Friday, December 3, 2010
Prof Md. Yunus - Guilty or not?
Prof. Md. Yunus is the Nobel prize winner economist from Bangladesh for his pioneering work to alleviate poverty through distributing small loans to the rural poor. Widely aclaimed as the banker to the poor, the nobel laureate finds himself in a fresh mix of controversy involving aid money from Norwegian Govt that was meant to be donation for the rural have-nots, but was allegedly used for some other purpose back in 1996. Now based on the information available so far, Prof. Yunus has not done anything criminally prosecutable, as apparently he, the donor agency (Norad) and the Norwegian Govt came to some sort of compropise, under which part of the aid money was returned back to the Norwegian Govt. Now, the problem is Dr. Yunus is no ordinary man; he is an global icon and in Bangladesh millions look up to him as a shining example of what we can achieve as a nation. In the coming days, we are bound to see a host of articles, stories and explanations... but, importantly, every ordinary citizen of Bangladesh will privately hold the same debate - whether the great man is really Great or he miserably let down a nation by flouting public trust. will keep you updated, meanwhile you can go to the BBC link attached with this post to have a general idea.
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In the following week after the initial revelations, discussions intensify; and every one including the Prime Minister of the country takes a position on this. And, analyzing most of the reactions, it seems the administration is not very sympathetic toward the Good professor (which in turn may have relation to his activities and opinions during the earlier army-backed caretaker government era). It would be really unfortunate if the holy covanent of "presumption of innonence until proven guilty" is breached, which seems the case at the moment... However, day before yesterday the Norad authority (the supposed victim in this whole fracas) categorically insisted no criminal act was committed by Grameenphone or the Nobel Laureate (wich this correspondent pointed out in the preceding post!), and that should ease the situation around Dr. Yunus to some extent. but, mark my word, we are going to see some more drama before this whole issue comes to an end...So, keep your focus and keep posting
ReplyDeletewith this week's wikileaks revealations, the Prof. Younus saga takes a new turn. What has been started by a not-so-significant norweigian TV documentary, was eventually taken up by the ruling government and with their indirect ecouragement, a portion of the local media... Prof Yunus was subjected to intense pressure at home and even the judicual system was used to oust the nobel laureate from the very institution he formed way back in the 1980s.It is now an open secret that the political institution of the country are irked at the great man because of his foray into politics (and failed attempt to form a political party under the auspices of the last military backed Govt), and they seemed hell-bent to persecute him even in the face of all sorts of opposition from the international community.
ReplyDeleteAt this point of the story, last week, some leaked US diplomatic cable from wiki leaks sugegsted, this scenario surrounding Prof Yunus was anticipated by both US diplomats, Indian business community and the Laureate himself back in 2007. So all that followed are actually outcome of a calculated risk on part of Prof Yunus. It also illustrates how interests are all stacked up in this regional soap opera of power games. The only thing that probably went wrong in this calcualtion is, current and ongoing warm relation between the ruling AL and the Indian Govt. So, it's highly likely that the bigger powers involved will reign in the resurgent AL Govt in this issue and the good prof will get a deal that will make a happy retirement out of his time.