Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel prize winning founder of the Grameen bank in Bangladesh, has survived an attempt to oust him from the institution he founded to lend small sums to the poor almost 30 years ago, the British daily “The Guardian” reports Monday.
Sources close to the bank said opponents of 70-year-old Yunus attempted to push through a decision to oust him as Managing Director on grounds of his age at a meeting of the bank’s executive committee earlier Monday in Dhaka. It was defeated.
The Dhaka-based daily “New Age” has a different explanation of the outcome: Originally the finance ministry was going to use the board meeting as an opportunity to send a dismissal letter to Yunus on the basis that his previous extension to his employment had not been sanctioned by the Bangladesh Bank.
However, it is understood that the government, under pressure, decided not to do this (mere om USAs angivelige rolle heri neden for).
The executive committee comprises three government appointees – including the chairperson – and nine others elected by the borrower-shareholders.
Bangladesh’s finance minister recently said Yunus should stand down following alleged irregularities in operations.
Three criminal cases involving defamation (bagvaskelse), fraud (svindel) and food adulteration (forfalskning) have been filed against Yunus although the High court in the past week stayed the adulteration case for six months.
And at the end of last year, prime minister Sheikh Hasina accused Yunus of treating Grameen as his personal property and claimed the bank group was “sucking blood from the poor”.
Supporters of Yunus say the bid was the culmination of a campaign by the Bangladeshi government to secure control of the bank, which lends to at least eight million people, making it a valuable political resource.
Redaktionel tilføjelse:
Grameen-“koncernen” tæller i dag udover banken flere end 20 organisa-tioner, selskaber og fonde, og Yunus er formand for dem alle. Se mere på http://muhammadyunus.org/About-Professor-Yunus/cv-of-professor-muhammad-yunus – kig under “Member, Board of Directors (National)”.
AVIS: YUNUS HAR STÆRKE VENNER I SUPERMAGTENS TOP
Samtidig skriver avisen “New Age” i Bangladesh uddybende:
US officials have told Prime minister Sheikh Hasina that there will be no further high-level diplomatic interaction between the United States and Bangladesh until the harassment of Muhammad Yunus ends.
A senior western diplomat, with direct knowledge of these conversations, told New Age that Hasina was warned that Yunus should be allowed to leave the Grameen bank gracefully and be given reasonable time to find a successor.
Hasina was told directly by US officials that a possible visit to Bangladesh early April by the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, following her trip to Delhi, was contingent on a resolution of this high-profile crisis (Bill Clinton var en af de ivrigste fortalere for at tildele Yunus Nobels Fredspris i 2006, red.).
Hasina, who is planning to visit Washington in April to take part in the World Islamic Forum, has also been informed that she will not be given a meeting with the US president, Barack Obama, unless Yunus is personally agreeable to the terms of any compromise (Obama har indlemmet Yunus i sin globale “Yes we can”-bevægelse, red.).
While many countries share US concerns about the Bangladesh government’s handling of the Grameen bank, no other country is known to have come close to the US in imposing these kinds of sanctions in support of Muhammad Yunus.
The government’s attack on Yunus has already resulted in the loss of some US financial support.
The US Millennium Challenge Corporation, an independent US foreign aid agency funded by the US congress, decided in January against putting Bangladesh on its ‘threshold’ programme where countries must ‘demonstrate a commitment to just and democratic governance, investments in the people of a country, and economic freedom.’
Even if Hasina gives Yunus time to leave the organisation, a likely stumbling block to any agreement, however, concerns the position of Muzammel Huq, the new chairperson of the Grameen Bank, appointed in January by the Bangladesh government.
Formerly, the general manager of the bank, Muzammel was fired by Yunus more than 10 years ago. The New York Times recently reported that he said that Yunus had a ‘small heart’ and could not ‘give credit to anyone but himself.’
Yunus is due to go to the United States in early March where he is likely to meet Hillary Clinton. The western diplomat told New Age that what Yunus tells Clintion about any change in the government stance towards him and the bank will influence any plans Clinton may have about coming to Bangladesh.
The Bangladesh government is also likely to be aware that the argument over Yunus is impacting badly on the US Congress which has recently awarded Yunus a Congressional Gold Medal.
The Congress decides, each year, the level of money that the United States Agency for International Development will provide to Bangladesh. It will also ultimately consider whether Bangladesh’s apparel sector (beklædningsindustri) should be included in the Generalised System of Preferences that would reduce the tax on imported Bangladesh garments – a long standing demand of the country’s apparel sector.
While in the weeks after the initial press reports, civil society actors in Bangladesh showed little support for Yunus, in recent days this has changed, with increasing number of people signing statements against the government’s ‘harassment’ of Yunus, notes “New Age”.
Man kan læse mere om, hvordan Grameen præsenterer sig selv på http://www.grameen-info.org
