By ‘reset button’, Yunus didn’t mean wiping out Bangladesh’s proud history: CA office
“When you press the reset button, you reset the software to start all over again. It doesn’t change the hardware. The 1971 Liberation War created the hardware of Bangladesh,” says the CA's Press Wing
The Chief Adviser's Office (CAO) has issued a clarification regarding the controversy surrounding CA Muhammad Yunus' comment about pushing the "reset button" during a recent interview with Voice of America (VOA).
A statement released by the CA's press wing today said, "When Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus spoke about pressing the reset button, he meant making a new start from corrupt politics, which destroyed all Bangladesh's key institutions, pushed the economy to the brink of collapse and robbed the rights to vote and civil liberties of tens of millions of people."
"He did not mean wiping out Bangladesh's proud history," said the statement.
"When you press the reset button, you reset the software to start all over again. It doesn't change the hardware. The 1971 Liberation War created the hardware of Bangladesh," it stated.
The statement also said some people are misinterpreting the context of the interview conducted on 27 September and published on 3 October, in which Yunus talked with VOA about various major issues.
In response to a question regarding the torching of the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum – built on the house of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at Dhanmondi 32 in Dhaka – on 5 August following the ouster of the Awami League government, Yunus told the VOA interviewer, "You are talking about the past. Apparently, you do not remember that a mass uprising has since taken place. You are speaking as if it never happened. You need to see what is happening in this new situation.
"You do not seem to have any questions about how many students have sacrificed their lives, why they sacrificed their lives. First, we must admit that they, the students, said that we have pushed a reset button. The past is gone for sure. Now we will build up in a new way. People also want that. And this new way means we must bring reforms."
The controversy over the "reset button" comment surfaced after many people on social media platforms harshly criticised Yunus for saying the "past is gone for sure" as they have "pushed a reset button."
Clarifying the comment, the CA's press wing in its statement said when Yunus arrived in Dhaka on 8 August to take over as the chief adviser of the interim government, he told reporters at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport that the student-led July-August mass uprising was "our Second Liberation – the first liberation being the country's glorious war of independence in 1971."
"Professor Yunus was an assistant professor at Middle Tennessee State University. He formed the Bangladesh Citizens Committee immediately after the independence of Bangladesh which announced and launched a US-wide campaign to persuade the US government to recognize Bangladesh," the statement said.
"He published the Bangladesh Newsletter to inform the world about the genocide in Bangladesh perpetrated by the Pakistani army," it added.