Dr. Yunus & The Current Debate: Perspective Of An Academic Bystander
By Abdul Hannan Chowdhury
In 1974, the US secretary of state, Dr. Henry Kissinger, labeled Bangladesh as a "basket case." The image of Bangladesh, in post-independence era was degrading due to many social causes. However, a country in phase of early transition is expected to be inflicted with myriad issues. Professor Muhammad Yunus, by giving birth to Grameen Bank, pulled the country out of such international labeling in 1980s. Dr. Yunus, a brave economist, established the platform that has brought us prestige and honor to rise and live as important citizens of the world. After thirty years of planting the seeds, the Grameen Bank is now emulated all over the world, changing the courses of many lives around the globe. Muhammad Yunus is cherished with great dignity regardless of societies and communities. In 2006, he was awarded Nobel peace prize, the ultimate award the world bestows on its great human beings, and because of the honor the country earned was immeasurable. We proved that we are no more a "basket case."
Dr. Yunus earned the award for his vision and actions to eliminate poverty from the world. A selfless devotion of a lifetime encouraged by a dream of a society free from destitute. A man of great dignity, of whom former US President Clinton speaks of "a man who long ago should have won the Nobel Prize." In honor of the one of the greatest Bangladeshi, 14th January is celebrated as "Yunus Day" in Texas, Houston, declared in 2008. This is in addition to the many awards and honor Dr. Yunus earned around the globe. Why is so much admiration issued to one person? Because the world has seen so few, who are actually driving all the energy, asset and education for the goal of a society free of poverty around the world. So honest a vision, so difficult a task, made so easy by simply unifying the poor and destitute.
Have we rewarded him for any of his endeavors? Thirty years after the seed of Grameen Bank was sown, Dr. Yunus was charged with defamation, and had to appear before court so many times in so many places. A man of great stature was blamed of corruption, laundering of funds, following the allegations made by a Norwegian documentary. The allegations did not stand, after a full-fledged investigation. Why? The Norwegian government admitted that the clauses were cleared and there was no trace of corruption, in the movement of funds. Erik Solheim, Norwegian Finance Minister stated, " there is no indication that Norwegian funds have been used for unintended purposes, or that Grameen Bank has engaged in corrupt practices or embezzled funds." The world sees in astonishment the promptness of the leaders of the country to drag Dr. Yunus to court, rather than supporting the one of the brightest person in the nation.Dr. Yunus is blamed of sucking the blood out of the poor. First of all, the motivation behind a theory is more important than the application of the theory. Capitalism and communism has been applied wrongly many times in history. But one cannot blame the beauty of such theories. If microcredit is simply sucking the blood out of people, than where were all the depository institutions, credit unions, financial institutions of all shapes and size, when the poor were in need of borrowing? The banks were inspired to issue commercial papers, or to provide unsecured loans to large institutions in need of liquidity to meet short term debt obligations! Never such institutions, some owned and operated by prominent politicians, were providing unsecured loans to poor villagers. Until the inception of Grameen Bank only loan sharks used to exercise micro lending attached to intimidation and hostility. If microfinance is simply sucking the blood out of people, what was microfinance regulatory authority doing? How could women be empowered by privileging them with credits and default rate being even lower than commercial banks?
In last thirty years, microloans reached to 13 crore families worldwide and microcredit grew 16 fold and changed the fate of 64 crore people worldwide. On the 100th anniversary of international women's day, US Ambassador for global women's issues Melanne Varveer, affirmed "It is gratifying to see that, 81 percent of microlenders were women that is more than 100 million." The default rate for unsecured micro loans are only 10% compared to conventional 30%, due to social and cognitive reasons. Simply put it like that, a female finds it demeaning if she fails to pay off a loan, while another female across the street in the neighborhood successfully pays off a loan. What can be more acceptable inspiration, contrasting to the shameful motivation of industrialists to deliberately default on large sum of loans. Such energy and liquidity disbursed to poorest of the poor, resists all financial dilemmas. Critics publicly denounced Dr. Yunus of buying the Nobel peace prize, or influencing the Nobel committee through some manner. What was the rational of such blasphemy? Still, to be clear of all accusations, the Nobel committee thoroughly investigated the background of Dr. Yunus, to save themselves from all possible embarrassments. After all the meticulous investigations conducted on a single person, the political parties in this country never restricted their comments issued towards Dr. Yunus, referring him as a politically motivated and profit seeking personal. What can be more embarrassing than this?
Muhammad Yunus stopped at nothing in tackling the unchallenged causes of poverty. The notion of Social Business was pioneered by Dr. Yunus, which is also not free from scrutiny. As being the common practice of political parties in this country, drawing to wayward conclusions based on preconceived notions are easier than conceptual development. Therefore, there was no delay reacting to the revolutionary concept of social business, by stating it as yet another ‘fashionable' mean to snatch money away from the poor. Again the motivation of Dr. Yunus as opposed to the critics must be observed. According to Dr. Yunus, "I am proposing to create another kind of business, based on selflessness that is in all of us. I am calling it Social Business." A matter of great disappointment, that as Dr. Yunus believed, selflessness might not be in all of us. A man of such great stature is not supposed to make theoretical mistakes, but others can. If it was correct to judge Social Business so easily, than the idea would not have been appraised by world's best economists. Living in the world of capitalism, poverty can be alleviated, poor can be uplifted. There are many other writings that would define, how type I and type II social businesses, are all different from Foundations, NGOs, CSR, Cooperatives and Social marketing. Just to put some light on the Social Business movement, that is currently going on in the world. BASF has joined hands with Grameen, to improve health in the country, but will never render a profit from their operations. A Scottish University is combining with Grameen to create Glasgow Caledonian College of Nursing, to educate the daughters of poor farmers on Nursing, and ensure employment in many sectors. Violia has joined hands with Grameen to ensure pure drinking water to poorer society only, and reduce susceptibility to life taking diseases. Among others are GE Healthcare, Intel, Reebok, Adidas etc. are investing in the social business theme. Besides setting up Yunus Research Center or Grameen Creative Lab located in major universities around the globe, in Germany, cities are being announced as Social Business cities. The question is, the political parties accurate in defining social business as a cheating concept, rendering the innovators, initiators, academicians and best of the world are unwise.
Dr. Yunus is 70 years old -so he is to be relieved from his position of the Grameen Bank. The government initiated process of coercion to relieve the best of Bangladeshis of his position. The hearing of writ petition of Dr. Yunus at the high court has been dismissed. Dr. Yunus is requesting congenial atmosphere of shifting process. Why would there be a congenial atmosphere, when in this so called democratic country, Dr. Yunus can be dragged to the street, his lifelong creating and dream be snatched away, and he would be starved of justice? In a press conference our foreign minister says that Yunus have "friends" around the world, so there will be retaliation. If nothing is politically motivated, then why would anyone challenge Dr. Yunus? Many of the CEOs of giant corporations of the world are over the age of retirement. Can there be a replacement of Bloomberg? Can there be a replacement of Warren Buffet? Then why would we be so prompt and motivated to replace our national icon, over no standing reason. Was it because Dr. Yunus wanted to form a political party, the fundamental right of any Bangladeshi national living under democracy? So, it is evident, a person such as a Nobel Laureate does not have freedom of speech.
Dr. Yunus is a vision. He is more than just a person of great ingenuity. He is not just one person, he is not 1 crore or 16 crore people, Dr. Yunus is 62 crore people of the world. We have seen political parties elected, causing turmoil, and then some other party gets elected. The people of this nation never expected much from these political parties. The question is to ask if there is an alternative to Dr. Yunus. Today I miss Sheikh Mujib, whose death pulled us behind by thirty years. I can feel that, if he was alive, he would have been the happiest person in the event of Dr. Yunus bringing home the Nobel Prize. He would have declared that day as a day to celebrate.
"If we can change our imagination, we can create another world"- Professor Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
Abdul Hannan Chowdhury, PhD, is Professor, School of Business; Director, BBA Program and Director, Career & Professional Development Services at North South University
