Thursday | 16 January 2025 | Reg No- 06
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Thursday | 16 January 2025 | Epaper

Shouldn’t Prof Yunus regret his role?

Published : Thursday, 16 February, 2017 at 1:04 AM  Count : 398
Syed Badrul Ahsan

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Professor Muhammad Yunus, our Nobel laureate, has of late been in the news again. Given that the Bangladesh government has now been given a clean chit by a court in Ontario over allegations of graft related to the Padma Bridge project, it is only natural that Yunus' role, or alleged role, in the decision by the World Bank to withdraw from the Padma Bridge project will come under the scanner again. Much heated discussion on him has been generated in Parliament, in the cabinet and, of course, in the media. To be sure, the Yunus camp has always denied all the charges laid at his door by key figures in the government over the Padma affair. Despite such denials, reports and rumours have persisted about what the Nobel laureate may or may not have done that may or may not have influenced the World Bank into taking itself out of the bridge programme.
It will be immensely helpful, for Professor Yunus and for his detractors in the government and outside it, for a clear statement to be made by him about where he sees himself at this point in time. There can be little denial of the fact that over the years, Dr. Yunus has been mired in controversy over a number of factors within the country. Outside Bangladesh, he has been feted by some of the most important personalities and governments. Within Bangladesh, the impression among large sections of people has always been that Professor Yunus was instrumental, in a big way, in having the World Bank withdraw the funds earlier earmarked for the Padma Bridge. That is not an enviable position. Neither is there any way for us to state conclusively that the Nobel laureate was indeed behind the move by the World Bank to withdraw its commitment over the Padma Bridge. We would like to believe that Yunus' proximity to Hillary and Bill Clinton had little or nothing to do with the rude manner in which the World Bank took itself out of its Padma commitment. But if the Nobel laureate did indeed ask then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to use her good offices with the Bangladesh government over the Grameen Bank issue, he certainly needs to be forthcoming here with an explanation. No one has forgotten the rude manner of Mrs. Clinton's telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
As citizens, we believe that Professor Yunus ought not, having been honoured with the Nobel, to have gone into politics and then come away from it. His high praise for the last caretaker government raised a good number of questions regarding his motives, if indeed there were motives. People are there who hold the opinion that the motives were there. But let us not judge anyone, least of all Professor Yunus, on how he saw his future in Bangladesh's politics in the years of the Emergency. But that there was a concerted campaign by some to present him as an alternative, in political terms, to the country is not to be denied. That the minus-two formula in politics had some sinister goals within it is a truth which cannot be wished away.
There should be an end to the new debate that has been raging around Professor Yunus. There are a couple of reasons why that needs to be done. In the first place, his is a well-known presence at the global level. In the second, it is not right that the quarrel between him and the Bangladesh government go on perpetually. Just as we expect the Nobel laureate to be treated with respect, we expect too that he will step forward on his own to let the government --- and the nation --- know that the national interest has always been a priority with him. If indeed he had a role, however minuscule it may have been, in the World Bank-Padma Bridge issue, he will do himself and all of us a favour through clarifying the situation, through reassuring us that he is one of us where articulating the political and economic future of the country is concerned.
In the days ahead, we will look forward to a bridging of the gap between our Nobel laureate and the government. We would like to see Dr. Yunus play a prominent role in articulating our hopes and aspirations through connecting with such national occasions as Ekushey and Victory Day. Citizens have noted with a certain tinge of regret that while Professor Yunus has been vocal on such issues as global poverty, he has been rather silent on matters which are of contemporary importance for the country. With such critical issues as terrorism testing our resolve to continue being a secular community of Bengalis, it is important that the Nobel laureate too give us reason to think he is with us as we struggle to beat back the forces of medievalism. 
The least Professor Yunus can do, in light of firestorm raging around him, is to step up and give us his version of events leading up to the World Bank move on the Padma Bridge. If the Prime Minister and her government, as also the country, are right in believing that he did contribute to the making of the World Bank decision, all he needs to do is tell us that he was wrong, that he regrets the role he played in the entire incident.
Will Dr. Yunus do that? Does he feel he needs to do that? As for the feelings of the nation, they are of course a different proposition altogether.




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