Dr Yunus’s Open Letter: My Response
By Taj Hashmi
14 February, 2007
Countercurrents.orgSince Dr Muhammad Yunus has written an open letter to all Bangladeshi nationals, I assume both at home and abroad, I am writing this responding to his letter seeking our opinion if he should join politics and float his own political party. It would be an audacity on my part to dissuade him from joining politics or organizing his own political party. Not only is he entitled to do so but also because of his enviable credentials. He is most definitely a very competent person, a wonderful organizer, entrepreneur par excellence, and above all, renowned and influential both within and outside Bangladesh.
Despite my serious reservations about micro-credit, the honest professor’s pet project, being glorified and touted as “microfinance” by mega agents of finance capital as the panacea for poverty, I would have welcomed Dr Yunus in the arena of Bangladesh politics as the country badly needs honest and sincere people at the helm of the statecraft. I have absolutely no reservations about his lack of political experience. He would be most definitely a million times better than both the experienced and inexperienced crooked ones running the polity since1971. My only reservation is about his would be political associates.
I am sure immediately after his joining politics and floating his own political party, scores of politicians, intellectuals, retired civil and military bureaucrats and members of the civil society would be joining him, apparently with a view to creating a corruption free Bangladesh. I am, however, very skeptical about the intrinsic quality of most politicians and retired bureaucrats, who would outnumber intellectuals and members of the civil society in your political party. You will have to be extremely lucky to get even ten percent honest, sincere and patriotic elements in the politician-(civil-military) bureaucrat nexus. And as you know, due to various socio-economic reasons, intellectuals and so-called civil society members no longer represent people with impeccable character, honesty and integrity. Many (if not most) of them represent and support this or that political parties, mainly out of the wrong reasons.
So, what I apprehend would happen is that within a few months of floating your political party, mainly with politicians and retired bureaucrats (at least 90 percent of them are corrupt or potentially corrupt); your party would not be any different from party X or party Y. And you would lose your popularity, tarnish your image and would soon be turned into another member of the club run by people with insatiable greed and desire to rob the country through the game of politics.
If you believe that free and fair elections and democracy can get rid of corruption, inefficiency and the perpetual state of chaos, which often drags the country to the verge of total anarchy, I have nothing to advise you. Personally, I do not believe that democratically elected governments run by corrupt and inefficient politicians who would always remain dominant in any elected government would bring peace, progress and prosperity to Bangladesh. As we are witnessing today, even an unelected, non-political Caretaker Government under Dr Fakhruddin cannot contain corruption despite all its efforts and good intentions, you would simply be another failure in this regard if you try to right the wrong through so-called democracy or by floating a political party.
Since the bulk of the population are not averse to electing thieves, robbers, murderers and godfathers and have no qualms about selling their votes to them, how do you think you would ever win elections to form a government with honest and efficient people? Eventually, I am afraid Dr Yunus, you would have to accommodate known criminals, bank defaulters, murderers, smugglers and godfathers (too many and too risky to name them) in your party.
I have got two suggestions for you: a) create a pressure group with intellectuals, students and working class people so that the present Caretaker Government take drastic action against all the corrupt elements, arrest hundreds of Raghab Boals and Rui-Katla, beyond this paltry number of twenty-odd politicians; and b) ask the government to appoint you as the Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Commission.You once envied Justice Sultanuddin on his becoming the Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Commission in 2005. You thought containing and eliminating corruption in Bangladesh was the easiest job on earth. I still remember your figurative expression that “one needs to lie down under the tree and corrupt elements like ripe fruits would drop into one’s mouth”. Please takeover as the Chairman of the ACC. If you want I can write an open letter to President Iajuddin Ahmed and Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed to appoint you as the Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Commission. If you can eliminate corruption at every level, Bangladesh does not need a government by a Nobel Laureate like yourself for prosperity, growth and development.
Leave A Comment
&
Share Your Insights
Get CC HeadlinesOn your Desk Top