Motaher Hossain

After the fall of Sheikh Hasina's government in the student uprising, the journey of the Interim Government led by Nobel Laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus has started on August 8.

Sheikh Hasina's government, which had been in power for more than 15 years, was ousted in a historic coup on August 5. The movement of students of the country under the banner of 'anti-discrimination student movement' against the High Court's verdict regarding reservation of quota in government jobs culminated in a one-stage struggle to overthrow the government on July 17.

It is believed that the number of dead in the devastation and massacre of people from July 17 to August 9 has exceeded several hundred. A difficult challenge awaits the newly formed interim government that took office at such a difficult time. Especially bringing the price of daily necessities to a bearable level, law and order control, mass movement of past students, during the mass uprising, some jails including Narsingdi, Kashimpur, Sherpur, Bogra broke into the accused and arrested the fugitive accused and the weapons looted from the jails, the weapons looted from several police stations quickly.

Recovering in time, increasing foreign exchange reserves and remittances in banks, controlling hyperinflation. Curbing totalitarian corruption, quick recovery of defaulted loans and quick return of money earned through corruption and smuggled money to the country, ensuring anti-corruption services of organizations engaged in civil service, government procurement, manipulation of tenders, government money hooliganism, besides stopping wastage, political The big challenge now is to overcome the various crises of financial institutions or the overall economy.

Moreover, only 11 days after the assumption of responsibility of the interim government, in Feni, Noakhali, Comilla, Lakshipur, Habiganj, Brammonbaria, about one million people have become homeless due to severe floods. The loss of wealth is even greater. Therefore, to cut this loss and bring back the necessary funds to bring back the normal situation is another challenge for the government to face.

Although the aid of the distressed people in these regions will cause so much suffering to humanity, the call of the anti-discrimination student movement with the slogan 'man for man' has created a humane example of the participation of children and students from all walks of life in the relief center established at the TSC of East Oxford Dhaka University.

At the same time, the interim government, local administration, individuals, institutions, political parties, social organizations, NGOs, voluntary organizations, business organizations have extended their hands to rescue the people affected by the floods, including relief, clothes, baby food, medicine. In this case, the challenge before the government is the construction of the damaged houses of the people of these Elkas after the flood, the development of road communication systems, and the guarantee of pure water.

In the meantime, a bank account has been opened by the Chief Adviser in the 'Chief Adviser's Relief Fund' for relief assistance. Meanwhile, funds and relief assistance are being deposited in that fund as expected from various ministries, organizations, banks, financial institutions, and industrial groups. At the same time, the members of the Advisory Council of the Interim Council of Government have stopped the distribution of relief due to floods. It is hoped that people's normal living system and economic activities will be activated along with the post-flood rehabilitation activities in the flood-affected areas.

On the other hand, the state reforms according to the expectations of the student population. The interim government has a commitment to reform the judiciary, police department, election commission and other service institutions and reform the financial sector.

The Chief Advisor and Advisory Council members of this Interim Government are highly accepted and admired by the people of the country for their honesty, hard work and strength of character. Therefore, with their assumption of responsibility, as an unprecedented stir has been created among the common people across the country, the expectations of the student population are sky high. It is expected that a 'successful social revolution' will be completed in Bangladesh. "And the level of this expectation has increased as two coordinators of the anti-discrimination student movement" are also included in the advisory council.

In the past 16 years, the police has been used as a political tool, and the public trust and confidence in the police has been severely damaged. The police, playing the role of the enemy of the state and the people, have indulged in killing people indiscriminately to suppress the movement of the students. This resulted in a public outcry which was reminiscent of the scene of a child jumping off his father's lap and running towards a policeman with a killing punch, an expression of the country's anger towards the police.

In this situation, the police force left the police station and went into hiding from the afternoon of August 5. At the same time, when the police everywhere became demoralized and completely inactive, students organized themselves and took up the duties of traffic police in Dhaka, Chittagong and other divisional cities, guarding police stations and residential areas, removing vandalized debris across the country, conducting cleanliness drives and preventing extortion. Common people are spontaneously participating with the students after seeing this unprecedented activity of the students.

However, Professor Yunus got down to business by declaring the restoration of law and order in the country as the first challenge of the interim government. We strongly wish to repose full confidence and trust in the interim government, committed to successfully accomplish this task of restoring law and order in the country. Then the internal government's priority should be an all-out campaign against corruption and money laundering.

Money laundering remains at the root of corruption and the rampant rampant spread of defaulted loans, preventing the speedy recovery of laundered money and recovering large amounts of defaulted loans from banks. According to the American historian Brook Adams, after 1757, the smuggling of capital in wooden ships from Bengal to England increased so much that those ships had to wait for about three months to unload their goods at the port of London. Historians call this looting episode as 'The Bengal Loot'.

It is said that the looted capital contributed significantly to England's 'First Industrial Revolution' i.e. industrialization. At present, various studies have revealed that these 'hateful national enemies' capital smugglers are depriving Bangladesh of an average of 1500-1600 million dollars of capital every year. The colonial British East India Company and Pakistani capital smugglers are today the new capital smugglers of the country.

Incidentally, another 'shakedown' of corrupt politicians, businessmen and bureaucrats is needed on the lines of the anti-corruption drive in 2007 under the military-backed caretaker government. Of course, similar comments are made by representatives of civil society in the country. However, after the ACC's operation and revision of the ACC Act, questions were raised from various quarters. Former ACC chairman Golam Rahman commented that the ACC Ordinance introduced by the caretaker government in 2009 had turned the ACC into a 'toothless tiger' without ratifying it in Parliament. He also suggested the reintroduction of the ACC Ordinance and, at the same time, the appointment of Munir Chowdhury, a well-known anti-corruption bureaucrat in the country, as the ACC Chairman.

The agitating student crowd and the vast majority of the people of the country are not only asking for a change of power or a change of turn, but 'reform of the state'. The position of the 'anti-discrimination' student movement is also the 'reform of the state' - which is large and time dependent. But the issue is multi-faceted and time-consuming. So it will be a tough task for the interim government. First, they are unelected. Secondly, it is not yet clear how long their tenure is. The matter needs to be analyzed in depth. There are a lot of long-term jobs, they must be seen. And those problems are identified, widely discussed.

Long-standing political authoritarianism can be moderated to a large extent through various institutional reforms, but it may not be possible to eliminate it completely. Therefore, along with institutional reforms, a change in our mentality is also very important. If these things are not done, the results of the mass uprising created by the combined blood flow of the anti-discrimination student crowd will be lost again in the bottomless black hole. At the same time, the hope and golden future of billions of people will be lost.

We must remember to make a new mirror like the fallen rulers and look at our own face in the mirror instead of showing it to others, as if the face of billions of people of Bangladesh appears in that face, the language of the people's eyes, the language of the mouth and the unspoken language accumulated in the heart is reflected. It reflects the expectations, trust and confidence of the student population. It should be remembered that the welfare, progress, peace, prosperity and development of the country and its people should be one of the goals.

The writer is a General Secretary, Bangladesh Climate Change Journalists' Forum.