 cases” against him since the Awami League re-formed the government in 2008. Amnesty called it “a gross violation of labour law and the legal system and a form of political retaliation for his work and opposition.” Hasina herself has made no secret of her disgust with Yunus: in 2011, she accused Yunus, an economist, of “sucking the poor.” Earlier this year, cases were filed against him.

Yunus was reluctant to talk about it last week. When it became known that the protest organizations favored seeing him as an interim leader, the academic and businessman initially seemed to want to stay out of politics. But persistent demands from the student movement appear to have convinced him. Upon his arrival, Yunus said the students were “showing us the way” to a new Bangladesh.

Yunus also has the support of army chief Wakir Uz Zaman, who, according to reconstructions in local media, played a key role in convincing Hasina to resign on Monday. President Mohammad Shahabuddin dissolved the government on Tuesday in a move necessary to appoint an interim government. It must put Bangladesh in order so that national elections can be called. According to the constitution, this must happen within three months.

During the swearing-in ceremony on Thursday evening local time, the names of 16 other members of the interim government were announced. They included two leaders of the Students Against Discrimination Movement; no politician from Hasina's Awami League took part.

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