The Persecuted Nobel laureate
For writing this article, I took extensive help from Wikipedia and the article of Mr. Rashidul Bari. I have referenced other sources as well.
I notice the undesirable and undemocratic political environment of Bangladesh with profound sadness. I am very shocked when I see that our intellectuals, scholars, writers, journalists and the members of the civil society are attacked and insulted by arrogant politicians in a very ugly manner. I wanted to do something that I could not do. I then tried to say something that I felt very deeply.
Dr. Muhammad Yunus is a Nobel laureate, revered all over the world. He is the son of our soil. He has brought pride, glory and honour for Bangladesh and the Bangladeshis. We love and respect him from the core of our hearts. We adore him. We are proud of him. We appreciate his dedication and contributions to the eradication of poverty from Bangladesh and countries of the world.
I have read some of his books. His writings include Banker to the poor, Creating a world without poverty, Building social business, A world of three zero etc. He is continuing his writings. Recently I read “History of Arakan” written by him. I wrote an article on my blog about the Rohingyas. I got ideas from this book for writing my article.
Dr. Yunus was invited to carry the torch in the Rio Olympics 2016. He bore the torch with Sachin Tendulkar at the Rio Olympics. He was the first person after Nelson Mandela to achieve this honour. It is a great honour for all of us.
Wikipedia described him as a Bangladeshi social entrepreneur, banker, economist and a civil society leader.
Dr. Yunus and the Grameen Bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for founding the Grameen Bank and pioneering the concept of microcredit and microfinance. These loans are given to the entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for the traditional bank loans. Dr. Yunus tried to create a development process that would be initiated from the grassroots levels.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee explained why Dr. Yunus was awarded the Nobel Prize for peace. They said that the lasting peace could not be achieved unless the majority of the population found ways to break the chain of poverty. Dr. Yunus and the Grameen Bank have shown us that even the poorest of the poor can be self-sufficient and bring their own development across cultures and civilizations.
Dr. Yunus received not only the Nobel Prize but several other national and international honours and awards. He received the United States Presidential Medal of freedom in 2009 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2010.
I have read President Clinton’s autobiography. In his book, President Clinton appreciated Dr. Younus with an open mind. He said, “Hillary and I first met Muhammad Yunus when I was Governor and he inspired us to create a microfinance program in Arkansas based on his model. Muhammad proved that the poor are creditworthy and that a microfinance effort can be self-sustainable, can create growth and spread peace. I have thought for years that he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. The committee could not have selected anyone better.”
Barak Obama remarked, “Professor Yunus was just trying to help a village called Jobra, but he somehow managed to change the whole world.”
Dr. Yunus is respected much in India too. Daily Sun, dated 4 January 2017 said that Bangladesh’s maiden Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus had been honoured with a gold medal by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his contribution to the society.” I am grateful to India for this precious gold medal. India respects great men. Although some arrogant politicians in Bangladesh are doing much harm to Professor Yunus, India did not hesitate to award this gold medal to him.
The Grameen Bank is a community development Bank. They give small loans to poor people without asking for money before the loan is given. Grameen Bank has 2568 branches all over Bangladesh as of 2017. Grameen Bank lends to its 8.3 million clients of which 97% are women and more than 112,000 beggars. Besides, they have low-cost housing programs too.
Grameen Bank’s system and methods have been applied in 58 countries including the United States, Canada, France and the Netherlands (Reference: The Japan Times dated 16 September 2017).
Under Grameen Bank System, each borrower must belong to a five-member group. The group does not need to give a guarantee for a loan. The loan is made to only one person, but the whole is responsible for repayment of the loan. Each member has to pay back their own loan, but if they have problems the group may help them pay because the group would not get any more loans from Grameen Bank if all the group loans were not paid. Over 98% of Grameen loans have been paid back. It shows that the Grameen Bank could establish a very good interactional network. They could create a strong motivation, an intimate human bond and a spirit of unity among the borrowers, otherwise, the Bank would not be able to survive.
Grameen says that more than half of its borrowers (close to 50 million) now have all children of school age in school, all household members eating three meals a day, a clean toilet, a rainproof house, clean drinking water and can pay 300 Taka a week (Around 4 USD) to repay their loans.
Grameen Bank has adopted Village Phone Program. Women entrepreneurs can start a business providing a payphone service in rural areas of Bangladesh. The Village Phone Program was awarded the 2004 Petersburg Prize of EUR 100,000 for “Technology to Development”. The Development Gateway Foundation said, “Grameen has created a new class of women entrepreneurs who have improved their positions from poverty”.
In 2003, Grameen Bank started a small loans programme for giving small loans to the beggars. There was no capital cost of the loan. The borrower does not pay any interest on the loan. For example, a beggar taking a small loan of around 100 Taka (About USD 1.50) can pay only two Taka (About 3.4 US cents) per week). He pays back the principal amount only, that is, Taka one hundred only. By May 2006, around 73,000 beggars took loans of about 58.32 million Taka (Approximately USD 833,150) and repaid 34.78 million Taka (About USD 496,900).
In 1998, the Bank’s “Low-cost Housing Programme” won a World Habitat Award.
I think if any approach, venture or effort produces a positive outcome by which people are benefited, then it deserves appreciation. The women of Bangladesh suffer social discriminations. Often they are victims of domestic violence, divorce and persecution. If these women say that they are benefited, that is all success. It seems to me that no additional research is needed. Grameen Bank exists for the borrowers. Grameen Bank is supported because the borrowers support them and the borrowers enjoy benefits because the Bank supports them.
The Guardian published an article dated 21-02-2011 (Jason Burke, Delhi) that said Dr. Yunus was being ousted from Grameen Bank that he founded to help the poor in Bangladesh and across the developing world. He has been caught in a bitter political battle in his homeland, Bangladesh.
The campaign to remove Yunus, mounted mainly by the politicians to remove him from the position of Managing Director of Grameen Bank. Dr. Yunus had to appear in a Dhaka court to face charges against him. He faced increasing political hostility.
An international campaign to defend Yunus was launched. The high powered friends of Grameen, chaired by Mary Robinson, the former United Nations High Commissioner for human rights and one time President of Ireland, condemned the “Campaign of misinformation against Yunus”. The increasingly aggressive attacks on Yunus were politically orchestrated.
James Wolfensohn, the former World Bank President expressed his concern too against persecution on Dr. Muhammad Yunus.
Mr. Rashidul Bari wrote an article in HuffPost dated 16 August 2016. He said that during our liberation war, Dr. Yunus was the editor of Bangladesh Newsletter, which he regularly published from his Nashville apartment. His article against Pakistani genocide was widely lauded by the Bengali community as well as in the mainstream newspapers. He held the concerts for raising funds for our liberation war. He was involved in other motivational and informative programs to help achieve our independence soon.
Mr. Rashidul Bari said that the first trial against Yunus was launched in December 2010 in Bangladesh. This happened a month after an allegation against Yunus for corruption charge of USD 100 million was made by Tom Heinemann in 1996 through his documentary film. The Norwegian Government conducted a full investigation of the matter, but in the end, found Dr. Yunus innocent.
Yunus was fired from Grameen Bank showing the reason that he was older than the mandatory retirement age of 60, but the nine Directors of Grameen Bank allowed Dr. Yunus to hold the position of Managing Director even after the age of 60. These directors were elected by 8.3 million Grameen Bank borrowers.
In September 2013 Dr. Yunus was on trial again. He challenged the allegations against him and said that the allegations were baseless and politically motivated.
I have heard from the citizens of Bangladesh that he wanted to establish a new political party named, “Citizen Power” with the objective of removing corruption from Bangladesh. He believed that in Bangladesh the politicians had no ideologies. They are involved in politics for getting money through corruption. Dr. Yunus wanted to change the society and make Bangladesh a corruption free country. There is no valid evidence to me whether it is true or not. Whatever it is, there is no harm in it. In an independent country and as a free citizen, I have got all rights to be involved in politics. I want to enjoy my democratic rights. If Mr. X can establish a political party, why not Mr. Y? We are annoyed with hereditary family politics. It has become like an absolute monarchy. We want to get rid of this situation. Especially, our future political leaders must be from Bangladesh and they must live in Bangladesh permanently. There should be no aeroplane or flying politics. There should be democracy within the political parties. The party Chiefs and the other executive members should be elected by the democratic methods. The new generations should wake up. The educated young people must come forward to create a new and fresh political environment.
All nations of the world are proud of their Nobel Laureates. Why Bangladesh would be so unfortunate to insult and degrade them? when we are insulting our Nobel Laureate, we are degrading ourselves. In Bangladesh, there are some unfortunate and arrogant politicians who are extremely jealous of Dr. Yunus. I believe that we should think and feel better. Jealousy is a poisonous deadly disease that destroys all. These people think that why the Nobel Prize was not awarded to them instead of Dr. Muhammad Yunus. Dr. Yunus is the son of our soil. We should be happy when it is awarded to Bangladesh. It is our pride, our glory. We are really proud of Dr. Yunus and his Nobel prize. Let us say loudly “Long live Grameen Bank, long live Dr. Muhammad Yunus”.
