The Times has published a good piece on Grameen Bank founder Md. Yunus growing troubles. Columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote a piece some weeks ago on Grameen and, perhaps, due to his own work on women’s capabilities, he might have spread the word that this is a good story to follow.
The Times piece does a good job of drawing out the absurd situation in which Md. Yunus finds himself. Only recently hailed as a visionary, whose vision was being corrupted by for profit ventures, he now faces frequent trips to the High Court to defend himself on this trivial charge and that baseless allegation.
According to teh Times this is Md. Yunus’s life nowadays, facing “accusations, considered frivolous by most accounts, that one of his nonprofit companies adulterated vitamin-fortified yogurt. On Jan. 18, he was summoned to a rural courtroom to face charges of defamation lodged by a local politician.” Otherwise, no doubt, he wonders what happened.
The Times piece furnishes a good answer, which I’ll quote at some lenght:
“Mr. Yunus, who leads a spartan life, has for decades floated well above the muck of Bangladeshi politics. Then in 2007, while a caretaker government backed by the military ruled Bangladesh, he waded in, egged on by supporters who argued that his leadership was needed in a time of crisis.”
“He declared in an interview that Bangladeshi politics were riddled with corruption. He floated a short-lived political party. Bangladesh’s political class did not take kindly to being lectured by the Nobel laureate. The steely leader of one of the main political parties, Sheikh Hasina Wajed, took umbrage, analysts say.”
“In the 2008 election that restored democracy after a two-year interregnum, Ms. Hasina led her party, the Awami League, back power with a vast majority. Her critics say that in lashing out at Mr. Yunus she is simply trying to eliminate a political rival.“
As with any bank, trouble for the institution means that creditors and shareholders–the borrowers, as in a plot twist– are likely to become jittery. There may be a run of defaults, and if the government’s intervention radically changes Grameen’s governance structure, that run might come sooner than later. soon.
Prime Minister Hasina’s comment that Grameen is “sucking blood from the poor” has travelled around the world, onto the pages of the New York Times, riding the ether of the internet onto the Times web interface. One wonders, though, if she brought down Grameen and with its the savings, credit and profits of its borrower owners, might she not be accused of the same vampirism that she accuses of Dr. Md. Yunus?
