Muhammad Yunus won acclaim overseas for his pioneering work in microcredit. But at home in Bangladesh, the country's ruler Sheikh Hasina saw the Nobel Peace Prize-winning economist as a political threat to be contained.
Just two months ago, Yunus was fighting for his legacy after being indicted on what many see as a long history of trumped-up charges. Now the 84-year-old is leading a caretaker government while his old nemesis Hasina has fled the country.
The dramatic twist of fate saw Yunus fly back to Bangladesh from Europe, where he was seeking medical treatment, within days of Hasina's government collapsing last week amid mass protests.
Organizers of the student-led movement asked Yunus to lead an interim government and get the country ready for fresh elections.
"Bangladesh is like a family that needs to be united. It has great potential," Yunus told reporters after his swearing-in on Thursday, where he was flanked by student leaders.
The government's "primary promise is to ensure that everyone experiences the fresh air of freedom," he said, adding that he hoped "the benefits of this freedom reach every citizen; otherwise, it will be meaningless."
A bank security guard poses in front of a large image of Yunus in Dhaka on Aug. 8. © ReutersYunus was less diplomatic this week when he took aim at Hasina and what critics said was an increasingly autocratic government responsible for rights abuses, disappearances and extrajudicial killings.
More than 400 people are thought to have died in weeks of unrest and police-protester clashes before Hasina's fall.
"The monster is gone," Yunus told a foreign media briefing in Dhaka, adding that Hasina's government left "a mess, complete mess. ... Whatever they did, just simply doesn't make sense to me".
Ali Riaz, distinguished professor of politics and government at Illinois State University, described Yunus as someone who "can inspire people" and the "best choice considering the task ahead."
"The country needs someone who is capable of highlighting the potential at this critical juncture," Riaz told Nikkei Asia. "Uplifting people and engaging them in the endeavor to bring changes is vital to steer towards positive change. His international reputation and acceptability are a bonus."
Some expect Yunus to lean on his myriad international contacts as he steers the new administration away from the old guard under Hasina's Awami League.
"Not only was Yunus not a beneficiary of the corrupt old system, he was in fact a victim of the old regime, with the judicial harassment he was subjected to under Awami League, among other things," said Shayan S. Khan, executive editor of the monthly Dhaka Courier magazine.
Born in 1940 to a family of nine children, Yunus completed a Ph.D. in the United States where he later taught at university before returning to Bangladesh.
Yunus is best known for his work with Grameen Bank, which traces its origins to small unsecured loans he began making to poor families in 1974. Yunus was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his groundbreaking microfinance model that has since spread to over 100 countries.
But Hasina saw the father of two daughters as a key adversary after Yunus briefly explored forming a new political party in 2007, a plan he later abandoned.
Hasina, who had been in power since 2009, accused Yunus of "sucking blood from the poor" and derided political newcomers as "dangerous elements ... to be viewed with suspicion." During the first of her four consecutive terms, the government-controlled central bank removed Yunus from his position as Grameen Bank's managing director, saying he was past the mandatory retirement age.
Yunus, who was chancellor at a university in Scotland for several years, spent the next decade facing numerous legal cases, including allegations of graft and financial mismanagement. But the charges were widely viewed as a Hasina-led vendetta.
Protesters shout slogans as they vandalize a mural of then-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina with paint and mud on Aug. 3. Hasina fled Bangladesh days later. © ReutersWith his legal woes effectively over, Yunus faces the Herculean task of preparing free elections, restoring social order and steering a garment sector-dependent economy that nearly came to a standstill during the protests.
Bangladesh was already struggling when the former government agreed last year to a $4.7 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout.
"The biggest challenge for him will be to get the economy up and running again, because the unrest was actually of a scale that brought everything to a COVID-like standstill, although for a shorter period," Khan said.
Yunus must also lay out a firm vision in the face of conflicting expectations, said Riaz at Illinois State.
One is the administration's "routine work and quickly arranging an election to hand over power to an elected government," he said. But there's also the "expectation that reforming the system will prevent the rise of another autocrat in the future."
So far, Yunus may be sending the right signals by honoring the sacrifices of students injured or killed in the protests while eschewing VIP treatment and banning his image from being used in corporate advertisements.
But he has little political experience and is seen as close to Washington, which risks causing ructions with Bangladesh's neighbors India and China, said political analyst and columnist Farid Erkizia Bakht.
"Economic management, under strict IMF austerity restrictions, will box him in," Bakht told Nikkei. "Then, he will have to deal with disappointment, which will lead to pressure from seasoned political players."
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