Protect Yunus

On this sad day when Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission has indicted Professor Yunus and 12 co-defendants, about which we will have more to say in the days ahead, we believe it is important to take a step back and take the long view of what is happening. It turns out that a respected Bangladeshi journalist has done this for us. The following is an English translation of a 16 minute statement made by Golam Mortoza, the editor of The Daily Star Bangla, a leading newspaper in Bangladesh, on his YouTube channel that has more than 82,000 subscribers. He addresses several recent incidents related to the persecution of Dr. Muhammad Yunus by the Bangladeshi government. Among other things, he refutes the charges made by the new chief lawyer for Grameen Bank about Professor Yunus’ role in the evolution of Grameen Bank. You can view the video of the original statement in Bengali here. It was titled, “Is Grameen Bank Becoming a BASIC Bank?” (The reference to BASIC Bank is meant to suggest that Grameen Bank is at risk of falling under a degree of maladministration by the government that it ends of degrading if not failing entirely. (This in fact happened to BASIC Bank in Bangladesh, which you can read about in this article, which includes the following, “The BASIC Bank, a state-run institution which was known as a good performing bank in 2009, is now marked as a severely weak financial institution. It is now waiting to be merged with City Bank, a private sector bank, under a recent regulatory initiative.The BASIC Bank serves as a textbook example of how the appointment of a politician as board chairman can lead to the downfall of a bank within only five years.” )

The initiative to rewrite the history of Grameen Bank is underway. A massive movement is taking place to erase the name of Dr. Muhammad Yunus from Grameen Bank from this history. Why am I saying this? I am saying this because today the Chief Legal Adviser in Grameen Bank, Masud Akhtar, made a statement making these false arguments. What he said recently is that Dr. Yunus was not involved in the establishment of Grameen Bank.

Grameen Bank was in fact founded by Dr. Yunus, but now this reality is being denied. Grameen Bank is saying that the organization began as a project of Krishi Bank, and that Krishi Bank is its originator and that the government funded it. It’s almost as if something called Grameen Bank fell from Mars or from the sky. It is not acknowledged that it took an individual to provide the thinking, planning, and vision to bring Grameen Bank into existence to benefit the nation’s poor people. Professor Yunus was this person, but this is now being denied.

The Chief Legal Adviser of Grameen Bank said all these things today. It makes me laugh because Grameen Bank has a history. How was it created? Grameen Bank was not created while researching microcredit. The initiative taken when the Grameen Bank was created, the initiative taken by Dr. Yunus, and that would evolve to be microfinance, was not the original plan. The legal adviser says that there was a project on microcredit and research was being done on that project. As a result of that research, it was converted from the Grameen Bank Project into a bank in 1983.

The credit is being given to Krishi Bank by the chief legal adviser. I can’t say anything but laugh at the fact that a legal ignoramus can give such a wrong interpretation without knowing the history due to his political bias or any other reason. If we summarize the history of Grameen Bank, if we summarize the history of Dr. Muhammad Yunus, then we need to go back to 1971, when Dr. Muhammad Yunus was in the United States.

Dr. Yunus was one of the most important figures for the liberation war of Bangladesh, and served the cause of liberation from the United States. His role has been documented in history books, such as one by Abdul Mal Muhith. Everyone knows that. This history can never be erased. When he returned to the independent country of Bangladesh, he joined the Rural Planning Commission, but he left that job because of lack of work there. He started teaching at the Chittagong University Economic Department. At that time, he was saddened to see the suffering of the poor people in Jobra village, in the area surrounding ​​Chittagong University, and felt an urge to do something for them. Then he undertook an initiative with the farmers of that region. He helped them with his own money. This history is not known to the present legal advisor of Grameen Bank.

At one stage of this agriculture project which was called the “Three Share Cultivation Scheme,” he also started helping the local rickshaw pullers and other day laborers with money from his own money. And he stipulated that what he gave them should be repaid at the end of the day or after seven days. It needed to be decided who will take the payments. Then a certain shop was identified to receive the payments, a tea shop. The borrowers will work all day with a little money, five takas, ten takas, or 25 and do something with it. After a day or three days they would repay their installment to that shop. It turns out that most people repaid the money to that store. He then took the initiative to provide some financial assistance to women to allow them to work. That too was his own money, initially.

Later on, other banks including Krishi Bank got involved, after the whole plan was presented to them by Dr. Yunus. Some agreed, some disagreed, some called it madness, etc. etc. So, in that process, he struggled a lot. Once he went and got a small loan, which means small money of 50 taka, 100 taka, 200 taka, then he came to Tangail and worked. Many struggles, many histories, many worn soles on his shoes. Gradually it emerged as a successful project, and in 1983 it was converted into a bank by an ordinance during the Ershad government.

Grameen Bank did not fall from the sky. Grameen Bank was not created by the Krishi (Agriculture) Bank, and no other person created it. The government did help, that is true. But the thought and vision all came from one man. That man’s name is Dr. Muhammad Yunus. This man’s Grameen Bank won the Nobel Prize. That man also won the Nobel Prize. There are not many such cases in the history of the world. In the same year, the Nobel Prize was awarded to Grameen Bank and Dr. Yunus as independent entities. This rural banking program is running in many places in rural America, rural Australia, rural Africa and other countries, modeled on Grameen Bank that Dr. Yunus created.

The current chief legal advisor and the current chairman of Grameen Bank have not been involved in the organization for very long. When the women were approached on foot to participate in Grameen bank when it was created, I don’t know where this legal adviser was. I do not know where the current chairman was then. I don’t know if they even know anything about Grameen Bank and its history. But even if they take the initiative to change the history, one has to first know the history and then take the initiative to change it. They seem to lack that basic knowledge.

Let me end by saying one more thing: this history can’t be changed. This history cannot be erased. Truth can never be erased. Bangladesh has proved this many times. Attempts have been made to erase political figures and political parties from history, but they cannot be erased. Earlier attempts were made to wipe out Dr. Yunus’ existence, but it was not possible. They are still trying to delete his history, but it can’t be deleted. Trying to remove the name of Dr. Muhammad Yunus from Grameen Bank is an impossible fiction. It can never be removed. By saying all this, only the people saying these things will be ridiculed.

Here comes various little complaints about Dr. Muhammad Yunus by Grameen Bank. The answers have given by Yunus Centre. In most cases the questions are politically biased and containing various accusations. And on behalf of Dr. Muhammad Yunus, every time specific answers are given by the Yunus Centre. But the specific answer that is given is never challenged. That is, the complaint was made and then the complaint was answered correctly.

Now a new complaint has been made by Grameen Bank, which was created by Dr. Muhammad Yunus. In the 1990s, the Package Corporation Ltd., which is a family firm of Dr. Muhammad Yunus, was given a loan. The Yunus Centre has given an answer to this, correcting the misinformation. That means, Grameen Bank does not have the information of how much money has been given as a loan. Grameen Bank gives loans to the poor, so Dr. Muhammad Yunus cannot give loans to such institutions, according to Grameen Bank. The organization has asked him to answer for this. In view of this, the Yunus Center replied that Grameen Bank did not give a loan to the institution. Loans have been given to Packages Corporation with the money of various donors through a special fund. Grameen Bank did not give the loans.

The lawyer tried to say that the donor agency and Grameen Bank are the same thing. In fact, it’s not the same thing at all. It is possible to understand this without necessarily understanding all the legal aspects. It is a separate institution that has given a loan of Rs. 9 crore* 66 lakhs. Packages Corporation Limited signed an agreement with Grameen Bank for 25 years. For 25 years, Packages Company has done printing and publications for Grameen Bank under a 25-year agreement. And in that agreement, the company will not get any profit from the dividend, and the owners will not get any financial benefit. So Grameen Bank gave work to this institution, which did not get any profit from doing this work, and after 25 years Grameen Bank returned that institution. And why did Grameen Bank give it back? Because they grew a lot and they decided to do their own printing. The family of Dr. Yunus gave this printing press to Grameen Bank without any condition or financial benefit. This explanation has been given by Yunus Center contradicting the Bank’s claims. If Grameen Bank has any explanation, then they can surely say it. But it needs to be said politely.

Now there is a complaint against Dr. Muhammad Yunus from the country’s Grameen Bank. Now we hear about future complaints by foreign banks. They haven’t come yet, but let them come. When we go abroad, we see only respect for Dr. Yunus. The Olympic Committee took Dr. Yunus to the Olympic Committee to present it to them and wrote a huge report about it.

So here it is said that work worth hundreds of crores* of takas has been given to the printing company. The work was given by Grameen Bank at a reasonable cost, as stated by the Yunus Centre, and the owners did not get any profit. So where is the responsibility of Dr. Muhammad Yunus? You may ask why he gave this work to his own organization? Now this Grameen Bank was established by Dr. Muhammad Yunus. And if his family supports the Grameen Bank with a printing press for 25 years, then where is the problem? I don’t know where the problem is. I can’t find it anywhere. But even on his part, it has been said that Grameen Bank’s ownership change and Grameen Bank’s allegations have been made many times before. And they have been answered many times, but the same complaint is repeated and the Yunus Center responds again and again. It turned into a kind of game of hide and seek.

Grameen Bank’s lawyer made many more complaints. But what is very important about the target here is that there can be allegations made by the Chief Legal Counsel on behalf of Grameen Bank, and then the allegations can be refuted. But disrespecting Dr. Muhammad Yunus is contemptuous. It is perhaps necessary for the chief legal counsel to stand before the law and wonder who he is really talking about. What is he saying, and why? There is no problem with the legal advisors usually receiving money from the organization saying all these things and fulfilling their responsibilities. It is legally valid. But even in that there should be politeness, which we see missing here.

Muhammad Yunus, standing in court, talked about his regrets. He spoke of some of his anger, some of his frustration; can’t these words be said? Who said that a citizen of Bangladesh cannot say these words? It is said that Dr. Muhammad Yunus committed injustices, irregularities, and corruption. But so far, Grameen Bank could not prove anything like that. There was an incident about not giving money to the workers on time, but there is no such incident where he stole any money. Yet he was found guilty in court. I am not talking about that, it is at the next stage of the appeal, that will be seen at the next stage.

Let’s conclude by saying that in the current or past few years of Grameen Bank’s management, it seems that Grameen Bank is actually being managed differently. Suddenly Grameen Bank said that out of institutions created by Dr. Yunus, 7-8 institutions including Grameen Telecom belong to Grameen Bank. An initiative was taken to occupy these organizations by sending people to forcibly enter and remain in their offices. If it is legally the right of Grameen Bank to take over these organizations, then it should be done legally. What do you want to prove by sending people to vandalize these institutions? Again, Dr. Yunus protested this by holding a press conference and highlighted the truth. Then again, they fell silent and said nothing more about it. Again the new thing is the complaint to the Anti-Corruption Commission about the Packages Corporation. Dr.  Yunus replied and refuted those charges. So let’s wait for the Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate. But in the meantime, Dr. Muhammad Yunus is being attacked. Why call him a liar? Let the investigation be done on this matter first.

Let me conclude by saying that Grameen Bank needs to be subject to an international audit. We need to see whether it is still being managed properly. It needs to be an international audit. It is necessary to have an international audit because Grameen Bank may be turning into a traditional bank. There is ample reason to be suspicious of the outward behavior of those in charge. No doubt I can claim as a citizen of Bangladesh that it requires an international audit. See how it is managed now and compare it to how it was managed before. There is no point in making new allegations every few days. It is just harassing people, and verbally insulting them. When Dr. Yunus’ reply cannot be answered, when his arguments cannot be answered, he is still insulted.

In what Grameen Bank is doing now to Dr. Muhammad Yunus, Grameen Bank is forgetting that they became the Chairman of Grameen Bank and the Legal Advisor of Grameen Bank only because of the institution was first created by Dr. Muhammad Yunus. They are forgetting this.

*A crore is ten million units of something.

Dr. Yunus gave a wide-ranging interview to the Bonik Barta that was published on June 5, 2024. Below, an English translation of the interview is provided in full. This represents one of the most complete statements by Professor Yunus about his state of mind during this extended period of unjust persecution, and has some interesting historical elements to it dating back to the Bangladesh war of independence and his role in the liberation struggle from his base (at the time) in the United States.

Dr. Muhammad Yunus is the founder of the microcredit institution Grameen Bank and the only Bangladeshi citizen to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. He was awarded the highest civilian honor in the United States, the Congressional Gold Medal, back in 2013. He is one of only seven people in the world to have won these three prestigious awards: Nobel Peace Prize, the US Presidential Medal of Freedom (2009), and the Congressional Gold Medal. The ‘Paris 2024 Olympic Village’ was built at a cost of 400 million euros based on Dr. Yunus’s philosophy, and he is an advisor and goodwill ambassador to the Olympics. He is admired around the world for his contributions in alleviating poverty and empowering women. However, he is facing over a hundred cases in court on charges of corruption and labor rights violations in his country. In a recent exclusive interview with Bonik Barta, he spoke on such a variety of issues.

Your name has been in the headlines of the media around the world lately. Due to a number of discrepancies, you are being dragged to court, facing punishment. At your age, are these events collapsing your spirits?

More than damaging my spirits, they are disrupting my work. The work I wanted to do, and the work I had started, have come to a halt. This is tragic. Forcing me to jail means stopping all my initiatives. It’s similar to death. Why should I go to jail? I haven’t committed any crime!

When you founded Grameen Bank and Grameen Telecom, the government cooperated with you. Even now, you have been taking various initiatives. Are you getting cooperation from the government at present? If not, why?

Whether I am getting assistance or not, the journalists will be able to answer that better. As they are observing what is happening in the country and what is not. We are not being able to move forward with the major initiatives we had prepared for. Now, I’m afraid that everything I have built will be lost! There is a lot of hard work behind everything from many; it was not easy to build these things. Seeing them fall apart is the biggest regret for me now.

There has been pressure on Bangladesh’s democracy and human rights from the West for many years. After the elections, a high-ranking US official came here. It was said that they want to rebuild the relationship this time. Do you think that the pressure has eased somewhat now, or are they taking a go-slow approach on Bangladesh’s democracy and human rights?

What the West wants is no major consideration for me. The thing to consider is whether we want democracy, human rights and the freedom of the press, or not. If they want what we want, then that’s a matter of joy. If they don’t, we will keep longing for it in our own way. Why should we let them impose their will on us?

What they say at times does not matter. Each country will formulate its foreign policy according to its own rules. Our needs need to be clear, first. Whether they want or not, even if it goes beyond their opinion—our opinion will not change because of that. Establishing human rights is vital for us, freedom of the press is salient. Until we can establish these things, we will keep talking through multitudes of euphemisms. These words bring no change. What matters is that we have to establish these things ourselves.

You were in the United States during the 1971 Liberation War. You came to the country after independence. How far has Bangladesh progressed in nation-building in the last 50 years? Where are the problems located?

I was then in Nashville, the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee. There I taught at Middle Tennessee State University from 1969 to 1971. During this time, I was keeping up with what was happening in the country. There were six of us Bengalis there together. Then we got the news that Bangladesh had declared independence. Immediately, the six of us sat together for a discussion. There were discussions and debates on taking Bangladeshi citizenship and speaking on behalf of Bangladesh. After a long discussion, we formed the Bangladesh Citizens Committee and informed all the television stations in Nashville about our decision to take citizenship, and gave interviews. This was our first initiative. Then we formed a fund to continue this work and decided that everyone would contribute a fixed amount of monthly fees. Two days later, I went to Washington DC to build public opinion in favor of Bangladesh. Because, all the Bengalis residing in the USA were supposed to meet in Washington. Enayet Karim was then the Deputy Ambassador of Pakistan to the United States. Many of us have taken residence in his house by then. We started working for Bangladesh from there. Within a few days, two organizations were formed, the New York-based one called the Bangladesh League of America and the Chicago-based one named the Bangladesh Defense League.

Who were the main people behind these two organizations?

The world-renowned Bangladeshi-American architect and engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan (FR Khan) was the founder of the Bangladesh Defense League. We were in touch with both organizations. A newsletter was published under the editorship of Professor Shamsul Bari on behalf of the Bangladesh Defense League. We were very happy to receive the newsletter. I was invited to the Chicago conference and I went there. A lot of discussion took place there. Subsequently, the Bangladesh Defense League entrusted me with the responsibility of publishing the newsletter. After getting the responsibility, I used to publish it from my house. Since then I have published many issues. I published the newsletter from the declaration of independence till January 1972. It was a big deal for me.

I did another thing, which was to establish an information center in Washington DC. People did not know what was happening in Bangladesh, or why. Thus, everyone could now know what was happening in Bangladesh or why from this information center. Besides, it is necessary to inform journalists, senators and congressmen about what is happening in Bangladesh. That is why this information center was basically established. It was then the summer vacation of the university and I took over the responsibility of the information center during the vacation.

I kept working. The initiative continued. Each issue of the published newsletter would have had a cartoon of mine. Subsequently, these newsletters were compiled and published as a book by the Liberation War Museum. Professor Shamsul Bari and I wrote the introduction to this book. This was my major contribution until independence.

When the country became independent, I told the Vice Chancellor of my university that I would not stay in America anymore. I will now go to my homeland. I resigned and returned to the country in June 1972.

When you returned, it was a war-torn country. All around there were problems, lack of resources. You had a noble dream of changing Bangladesh. Fifty years later, how much of the Bangladesh you envisioned has been fulfilled?

After its independence, Bangladesh was identical to a bottomless pit. It was known to almost everyone as the poorest country. About 86 percent of the people lived below the poverty line. One cannot even imagine the plight the country was in. When the famine hit in 1974, the country fell into crisis even more. Bangladesh before independence was a Bangladesh full of poverty, misery and disease. Since independence, a gradual change has started in the country. Ordinary people came to play a very active role. The Bangladeshi people were known for their domestication, they never left their homes and villages. Those people started going abroad on their own. As a result, the process of migrating abroad started. The government also did not know what to do about it. In the past 50 years, people have started going to different countries from the villages. In this way, during this period, the people of Bangladesh started getting acquainted with the people of the rest of the world.

The second change after independence came among the educated youth. Before independence, Pakistani investors had set up various establishments in this country. In those establishments, university-educated youths used to work as pen-pushers. They could not go beyond clerical jobs. If they weren’t in a clerk’s position, they were in business. Suddenly a change began to take place among the youth. Due to the quota system of various countries, the garment industry has flourished in Bangladesh. Hong Kong, Korea, and other countries set up garment industries here. Bangladeshi lads started working there. Getting started in the garment industry, they learned the work. Later, they themselves started opening garment factories. This is how the garment industry began in Bangladesh. This industry itself has brought a huge change in Bangladesh. Bangladesh earns a lot of foreign currency by exporting garments. Women started working in this sector. Yet these women never thought that they would be able to work outside the house, or even work. They no longer accepted the various social barriers. Women working outside the home—this is a huge change in Bangladesh. Through this, women have been provided with employment, and they started to become self-reliant. Women from poor families are earning and sending money home to meet household expenses—this is an uncanny event. This marks a huge change. Because of this change, Bangladesh has been able to establish itself as the world’s second largest garment exporter today. In the last 50 years, Bangladesh has undergone a tremendous change from zero.

How would you assess the role of various NGOs in the Post-independence era?

In the aftermath of independence, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) initiated a wide range of activities in Bangladesh. Their presence is ubiquitous from village to village. Whatever each NGO worked on, they implemented it throughout the country. Changes occurred. Earlier, the country was ridden with cholera outbreaks. There was a consensus among people earlier that if people of one village were affected by cholera, the people of other villages would also be affected and they would be wiped out. So they tried to run away from the village in groups. This was the reality of Bangladesh. The International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR, B), developed a salt-water-molasses solution as medication to fight cholera, which can be easily prepared at home. People get cured from drinking this. People slowly got rid of cholera in the post-independence period, which marks a paradigm shift. Initially there was no packaging of this formula, people made it themselves. Later it was packaged and marketed.

Grameen Bank brought loans for women. No one even had heard before that the bank would give loans to the poor women of the village. That too without collateral. At first, it seemed surprising to people. However, some appreciated this initiative, while others approached it with skepticism. The story of loan-giving spread from village to village. Grameen Bank not only gave loans to women, but also made them the owner of the bank. Initially the loan amount was 100-200 takas. How eager the people were to take only this amount of debt! People waited for hours, wanted to know what to do or what to learn.

Earlier, in the villages of Bangladesh, there were no toilets for either the rich or the poor. They were not accustomed to using the toilet. People responded to the call of nature behind the bushes. Then, Grameen Bank encouraged people to build latrines. Because in order to be associated with Grameen Bank, toilets must be built first. The bank also gave a loan to build latrines.

Then we moved to home loans. Earlier, inquiries about where the girls were to be married involved the question: how is the (groom’s) house? At that time, houses with tin roofs were extremely rare. Most people’s houses had roofs and walls made of bamboo and straw. Neither these houses could keep out the rain nor the sun. Grameen Bank began offering housing loans to transform these bamboo and straw houses of the poor into tin-roofed homes. While working with women, Grameen Bank encountered a problem—which was divorce. We then started thinking, what could be the way around to this problem? Grameen Bank informed the women that to receive a housing loan, they had to be the owners of the land. The women said they lived in their husband’s home and did not own any land. Grameen Bank then said, tell your husbands to transfer the land to your name, and then we will give you the loan. Since the husbands were interested in having a tin-roofed house, they reluctantly transferred the land under their wives’ names. We provided loans only to those whose land was transferred. Wherever we provided housing loans later, the question of divorce did not arise.

If the issue of divorce ever came up, the wife then could remind the husband about the ownership of the house and land, saying, if you divorce me, you will have to leave the house. The right to own land and a house has been a tremendous gain for women.

The garment industry was established, Grameen Bank was founded, and people began going abroad—a massive change has happened. The image of the homebound Bengali, the clerk Bengali—changed. Previously, Bangladeshis didn’t leave their homes. The Bangladesh we see today after 50 years of evolution was indeed unimaginable.

Remittances and women joining the workforce—these played a central role in the transformation of Bangladesh. Then, both boys and girls started getting education, and women began moving to the city. Women are even participating in meetings and processions in Dhaka city. It was even unthinkable back then that so many girls could walk together. Renting out rooms to women even when a man is not accompanying them is a great deal, marking a social change. This change has laid the foundation, which will go a long way.

Fifty years ago, South Korea’s situation was not much different from Bangladesh. It went through political crises and military rule. However, it emerged as an industrial giant through investment in education and health. What did we miss that prevented us from achieving such progress?

Many changes could have been brought about in our country. However, the change that has taken place is significant. Now, the foundation has been laid at least. We can go a long way based on this foundation. If you look at Malaysia, you will see that the native Malays were extremely poor farmers. Although the Malays were the owners of the soil, the Chinese held all the money. But by providing various opportunities and educational facilities to these owners of the soil, they have reached a stage where they can now govern the country. In all the areas,  their position has been established. Dramatic changes have occurred in Malaysia due to their politics. By focusing on education, financial structure, and health, we too can write these chapters of success.

You established the Grameen Bank to empower the poor people of Bangladesh. Now you are over eighty years old. At this age, are you thinking of doing something new for the empowerment of the poor?

I am doing everything that is possible for me. From solving banking sector problems to introducing the concept of social business, I am encouraging the youth to become entrepreneurs. I talk about building a world of three zeros. Our current civilization is a suicidal one. It is leading us to our damnation. We have to build a new civilization, a world which will be of three zeros—zero carbon emissions, zero wealth concentration, and zero unemployment. I encourage youth to establish a three-zero club with just five members. I advise them to work towards fulfilling the three-zero goals and reflect it in their own lives. Because it’s not enough to just tell others; one must first work for change themselves. That means I will not do anything that increases global warming, pollution, or concentration of wealth.

In Bangladesh, there has been a stupendous centralization of wealth in the name of development. Economists and policymakers in the country have all said that this will be a huge problem for the future of Bangladesh. What is your opinion on this matter?

The problem of wealth centralization exists all over the world. However, in Bangladesh, it is happening especially in the name of development. Now development means money going into the hands of the rich. As a result, the rich will continue to become powerful and wealthy. The powerful hold political power. This process is embedded in the existing economic structure. So, without changing the structure, we cannot escape this situation. Therefore, we have to work on transforming the structure. The concept of social business has come for this structural change. We have to do business that solves problems, not just business for profit-making.

Social business centers are being established in various countries around the world in my name—Yunus Social Business Centers have been set up in 108 universities across 39 countries. There, courses on social business are taught. Just as we have created a false world through education, we must also return to the right path through education.

In the 1980s, the youth of Bangladesh established the garment industry together. However, currently, there is an increasing tendency among the youth to leave the country, a phenomenon known as brain drain. Especially, students graduating from renowned universities of the country, such as BUET, are leaving the country. How do you view brain drain? Have the youth moderated dreaming about their country?

I support the youth going abroad. Otherwise, how would they know the world? I myself have been abroad and I find their going abroad justified, for whatever reason it may be. Many ordinary people of the country have gone abroad, which has brought significant changes to the country. Because after seeing foreign countries, they have learned what their own country has and lacks, or what would have been better to have. But if they are leaving out of frustration, then I would say everyone has frustrations. We all have to work together to overcome this frustration. No one will be forced to stay in the country. Every young person should at least go abroad once. Then he or she can decide whether to return to the country or not. There is no reason to think that going abroad deprives the country. One can work for the country even from abroad. It is possible to keep in touch with the country at every moment. Those who return bring back a lot of experience and personal connections. This is very auspicious for the country.

What issues, in your view, are creating frustration in Bangladesh? What needs to be done to reform the education sector in Bangladesh?

We are not changing society as fast as we could. We are only talking about development but are not considering where this development will take us. If we continue this way, frustration will increase, wealth will be centralized in the hands of a few, and the rest will work under them. But people are born to do creative work, not clerical chores. Now, when someone is born, it is said that they must be raised in such a way that they get a job when they grow up. Why do we want to return to a system of servitude? Doing a job is a form of servitude, yet we are born as creative beings. Every person is born as an entrepreneur. Yet, our education system says to hurry to educational institutions so that you can finish your studies quickly and get a job. But this should not be the goal of a person. A person’s goal should be to determine what their contribution or role will be in the world through the application of all their strength, or what signature they will leave behind. The current global education system is a system of servitude. We need to bring the right education system, where a student enters with the hope of becoming an entrepreneur and leaves as one.

You are getting opportunities to work in various countries, is the scenario same for  Bangladesh? Am I even finding opportunities in Bangladesh?

I am being attacked from all sides. I am spending time going from door to door at the courts. No opportunity is arising for working for the future. If I find some opportunity in between, I do it. But then suddenly another terrible attack begins.

Perhaps because the original charges against Professor Yunus that were taken up by the Bangladesh government’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) have been so thoroughly debunked and ridiculed, what appeared to be new charges were sent to the ACC by the government appointees on the board of the Grameen Bank. However, these aren’t new at all. They were lodged years ago and then discarded when they too were proven to be meritless.

These additional allegations revolve around the fact that Professor Yunus transferred operational control of a successful printing business he had launched in the early 1970s to the Grameen Bank. The transfer was designed so that neither he nor his family could benefit from it in any way, including financially. Some of the Bangladeshi journalists who contacted the Yunus Centre about these allegations recalled how they had been discredited years ago. It will be telling whether or not, in the days ahead, the ACC will demonstrate a modicum of independence by refusing to take up these obviously phony charges.

In order to set the record straight again, the Yunus Centre dusted off, updated, and published its convincing repudiation of the charges earlier this week. You can read it here in English and Bengali. The local media gave wide coverage to their rejoinder, despite the government’s longstanding efforts to muzzle news that is not favorable to it.  

In the meantime, Professor Yunus’ positive influence on the social dimensions of the upcoming Paris Olympics has been heralded in an Agence France-Presse (AFP) wire story that has been reprinted in many newspapers and online journals around the world. Once again, Professor Yunus’ innovative ideas and their global influence have emerged as a point of pride for Bangladesh. If only his own government would cease its persecution of him and recognize Bangladesh’s only Nobel laureate as the national treasure that he is!

Support for Professor Yunus during the years he has been persecuted by his own government has been strong in G-7 countries. In fact, last week he was in Rome with other leaders and Nobel laureates at the World Meeting on Human Fraternity organized by Pope Francis. On several occasions, he was asked to effectively serve as the spokesperson for all the assembled Nobel Peace Prize laureates—clearly a very high honor. He hosted a roundtable on peace as part of the meeting.

Now, Indian and Indian-American business leaders are going public with important acts of solidarity, which is crucial given India’s influence on the Bangladesh government. For example, famed venture capitalist Vinod Khosla wrote a strongly worded opinion article in The Wire last week titled “The Bangladesh Government’s Attacks on Muhammad Yunus Are an Attack on Human Rights.” Both Khosla and The Wire’s editor, Siddharth Varadarajan, tweeted about the article to their hundreds of thousands of followers.

To take another example, Narayana Murthy, the co-founder of the Indian technology firm Infosys, whose influence and operations span the globe, has recently published a video in support of Professor Yunus.

The contrast couldn’t be more stark: Outside Bangladesh, other political and civil society leaders tap Professor Yunus to be their spokesperson on critical issues facing humanity. Inside Bangladesh, his own government pursues (in the words of U.S. Senator Dick Durbin) “personal vendettas” against him, harassing him with cases that Amnesty International and other human rights groups deplore and that Bangladeshi elder statesman Rehman Sobhan said, in an influential recent article, “would not make it to first base in any well functioning legal system.”

Pressure on the Bangladeshi government to relent in its campaign against Professor Yunus continues to build, with no end in sight.

After a hearing of the Bangladesh government’s Anti-Corruption Commission related to meritless charges against Professor Yunus and 13 of his colleagues, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus made a heartfelt and dignified statement outside the courthouse. You can view and listen to this statement in Bengali here. An English translation of his remarks appears below.

Today, I stand before you with a heavy heart. The Anti-Corruption Commission has levelled accusations of corruption against me: forgery, embezzlement, money laundering, and more.

You, the people of Bangladesh, have known me for a long time, so it’s for you to decide if these charges hold merit, just as you’ve judged me before. I’ve been labelled a usurer, but you’ve rightly seen that I’m not the owner of Grameen Bank. It was Grameen that charged interest to its clients. When I left, 97% of ownership belonged to the bank’s members.

How could I exploit them when I made them owners? They’re still the owners. I was just an employee. You know this about my role.

It has been said that I am the blood-sucker of the poor. I did not create a bank to suck blood from the poor. Rather, I built a bank that 10 million people could become owners of. No one else has made the country’s poor people the owners of bank. This is the truth. They are still the owners today.  

Allegations of sabotaging government projects and blocking World Bank funds are recycled claims. It has been said that I should be dunked in the Padma River. These have been stated many times, sometimes in large gatherings attended by many people.

Today, the charges against me revolve around these same stories.

Whether these accusations of deceit and money laundering are justified, I trust your judgement.  Do you believe I’d deceive and cheat people to earn money from business? The fairness of our courts is a question for the common people to decide and to judge. The media and the public have the information to discern if I’m guilty of exploiting others for personal gain. I hope and expect that you will come to a fair judgement of my conduct.

If you are reading this, it is probably because you care about the work, life, and safety of 83-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus and his colleagues in Bangladesh. If so, those of us involved in helping keep him safe welcome you into the “Protect Yunus” campaign. Our collective work in solidarity with Professor Yunus is more important than ever, because ever since his January 1, 2024 conviction on meritless charges, the government has had the right, at any time, to imprison him for a few months or even for years.

Many people have asked how they can help confront this injustice. We have identified several action steps that any citizen can take to help our cause.  They are:

1. Record a short video of 30 seconds to 3 minutes in length where you comment on the work and life of Professor Yunus and why he should be free from persecution and harassment. Then post it on one or more social media channels and tag the Protect Yunus Campaign. Use the hashtag #IStandWithYunus. Recently, NASA astronaut Ron Garan, the legendary primatologist Jane Goodall, and iconic business leader Richard Branson posted model support videos.
2. Take a photo of yourself with a sign or piece of paper that has the words #IStandWithYunus and post it on social media. Think creatively about where you could take it. For example, in front of a Bangladesh embassy or consulate, if one is near you. Or simply in your home or neighborhood. Here is an example on Twitter of what you can do.
3. Write a letter to the Ambassador of Bangladesh to your country detailing why you believe the persecution of Professor Yunus must stop so he can continue his good work on ending poverty, unemployment, wealth concentration, and carbon emissions. (In some countries Bangladesh is represented by a High Commissioner instead  of an Ambassador, but their functions are the same.)
4. Circulate the January 2024 open letter to the Bangladeshi Prime Minister by 243 Global Leaders including 125 Nobel laureates to your friends, colleagues, and associates, and urge others to take action in support of it by sharing this call to action as well.
5. Join the Chilli Foundation’s efforts to help Professor Yunus by downloading its app, which will guide and support you in taking many actions in support of Professor Yunus.
6. Add your name as a concerned citizen wishing to endorse and sign the August 2023 open letter by sending your name, country, and city to this email address: protectmdyunus@gmail.com. Unless you indicate otherwise in your message, we will add you to our mailing list so that you can receive future updates and calls to action.
7. Write to your elected representatives at the federal level (such as your Congressperson and Senators if you live in the United States) and urge them to take action in support of Professor Yunus and human rights in Bangladesh. Send copies of those letters to us so we can track progress.
8. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper about the Bangladesh government’s treatment of Professor Yunus and the human rights situation there generally (you can read about the human rights issues in Bangladesh here). Send copies of any published letters to us so we can track progress.
9. Follow the Protect Yunus Campaign on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram to stay informed, and share our posts and content, and join our mailing list so we can keep in touch with you. (To sign up for the mailing list, click here.)
10. Make a financial contribution to the Protect Yunus Campaign through our nonprofit fiscal sponsor, the Middle Project (now known as Freedom Rising), to help us sustain our efforts. Donations are tax-deductible, to the maximum extent allowable by law, for U.S. taxpayers.

We welcome your suggestions about how we can best work together to protect Professor Yunus.  You can email us anytime at protectmdyunus@gmail.com.

The ongoing persecution of Professor Yunus and his colleagues from Grameen Telecom—a nonprofit organization he chairs in a nonexecutive, unsalaried position—continues.

The next milestones are the convening of a special court to try him and 12 others on meritless charges brought by the Anti-Corruption Commission on May 2 and a court date on May 23 related to the equally spurious Labour Tribunal charges against Professor Yunus and 3 colleagues. Professor Yunus remains free on bail until the May 23 court date, as his lawyers pursue their appeals. For now, he is able to travel internationally with the permission of the government.

Those of us involved in the Protect Yunus Campaign have been encouraged by recent video testimonials from NASA astronaut Ron Garan and Kerry Kennedy of the RFK Human Rights Memorial, as well as supportive commentary by three other leading human rights organizations: Amnesty International, the Clooney Foundation and CIVICUS.

We understand that several additional video testimonials are about to be released. Importantly, the Amnesty statement highlights the risk to Nurjahan Begum, a woman who has been working with Professor Yunus since the 1970s, and gives her voice.

There has been major new media coverage, such as in Le Figaro in France, and more stories are in the pipeline.

As we await the coming court dates, the Protect Yunus Campaign is preparing for all eventualities and scenarios. We are also encouraging people–whether they are public figures or simply concerned citizens–to post their own videos and statements in support of Professor Yunus while using the #IStandWithYunus hashtag.

Please be on the lookout for news and supportive commentary on our social media channels, including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.  

Recently, Professor Yunus attended the Global Baku Forum and was awarded the prestigious Tree of Peace Award. This same award was bestowed upon Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2014—an award she proudly accepted.

One would think that having this award given to a Bangladeshi for the second time in ten years would be a cause for national celebration. Of course, among some, it was. But government ministers began criticizing this new form of recognition for their countryman from the outset. Their first response was to say that it was given to Professor Yunus due to “lobbyists” advocating for him. In the process, they impugned the integrity of the judges—the same group that deemed the Prime Minister worthy of the award not long ago. This tired tactic of saying that any recognition that Professor Yunus receives is due to “lobbying” begs the question: if there were some elite lobbying firm working for Professor Yunus, wouldn’t the government have figured out which one was on the case and have named it publicly by now?

In fact, through his positive work over decades, Professor Yunus has amassed a vast reservoir of goodwill among people and organizations around the world. The Protect Yunus Campaign is a loose network of these people that works to respond to his persecution. There is no “lobbying firm” involved, and even if there was, what would be wrong with that? Governments, companies, nonprofits and prominent individuals use public relations and lobbying firms all the time.

More recently, the education minister and foreign minister have raised the issue of the Yunus Centre claiming that UNESCO was associated with the Tree of Peace Award. This is what was communicated to the Yunus Centre by the people who requested that Professor Yunus agree to accept the award. It should be noted that Professor Yunus has already received hundreds of awards and honorary degrees, including the Nobel Peace Prize. He is not in need of any others, but he nonetheless agreed to accept this award.

It turns out that some of the information the Yunus Centre received about UNESCO’s affiliation with the award was not accurate. They promptly issued a clarification with complete documentation showing how closely UNESCO was involved in the prize, even if it was not technically a UNESCO prize per se. However, it is interesting to note that when the Prime Minister received the award in 2014, newspapers such as Prothom Alo English ran headlines in their articles about it that mentioned UNESCO and opened their reporting with words such as these: “Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday got recognition from the UNESCO…. UNESCO director general Irina Bokova presented a memento titled, ‘Peace Tree’, to the Prime Minister in recognition of her outstanding contribution to girls’ and women education.”

One would think that the Yunus Centre’s clarification would be the end of the controversy. But now the ministers are talking about legal action against the Yunus Centre for this unintentional and minor error (certainly when compared to the lies that the government has propagated in their campaign against Professor Yunus, a few of which you can read about here and here). This escalation is yet another case of the Bangladeshi government weaponizing the judicial system against citizens it deems to be insufficiently loyal. Perhaps this response was an effort to distract attention from the dramatic fall in the nation’s foreign reserves by US$533 million, which came to light last week.

In fact, the only party that could conceivably have standing to sue the Yunus Centre over this matter would be UNESCO, and we are not holding our breath for that to happen. They, like the U.N. in general, admire Professor Yunus and his service to humanity, as you can see here and elsewhere.

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Professor Yunus’ current trip to Central Asia and Europe has been cathartic and productive. At each stop, he has been greeted with all manner of public and private expressions of solidarity, thunderous applause, long standing ovations, and global leaders lining up to have their pictures taken with him.

Most impressively, he was awarded the Tree of Peace Award at the Global Baku Forum just a few days ago, which received coverage around the world including in Bangladesh. The forum’s theme this year was “healing a fractured world.” While in Baku, Professor Yunus also inaugurated the office of the Yunus Social Business Centre at the Azerbaijan State Economic University. For more about this trip, check out the Yunus Centre Facebook page.

Especially since the meritless verdict against him was announced on January 1, people of all walks of life have been seeking ways to express their support for him while at the same time rebuking the Bangladesh government for their mistreatment of him.

Quite a few times during working meetings and conference panels held on this trip, leaders have raised the issue of his persecution even as Professor Yunus urged that the focus be on other matters related to addressing his passions: achieving zero poverty, zero unemployment, zero wealth concentration, and zero net carbon emissions. But people sensed the profound loss that the possibility of Professor Yunus being unjustly imprisoned would be to the global effort to reach those critical goals. So they showed their passionate support for him and asked others to do so.

At the Protect Yunus Campaign, we appreciate all of these expressions of support – for Professor Yunus, for his co-defendants who have done so much to advance his work and ideas, and for others in Bangladesh who have suffered human rights abuses and other forms of persecution. Justice shall prevail if we all work together for it.