Dr
Yunus’s Open Letter: My Response
By Taj Hashmi
14 February, 2007
Countercurrents.org
Since
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intellectuals and so-called civil society members no longer represent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.
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