British novelist Zia Haider Rahman slates interim government as a ‘huge disappointment’

In an arrangement by the Bangla Academy, Bangladeshi-origin British novelist Zia Haider Rahman delivers a speech arguing that literature requires a political culture of imaginative freedom and, crucially, accountability to flourish, a condition he finds severely lacking in Bangladesh. Focusing on the "failure of the interim government", Zia criticises the post-Sheikh Hasina regime for being “impotent and ineffectual”, revealing that constraints on free expression run deeper than just state repression. He also slates Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus for setting a “risibly low standard” by failing to hold proper press conferences and avoid difficult questions.