Princeton-trained economist Fakhruddin Ahmed GS '75 was appointed Friday to lead Bangladesh's interim government, a move by the country's president to stem a turbulent political crisis.
Ahmed, a former governor of the country's central bank who received his Ph.D. in economics from the University, will serve as chief adviser to a caretaker government set up to oversee parliamentary elections.
Ahmed effectively holds the position of prime minister and replaces previous chief adviser Iajuddin Ahmed, who resigned from the post along with nine other advisers after declaring a state of emergency and postponing the national elections, which were to be held on Jan. 22 of this year.
On Sunday, Ahmed took steps to consolidate his power, taking over the country's election commission and interior ministry, which controls the army, police and paramilitary forces. More than 4,000 people have been detained since the state of emergency was announced, including 1,500 since Saturday evening, the Associated Press reported.
"What [the political parties] are involved in right now is essentially ruining people's lives," said Faika Farhana '08, who is from Bangladesh. "The political system right now is pretty corrupt so there are few politicians who care about what happens to the country."
The national crisis in Bangladesh, a country of 150 million people situated on India's eastern border, began last October when an initial caretaker government was instituted and soon came under fire from some political groups. The Awami League, a political party that led about 20 groups in the protest, announced earlier this month that it would boycott the scheduled general elections, alleging unfairness and demanding the resignation of Iajuddin Ahmed and the revision of voter rolls.
Former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, leader of the Awami League, contends that the initial interim government favored her bitter opponent, Khaleda Zia of the Bangladeshi Nationalist Party (BNP), also a former prime minister. The supporters of both sides have committed increasingly frequent acts of violence, and the Awami League still maintains that electoral registers are biased toward the BNP.
Farhana said the strikes and work stoppages encouraged by the Awami League are hurting many Bangladeshis who live on dollars a day and have little or no savings.
"I came out on the street with my rickshaw. Now I have come to know that curfew [has] been imposed so I am to go back home," Manu Miah, a rickshaw puller in Dhaka, was quoted as saying by the Indian television station NDTV.
In reaction to the destructive protests, Iajuddin Ahmed declared the state of emergency, which includes a moratorium on news broadcasting by Bangladesh's eight private television stations. On the same day, both the United Nations and the European Union recalled their election observers in the country, eliminating all hopes that a valid election will take place as scheduled.
"Agreement on the conditions for the elections by the election stakeholders is a prerequisite for credible and meaningful elections, and these do not currently exist," EU officials said in a statement.
Fakhruddin Ahmed's main duty will be to quell the violence, which has already subsided in the wake of his appointment, and to establish confidence in the electoral process. He may also make changes to the voter lists and other aspects of the electoral process to appease the Awami League.
Ahmed was governor of Bangladesh's central bank from 2001 until 2005, when he became managing director of a microcredit loan foundation before being called to the post of chief adviser.
After receiving his bachelor's and master's degrees from Dhaka University in Bangladesh and a second master's degree from Williams College, Ahmed came to Princeton for his doctoral studies, culminating in a dissertation entitled "Migration and employment in a multisector model; an application to Bangladesh."
Ahmed then went on to become a lecturer at Dhaka University, followed by a stint in civil service in Pakistan before serving at the World Bank for more than 20 years.
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