Bangladeshi politicians in it for the money, says Dr Yunus

Crisis-wracked Bangladesh's politicians are only in it for the money, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus said, but refused to reveal if he intended one day to seek the helm of the embattled democracy.

In an interview with AFP, "banker to the poor" Yunus also said his country was tired of months of unrest and blockades, with most people "jubilant" that a state of emergency had been imposed and elections cancelled.

"Nothing gets done unless you pay the bribe. It's a part of life. It's not the law or the rule anymore, it's how you are paying," he said, stressing that he was speaking of people on "both sides, not one side," of the divide.

Interviewed at his Grameen Bank's upmarket headquarters in Dhaka, a pile of economics books stacked behind him on the shelves of his plain office, Yunus looked relaxed but chose his words carefully.

Yunus, along with his Grameen bank, brought pride to Bangladesh last year when he was awarded the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize for his pioneering work to provide "micro-credit" -- or small loans -- to millions of poor people.

Politically, however, the country is chronically instable.

The latest in a long series of battles between the main parties -- the outgoing Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of Khaleda Zia and the opposition Awami League of Sheikh Hasina Wajed -- has brought the South Asian nation to its knees by months of strikes, blockades and street battles.

The Awami League accused the BNP of attempting to stay on top through vote rigging during elections that were supposed to have been held next week.

Their decision to boycott the polls and the threat of yet more violence prompted President Iajuddin Ahmed last week to cancel the elections, impose an emergency and appoint a new interim government tasked with organising new polls.

"Free and fair" elections seem to be months away -- leaving Bangladesh straying dangerously close to the edges of its democratic constitution, given that the elections should technically have been held by the end of January.

The armed forces have also been mobilised, and are once again seen as pulling the strings in a country that has had a series of coups since it won independence from Pakistan in 1971.

Yunus said this hiccup in the democratic process -- where several fundamental rights have also been suspended under the emergency -- was more of a relief than cause for alarm.

"People are not only happy, they are jubilant. They are tired of the situation," said Yunus, one of Bangladesh's few public figures seen to be outside of politics.

"If the emergency was not brought in, we would have a series of blockades and shut downs and all kinds of violence," he said. "Democracy has not been frozen. As long as we are in the constitution we have an ultimate law, let's not get outside of that."

The silver-haired economics professor revealed last week he had turned down an offer to take the helm of the interim government -- an unenviable position that would involve having to clean up an electoral bureaucracy riddled with corrupt officials.

"It is sensitive, I didn't want to get into that. I didn't like the undefined nature of the job," he explained, adding that he also had "plenty of work to do" at his bank.

But when asked if he intended to stay out of politics permanently, he replied: "no comment, for now I will just say no comment."

Navigating around the nation's deeply-divided political scene, he added, was "not easy".
"It's a dangerous thing, I don't want to aggravate the situation."

Bhuiyan, Jalil take a swipe at Dr Yunus for his diatribe against politicians

In a rare unison, both the BNP and the Awami League Friday lashed out at Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus's scathing remarks against politicians in Bangladesh, who he said lack ideology.

BNP secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan described Yunus's remarks as unfortunate and unexpected. Awami League general secretary Abdul Jalil said they were concerned at the "jingoistic attitude" of the Nobel peace prize winner toward politicians.

BNP secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan and Awami League general secretary Abdul Jalil Friday described the comments of Nobel laureate Professor Mohammad Yunus in an interview with AFP about the country’s politicians as “unfortunate and unacceptable.”

“There are good and bad people in all professions allover the world, but making sweeping comments on people engaged in a particular job (politics) by a wise person like Dr Yunus is not expected,” Bhuiyan said in a press statement.

Referring to comments of Dr Yunus in the interview saying, “Politicians do politics only for money…Here there is no place for ideology,” Bhuiyan said there is no truth in such allegations.

He said, “Politics is a noble profession, the best way to serve the people and society, but such profession like all other professions have come into questions due to activities of some bad people. Such comments cannot be correct that politics and politicians have no ideology.”

Terming as unfortunate the “sweeping criticism against politicians” by Nobel Peace laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus, Awami League general secretary Abdul Jalil Friday said his “warlike” attitude against the politicians made “us worried.”

Addressing a press conference at the party’s Dhanmondi office on his return from Kolkata, Jalil said as a Nobel award winner Yunus’ remarks against the politicians made his position “controversial and put him under question.”

“How can he say all politicians of the country are dishonest and they all do politics for money?” he said, citing Dr Yunus’ remarks in an interview with AFP news agency.

Jalil admitted that like other developing countries, there are instances of criminalisation in the country’s politics, reigns of godfathers, records of forming parties after usurping state power at gunpoint and becoming billionaires overnight by plundering public money through abuse of power.

“But it doesn’t necessarily mean all politicians of the country are dishonest,” he said.

The AL general secretary said the entire nation would have supported Yunus’ remarks if he had spoken against those responsible for criminalisation of politics and come up with clear comments about those who had usurped power unconstitutionally.

“The people would have heaved a sigh of relief, if Yunus would have raised his voice for nabbing and trying those who had amassed black money overnight through corruption,” he said.

Jalil said: “But when he (Yunus) comes up with sweeping comments against the politicians, the honest politicians, who are in favour of peace and development, become scared. His apolitical stand against our overall politics made us worried.”

Posing a counter-question, he asked Yunus whether he would identify himself as interest-taking moneylender or a killer, when newspapers reported that a poor woman had committed suicide for failing to repay 36 percent service charge of the Grameen Bank’s loan.

“We would like to request him to call the spade a spade. Speak out clearly who are corrupt. After conducting survey, reveal the names of those who have indulged in terrorism and corruption and to what extent.”

Jalil said still there are dedicated and selfless politicians who work for the betterment of the people. So, it will be serious injustice to come up with wholesale criticism against the politicians.

He questioned whether “to identify all the development workers as dishonest for dishonesty and corruption of a single development worker?”

On Yunus’ comment about bribe, Jalil asked the Nobel Laureate whether he got the licenses of running the Grameen Bank and the Grameen Phone in exchange of bribe.

In his interview with AFP on Wednesday, Dr Yunus said: “Nothing gets done unless you pay the bribe. It's a part of life. It's not the law or the rule anymore, it's how you are paying.”

Awami League leaders Abdur Razzak, Suranjit Sengupta, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Obaidul Kader, Syed Ashraful Islam, Abdul Mannan and Asim Kumar Ukil were present at the press conference.

--AFP, UNB