AN INTERIM government has finally been sworn in and portfolios of the government have already been distributed. The government, with Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus as the chief adviser, has 16 other advisers, including two leaders of the student protests that ultimately brought about the downfall of the 15 years of the authoritarian regime of the Awami League. The new government has assumed office by supplanting the government of Sheikh Hasina, deposed on August 5 in weeks of the student-led mass uprising that caused unprecedented bloodshed. More than 300 people, students and others, died in attacks by ruling party of the day and its law enforcement units. Barring a few exceptions, the people in the government have had no consistent role to play in the uprising and the overthrow of the autocratic government. Yet, the interim government has apparently been installed with the consent of the protesters manifest through its leaders and it also has their representation. The government has, at least for now, the social and political legitimacy that it needed to assume office. The protests, which have created the space for the new government to assume office, have come with pronounced aspirations such as an end to inequality and democratic values, political and otherwise.
The government should, therefore, meet the aspirations; and, anything otherwise will amount to a betrayal. But what we as yet do not know is what the agenda of the new government is. We also do not know how long the tenure of the new government would be. And, we do not know who the new government feels accountable to and what mechanism would be put in place to ensure the accountability of the government 鈥� in other words, how the accountability mechanism would work. The mandate that has put the interim government in place 鈥� the mandate that the student-mass uprising has created and, along with all the aspirations of the protests, given to the government 鈥� should be ensured and carried to the end. The aspirations that have come up along the protests, the uprising and the installation of the government would apparently require reforms in many sectors 鈥� in the economy, the banking system, trade, market control, revenue, governance, the legal and judicial system, law enforcement, public administration, education, environment, etc to ensure a society free of corruption. All such tasks understandably would take long and the interim government should, therefore, pave the way for an elected government to do what it needs for all such reforms.
In a situation where the citizens, who have already been constrained by troubled days for more than a month with almost everything having stalled and are somewhat worried about their future, should know what the interim government has in store for the people, the nation and the country. The interim government must carry the people鈥檚 aspirations to the end and must make clear all that the citizens as yet do not know but need to know and, that too, without much delay.
