Vol.19 – No. 4 www.nawabbari.com April 2011
EDITORIAL
The Captain’s Speech
WHILE MEMORY SERVES, and we thank Allah Ta’ala for the countless blessings He has bestowed upon us, and, as best as we can, let us put on record, for posterity, the various significant and important events in our lives, by His grace and mercy,
“The Captain’s Speech” was the address delivered to cadets by Captain R.C.G. McClement, R.I.N., JP, Captain Superintendent of The Indian Mercantile Marine Training Ship, I. M. M. T. S. Dufferin, as it was then known, in Bombay, on Sunday16th November 1941. The Dufferin was built in 1904 and served as a troopship for the Royal Indian Marine (R.I.M.) until 1925. She was named after “The Marquess of Dufferin, Viceroy and Governor General of India, 1884-88.” She was converted into a Training Ship by the Government of India in November 1927 to train Indian Officers for the Merchant Navy
There were 30 young cadets hailing from all parts of India which formed the first batch 1927-30. Habibul. Huq cadet no. 20, from Faridpur, did three years sea service with P&O, got his Second Mates Certificate and joined the Bengal Pilot Service to pilot ocean going vessels on the river Hooghly, between the port of Calcutta and the Bay of Bengal. He died in 1936 at a very young age. Incidentally, he was the eldest brother of the late Najmul Huq (Ziad) who married my cousin/sister-in-law Laila (Lal) Sudderuddin in 1960 and spent the rest of his life in Canada. One other Ex-cadet from that first batch, the late K.R.S. Captain (Kaeki), cadet no.8, Master Mariner, ship owner and Industrialist, was well known in Pakistan. His wife Frenie, daughter Spentha and son Furrokh Captain live in Karachi. Then two distinguished personalities the late Admirals A.R.Khan (cadet No. 303) and S.M. Ahsan (cadet no.290) served as Commanders-in-Chief of the Pakistan Navy. The former also served as Minister, Ministry of Defence, and the latter, Admiral Ahsan was Governor of East Pakistan in 1971. They were from the 1936-38 batch.
I was in the 1939-41 batch of 42 cadets and my number was 425. There were only six Muslims – A.J. Kardar (423), S.A. Hussain (430}, A.A. Bootwala (444), M. Alam (455), S.A Ayubi (460) and myself (425). The province of Bengal was represented by only four cadets - D.C Mitter (434), F. A. Douglas (450), S.C. Dutt (457) and myself. The rest were from other parts of India, mainly the Punjab, South India and Bombay, Burma and Ceylon.
The Dufferin was scrapped, to the best of my knowledge, in the year 1974. Her place was taken by another Training Ship named “Rajendra”. Thus, the Association of Ex-Cadets of these two Training Ships is known as “Dufferin Rajendra Old Cadets Association” – DROCA..
I would like to go back to Sunday 16th November 1941, a day in my life I can never forget. It was the day for the selection of the winner and the runner-up for His Excellecy the Viceroy’s Gold Medal, the coveted prize that every Dufferin cadet looks forward to win. I am taking the opportunity to reproduce a report about this event, which appeared in the Spring 1942 issue of the Indian Cadet Magazine:
Sunday November 16 was set aside this year for one of the important events that takes place annually on the Dufferin viz. the selection for H.E. The Viceroy’s Gold Medal. The Captain addressed the cadets:
“This morning you are assembled for a duty which is perhaps the first real responsibility you have had in your lives. You have to vote for the shipmate who is likely to make the finest sailor on deck or in the engine room and who will thus receive the highest honour India can give to one of her sons who is still in his teens. That honour will follow him through life and, more important than anything, his sea career, if he chooses that career as the great majority of the cadets do. Much will therefore be expected of him. India – his training ship – you even – will be judged accordingly by the world.
“Give your vote for him whom you consider most worthy of His Excellency the Viceroy’s high award. Remember the Viceroy is our King’s representative; remember also our Dufferin traditions; the promise that you took when you joined the ship and on which your training is based – ‘to place my ship before my top and my top before myself’. You must vote in conscience and only for the cadet you think best fulfills the following conditions. Your vote must be irrespective of all other thought:
Cheerful submission to superiors – self respect – independence of character – kindness and protection to the weak – readiness to forgive offenses – desire to conciliate the differences of others – fearless devotion to duty – unflinching truthfulness.
“I will now read out the names of the four cadets selected for voting: Senior Cadet Captains Indreswar Gogoi, D.C. Mitter, Swaraj Prakash and K.S. Shahabuddin”.
The four Senior Cadet Captains were then asked to leave and go up to the Poop deck. During the voting the guests were taken around the ship, returning to the quarterdeck at the end of the voting. The voting papers were then counted by four scrutinisers and the winner was announced. K. S. Shahabuddin was the winner whilst D.C. Mitter was the runner up.
In all humility, I express my deep sense of gratitude to Allah Subhaanahu wa Ta’ala for bestowing upon me the great honour to be the one and only Muslim cadet, in the history of the Training Ship Dufferin, to have won this most coveted prize.
Two other Muslim cadets were Runners-Up: Commodore M.A.Alavi, Pakistan Navy (1934-36: Cadet no.227) and M. Nurul Huda (1946-48: Cadet No.819).
The Prize Day on 9th December 1941 was filmed by the Twentieth Century Fox Corporation (India) Ltd. for the British Movietone Newsreel and was shown in cinema houses all over India. In Calcutta, my parents, siblings, relations and friends saw the film at the Metro Cinema on Chowringhee Road. The film showed me leading the march past and receiving the Viceroy’s Gold Medal from the Guest of Honour The Honourable Sir Syed Sultan Ahmed, Bar-at-Law, Member of the Viceroy’s Executive Council in charge of the Department of law.
Looking back with nostalgia, after so many years, I admire the honesty and integrity of the cadets, who hailed from all parts of India, Burma and Ceylon, to have honoured us by casting their votes in our favour, irrespective of all other considerations. Both Mitter and I were from Bengal, and I was one of only five Muslims out of a total of 145 cadets. This is what the good ship Dufferin taught us, and all of us, wherever we may be, owe a deep debt of gratitude to the officers, teachers, and members of the crew for what they have done for us, to make us what we are today. May God bless them all and their respective families; and all those who are no longer with us, which includes all Ex-Cadets who have passed away – may their souls rest in eternal heavenly peace!
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BANGLADESH
From MARUF KHWAJA in Dubai, U.A.E.
Salams. My Chote Mamoo, KHWAJA MOHAMMAD KALIM, son of Khwaja Mohammad Salim, had passed away in Dhaka Nawabbari ( 16/4 Ahsanullah Road) , approximately at 8 a.m local time, on 21st March 2011.
He is survived by his wife Sufia Kalim and daughter Chahat Kalim. Chahat is married to Dr. Sajal Pathan and they have a daughter. Kalim Mamoo was the youngest of three brothers, K.M. Halim (eldest) and K.M. Hakim (Kalu). His younger sisters are Zainab Manzur and Farkhunda Ahmad.
Kalim Mamoo had undergone heart bypass surgery, a few years ago, in India and had been doing well, in general. For past few days he had complained of not feeling well, but nothing ‘serious’. This morning he got ready for his doctor’s appointment, but passed away before he would leave the house. Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raajeoon
.Please
all pray for his soul. May Allah
grant him place in Jannat, and give strength, courage and patience to
his family to bear this irreparable loss and accept His will with
faith and fortitude. Please call 01675334819(cell) or 01712056223 for
condolence
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ABOUT OURSELVES – FROM AROUND THE WORLD
CANADA
From KAMIL ALAM in Toronto
While memory serves
What a great idea! I can only speak for myself, but I would love to hear about our family members’ experiences. As you said, “we are part of an illustrious family”, and I for one would love to hear more first-hand accounts of our family’s rich history. Insha Allah, your offer to publish these histories will be oversubscribed, but if they are not, please feel free to cite me as one of the (relatively) young family members who would benefit from it.
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From SARWAT in Riyadh
We returned back from our UK trip on 15th March, it’s taken us a while to get used to being back here again, but we have now settled back to our usual routine.
We had a most pleasant stay with Hamid Nana and Aunty Lucy who looked after us really well and made us feel so comfortable and at home. It was an added pleasure to meet Alison, her husband and their cute little daughter Molly. Unfortunately; we were not able to meet anyone else as our time in London was extremely short.
Mostly during our trip we were in Haddenham catching up with pending jobs that needed our attention. This time we rented a little cottage in our village which used to be the bake house for the village bakery since 1907 and was only converted to cottages in 1998. The bake house was still being used when we moved to Haddenham some years back and during my early morning walks with my dogs, I used to enjoy breathing in the delicious smell of freshly baked bread as I walked pass the bakery. Although the bake house has been converted to cottages, the bakery is still there which is where we got our breakfast every morning during our stay at the cottage. It was so nice to be home even though it was for a short while and we found it particularly hard to pack up and leave again.
This time we decided to travel by Saudia and I was very disappointed to discover that Saudia too has joined the band wagon of greedy airliners. They have just bought a fleet of new airplanes designed to cramp as many people in the economy class as they possibly can. As their ‘valued guests’ which is their term for economy passengers, we had the most uncomfortable flight both ways. Returning back to Riyadh we were put in the middle section with 4 seats and with my luck, I had a lady travelling with her 4 kids sitting next to me and throughout the night these kids decided to play musical chairs while the mother happily ignored their jumping around and went to sleep. Behind me was another family with kids and their little girl must have been extremely musical because she continued to kick the back of my seat in time to whatever music she was listening to. Then as we boarded, there was a group of ‘desis’ around 11 of them who took 20 minutes to decide where everyone was going to sit. Now, how can sitting in a plane be so complicated!! While this was going on other people were trying to push past them with their over-stuffed hand baggage. This very same group must have decided that they had chartered this flight because throughout the night they were talking and laughing so loudly that they could be heard halfway down the aisle. Our religious ‘desi’ brothers also decided to say their prayers, which is very commendable and a blessing for the flight, but did they give a thought to others using the toilets ..no .. they were so enthusiastic about their ‘wazoo’ that they left the toilets totally saturated and impossible for anyone to use until they were finally wiped down by a cabin crew.
One of the things that amuse me most and which I always come across in my years of traveling is the race for people to be the first to get off the flight when they reach their destination. The patient voice of the cabin crew can be heard asking to be remain seated until the plane has stopped, well this never happens, there is a mad scramble of getting hand luggage down while the plane is still nosing towards the docking area. Over the years I’ve noticed that the cabin crew don’t seem to bother anymore and I see the very same people who were jostling to get off first and through immigration in record time, are still waiting at the carousal for their luggage when I amble along! What will we do without air travel; it is still the fastest way of getting anywhere. Amir and I are already looking forward to our next trip, although at the moment we don’t know where or when it’s going to be. I’ll keep you informed Inshallah.
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UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
From UMBEREEN RAHMAN in Dubai
By the way THE KING'S SPEECH won all the major awards (best actor, best director, best original screenplay and best picture) at the Oscars last night. .I watched it ‘live’ .In his acceptance speech the director of the movie or the person who got it for best original screenplay said "TO ALL THE STRUTTERS OF THE WORLD,WE HAVE BEEN HEARD"
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PAKISTAN
BIRTH
NISHAT, daughter of the late Khwaja Bahauddin, and AZIZ KASHANI are to be congratulated on attaining the prestigious position of GREAT GRAND PARENTS, while their daughter TEHMINEH and ZAHID BUKHARI have become Grand Parents, with the birth of SHAZDEH ZEHRA KAPADIA to SAYEDA SANOBAR BUKHARI AND OMAR KAPADIA, in Karachi on Monday 14th March 2011, weighing six pounds.
(Courtesy: Nishat Kashani in Toronto)
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Moral World – a newly opened Dental Clinic
Dr. KHAWAJA ATYAB ARSHAD and his business partner Dr. Ms. NOREEN KHAWER have great pleasure in announcing the opening of their new Dental Clinic – Molar World comprehensive dental care – on Saturday 19th March 2011. The opening ceremony was performed at 12 noon, when (Mrs.) Shenaz Arshad and (Mrs.) Iqbal Omer mothers of Atyab and Noreen respectively, cut the ribbon, jointly. Thereafter, it was an ‘Open Day’ for the invitees to visit the clinic, at their convenience, till very late in the evening.
The Clinic is situated at 7C. Office No. 2, 2nd floor (above Motas Super Market) on Khayaban-e-Sehr, Shahbaz Commercial Area DHA phase 6.
“The event was very well attended by a lot of family members, friends and patients” says Dr. Atyab, adding: “My special thanks to all the family members who could be there to make it so special for us including Sayeed Chachu, Niloo Phuppu, Shahida Phuppu, Iqbal Phuppa, Amr Bhai, Amer Bhai, Guriya Baji, Ghous Bhai, Tina Bhabi, Atif , Nabeel and Shafaq, with their children; and all members of the family of Dr. Noreen.”
”I
have been practicing in Karachi for the past eleven years and now, by
the grace of Allah and
the prayers of my parents and elders, I have finally been able to
shift to my own clinic. We have tried to design with the most modern
equipment with special care and importance given to sterilization. We
provide with all dental treatments possible under one roof with the
state of the art equipment and material under extremely
sterile
Environment. Special arrangements are available for women
who observe Perda. We
will do our best, with prayers and blessings from members of our
respective families, to serve our clients with care and consideration
to the best of our abilities.”
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GOOD NEWS
From Major KHWAJA SAFI WASIUDDIN in Karachi
I have great pleasure in sharing with members of the Family a piece of “GOOD NEWS. By the Grace of ALLAH, the marriage of our daughter SAIMA has been settled. The boy is the only son of my eldest Khalah's In-Laws, and happens to be the second cousin of my wife, the late Rubina, and first cousin of my Mother-in-Law, Mrs. Inam. The boy's name is IMRAN. He is presently in Indiana, USA, working as a Project Manager in a Company, Duke Energy. He has a degree in Mechanical Engineering which he had done from the USA and is presently doing his MBA as well.
He was born in the USA.His father, the late Waseem Ahmed died when he was about two years old, and he moved to Karachi with his mother, who brought him up in Karachi where he did his schooling.
We plan, Insha Allah, to have a simple Nikah Ceremony on Friday 22 April 2011 at 8:00 p.m. in the Services Mess, behind Hotel Metropole, followed by a dinner. This will enable Imran to apply for her visa which should be available in 8 to 10 month’s time .This we are doing so that immediately after going back the boy can apply for Saima's visa which will take about 8 to 10 months before she can get it.
We hope to hold the main wedding functions, God willing, on suitable dates in November or December 2011. That will include Mehndhi followed by Dinner and then Rukhsati and Valima..
Please pray that everything goes off well with good wishes, prayers and blessings of all our relatives, specially the elders..
****
FEATURES
The writer is Chairman, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).
The measure of a leader is the ability to transform a perceived adversary into an ally. The measure of a statesman is a leader who can join hands with an adversary in building a better tomorrow for the generations to come.
The Bangladesh Bank's notice to Grameen Bank to remove Prof. Yunus as its Managing Director has shocked the nation and seriously disturbed its millions of low income owners. The act has also become global news and is exposing the Government of Bangladesh to much adverse commentary across the world, which has hardly served to enhance our image. From presidents to taxi drivers, questions are being asked about the nature of a government, which had hitherto been reasonably well regarded, both as to its economic performance and for its secular governance.
The global nature of this event was personally brought home to me at Delhi airport, on March 3, on my way back to Dhaka, as I handed in my passport to an immigration officer, a Bengali, who sadly enquired: "Why is your government seeking to remove your Nobel Laureate?" The global community is inexorably forming a perception of our government, which may be unfair, but which is unlikely to be erased by press conferences convened in Dhaka or indeed the outcome of our judicial process, and is likely to haunt this regime for the rest of its tenure. It appears that no computation of the costs and benefits to the government of this damaging conflict has been attempted.
So why has the government taken such an extreme step without even waiting for the outcome of the report of a Review Committee on Grameen Bank set up by the finance minister? The grounds for Yunus's removal did not relate to his efficiency as a manager or the quality of performance of the Bank under his stewardship in the last three decades. The grounds cited by Bangladesh Bank, related to the decision by the Board of Directors of Grameen Bank, the legally empowered body to superintend the organisation, to impose no age limit on the continuation of Yunus as its chief executive, that this "did not have the prior approval of the Bangladesh Bank."
The government claims to be aspiring to uphold the principle of the rule of law and good governance. It has, thus, been argued that the government is asserting its powers, under the statutes governing Grameen Bank, in its actions against Yunus. But are these assertions of state authority consistent with the GoB's own policies? This and previous governments have been committed to the privatisation of the financial sector. The government has privatised several nationalised banks while the remaining commercial banks, such as Sonali and Janata Bank, still under government ownership, are under orders to sell their shares in the stock market to private buyers.
The finance minister, just a few weeks ago, threatened to take disciplinary action against the CEOs of these state owned banks if a big portfolio of the government's shareholding was not placed on the capital market for sale. In such circumstances it is paradoxical that this government would suddenly assume a command economy posture by asserting its authority in its dealings with the Grameen Bank, where the government holds only 25% of the subscribed capital which has been reduced to 3½% of the paid up capital.
The government has so far invested only Tk.1.8 crore, at the inception of the Grameen Bank, in its capitalisation. Since then it has not invested another cent in the bank. In contrast, the borrowers of Grameen Bank, mostly poor women, who own 75% of the shares, have continued to increase their subscription to the capital base of the Bank, drawing on their meager savings and have gradually enhanced it to Tk.53 crores. As a result, these women now own 96.5% of the paid up equity of the Bank. Beyond contributing to the enactment of the Ordinance of the Bank in 1983 and making its initial investment, the GOB has contributed little to the development of this Bank over the last 30 years.
Grameen Bank now raises capital, through occasional bank borrowings or flotation of debentures from commercial banks, including some state owned banks, which are invariably repaid in full and on schedule. This may be contrasted with the thousands of crores, drawn from tax payers' revenues, which the government was compelled to inject into the state owned banks to rebuild their capital base, depleted by the massive defaults of their elite class of borrowers.
Over these years the Grameen Bank has, thus, required no government bailouts or even interventions in soliciting external resources. Donors have themselves come to the Bank with offers of funds. Annual audits commissioned by the Bangladesh Bank have indicated that it is well managed and its financial dealings are in good order and above board. Nor has the government received any complaints from the majority owners of the Bank or its borrowers that the bank was being mismanaged or that their resources were being misused.
In such circumstances its remains inexplicable as to why, after 30 years of interacting with the Grameen Bank as a minority and sleeping shareholder, the government should now wake up to assume a proprietary role over this organisation. Such actions are traditionally reserved for mismanaged organisations facing financial difficulties. Why a government facing a host of problems such as stock market scams, an energy crisis, rising inflation, the return of our Libyan expatriates and the endemic mal-governance which plagues most of our public institutions, should choose to preoccupy itself with the management of a well run and financially solvent institution, where it is only a minority shareholder, remains a mystery.
Squandering a corporate asset
In resorting to a legal technicality to seek the removal of Prof. Muhammad Yunus, as the Managing Director of Grameen Bank, a successful and widely renowned organisation, the Government of Bangladesh appears to have given scant attention to the concerns or financial stake of the majority owners of this organisation, the 8 million women who actually own the Bank. Nor did they enquire as to why the Board of Grameen Bank, in 1999, took the decision to request Prof. Yunus to continue as Managing Director for as long as he was capable of discharging this responsibility. Let us reflect on why the Board took this decision.
It was, at that time, clear to all members on the Board that Grameen Bank was no ordinary bank and Prof. Yunus was no ordinary chief executive in the mould of the managing directors of other state owned banks. Way back in 1976 Grameen Bank had been conceived as a unique idea by Yunus, then a Professor of Economics at Chittagong University, built upon the principle of collateral free banking to serve the resourceless. It has, since then, been transformed from a social experiment into a legally incorporated financial institution at his initiative.
In building a commercial bank for the resourceless rather than an NGO, Yunus took the initiative to involve the government in the hope that the government would become stakeholders in serving the resourceless. In this task Yunus initially received enlightened and active cooperation from A.M.A. Muhith, who was then the finance minister, who enacted a unique Ordnance which set up a commercial bank, partly owned by its resource poor clients, who could thereby borrow without collateral from such an organisation.
From the inception of this experiment and extending over the next quarter of a century, Yunus has laboured day and night, assisted by a team of dedicated associates, to transform Grameen Bank into the biggest and most famous organisation of its kind in the world, culminating in the award of the Nobel Prize to him and the Bank. The Grameen model has since been replicated around the world, including in the USA.
In this process, particularly in the first two decades of building the organisation, Yunus traveled across the length and breadth of rural Bangladesh getting to know the millions of women who became the borrowers and owners of Grameen Bank, and learning of their myriad problems. In the process he established a personalised relationship of trust with the Bank's women owners, which earned their confidence in doing business with Grameen Bank.
To persuade millions of poor women to come back to an organisation, year after year, over 30 years, to borrow and then repay Tk.51,000 crores and to retain their confidence to invest Tk. 5000 crores of their hard earned savings in this Bank, is a monumental achievement in a country where virtually 100% of these low income women had never seen the inside of a bank. For these millions of borrowers Yunus, in his person, was their security blanket, in this alien world of institutional finance.
To be suddenly confronted with the knowledge that Yunus, at the age of 60, would no longer be the person managing an organisation in which they had invested their hopes, fears and savings, was unacceptable to these borrowers/owners and was conveyed to the Board, in no uncertain terms, by the 9 women who represented the millions of women who owned and invested in the bank. 12 years later another 9 such women, who have filed a case on behalf of the Bank's majority owners over the issue of the removal of Prof. Yunus, from the position of Managing Director of the Bank, were seen on the TV screens demonstrating solidarity with Prof. Yunus during his appearance in the courts.
For the government to assume the posture of an all powerful state which can treat the opinions and concerns of these millions of women, who today contribute 96% of the equity of this bank, with such contempt is neither sensible corporate or democratic governance. The usurpation of their corporate and democratic rights may, thus, hardly be characterised as just. These women are the majority owners of this bank, they are also voters, a fact which has not escaped the attention of the leading opposition party.
A no less relevant consideration for the Board was the international persona of Prof. Yunus and its value to the Bank. Even in 1999, Yunus was already a national personality of high stature as well as an international presence. This stature not only generated a degree of security among the women investors of the Bank but also had a capital value. Prof. Yunus, even a decade ago, was in a position to raise millions of dollars from any donor and many corporate investors. The asset value of Prof. Yunus's name was worth millions of dollars to a bank owned by poor women. It would have been an act of monumental corporate unwisdom and fiduciary irresponsibility for the Board to have liquidated such an asset by permitting Yunus to retire as if he were some common or garden bank employee.
A decade later, with a Nobel Prize for himself and the Grameen Bank, a widely acclaimed and replicated institution around the world, Yunus enjoys access to every president and prime minister in the developed world and most such leaders in the developing world extending across China, India, South Africa, Brazil, Vietnam and even Venezuela. Today, Yunus can pick up his phone and call any CEO among the Fortune 500 list of top global corporations.
Such access is a bankable asset for which any of these Fortune 500 companies would pay Yunus millions of dollars to sit on their Board. Instead, Yunus chooses to stay in Bangladesh and lend his name to serve as a capital asset for the millions of women who own the Grameen Bank. It must take a unique level of insensitivity as well as lack of business acumen to seek to divest these millions of women of their most valuable asset, through reference to a procedural rule.
From confrontation to statesmanship
The spokespersons for the government, in their recent public pronouncements, have stated that the government has no political quarrel with Yunus. All they wanted to do was to preserve the rule of law. I would like to take these declarations on behalf of the government at their face value. If, indeed, the only issue was the rule of law then the principal deviation from the law, as cited in the Bangladesh Bank order, was the failure of the Grameen Bank to seek prior approval of the Bangladesh Bank in their reappointment of Yunus as managing director in 1999. The Bangladesh Bank raised this issue in its Annual Audit Report of Grameen Bank, which gave a full reply to the queries in the Report.
If the Grameen Bank's reply was at all problematic for Bangladesh Bank or the GoB, the Bangladesh Bank could easily have sent further notices to the Grameen Bank to formally correct such a legal anomaly. The Bangladesh Bank, during the tenure of three democratic governments, two caretaker governments and four governors who held office from 1999 to 2011, sent no further notices to Grameen Bank. This sustained silence by the Bangladesh Bank was quite reasonably interpreted by Grameen Bank as the acceptance of their response to Bangladesh Bank's audit report and the validation of the Board's decision on their continuation of Yunus's appointment as managing director.
Even today, there was nothing to prevent the Governor of the Bangladesh Bank from sending such a notice to Grameen Bank before seeking to remove Yunus from office. Grameen Bank could have explained its actions and/or it could have sought an approval for the continuance of the appointment of Yunus. The Bangladesh Bank could then have accorded its approval if it thought that Prof. Yunus was running the bank efficiently, based on positive reports of the Bangladesh Bank audits of Grameen Bank over the last 12 years. Why such a sensible step was not taken needs explanation. We are, consequently, witnessing these legal encounters which do not greatly enhance the credibility of our institutions of governance nor are they likely to resolve this needless crisis.
So where do we go from here? Given the historic role of Yunus to the development of Grameen Bank, the confidence he generates among its investors and the corporate asset value of his name, such observations as indicated by the finance minister or the Local Government Minister, Ashraful Islam or even by Yunus himself, of providing Yunus with an "honourable exit" from the Bank, appear to overlook the central issue, which is the well being of the Grameen Bank and the livelihood of its millions of members. About the last thing anyone with the best interests of the Bank and its 8 million members in mind, would want is the "exit," graceful or otherwise, of Yunus from Grameen Bank.
Any precipitate move to oust its founder could shake the confidence of its members in the Bank and expose it not just to a withdrawal of their savings but even a default on their debts. Such a run on Grameen Bank could have a contagion effect which could jeopardise the financial stability of other micro-finance institutions across the country. The relevant issue to be resolved is, therefore, not Yunus's exit but the terms and conditions which should govern his continuing role in Grameen Bank until he chooses to withdraw from any institutional involvements.
Under the prevailing circumstances what may be a sensible way forward? Prof. Yunus has already suggested such a path. At the age of 70 Yunus still has the energy and creativity of a young man. Even if he were to withdraw completely from Grameen Bank, he chairs a variety of Grameen branded institutions dedicated to serve the resource poor. He can mobilise millions of dollars from both international development agencies as well as Fortune 500 companies to partner any of these or further ventures he sets up. A person of his energy, reputation and fund raising capacity should, thus, be irrevocably bound to the Grameen Bank with hoops of steel and age should not be seen as a bar to his involvement.
Indeed, in Bangladesh as in many countries, age is no disqualification to discharging responsibility. Bangladesh's finance minister is 78 years old. Our planning minister is nearly 80 years old. Several of the ministers or ministerial level appointees serving the prime minister as advisors have either crossed or are approaching 70. The prime minister as well as the leader of the opposition have led their respective parties for 3 decades, longer than Yunus's tenure as Managing Director of Grameen Bank.
All these public figures should have long been retired if the attorney general's declaration in court, that 60 was a universal retirement age, would have been recognised. Fortunately, all the above figures appear to be in the prime of life, enjoy the confidence of their party and government and appear quite capable of carrying on as long as they are willing to do so. To, therefore, apply some arbitrary age limit to the active engagement of Yunus with an organisation he has created from nothing, is neither fair nor good business.
In point of fact, Yunus himself, has declared that he is no longer interested in managing the day to day affairs of an organisation as large as Grameen Bank. He has repeatedly stated he wants to step down and hand over the position of CEO to a professionally competent person, selected through a fair search procedure, who can command the confidence of the millions of members who own the Bank.
In order not to shake the confidence of the members in the continuity of the organisation and to retain the presence of their most valuable capital asset with the Bank, ideally Prof. Yunus should be invited to assume the Chairmanship of the Board of Grameen Bank. In this capacity his presence will perpetuate the global reach of the Bank and retain its access to the policymakers of Bangladesh and the world as well as to the financial community. This would greatly reassure the Bank's 8 million members that their most prized asset remains engaged with the organisation which embodies their livelihood and life's savings. Any reluctance to accept such a logical and constructive solution to this gratuitously destructive confrontation would indicate to the world that other variables, unrelated to the interests of Grameen Bank, are in play.
The person who should initiate this constructive conclusion to this regrettable and damaging episode in our history should be none other than the prime minister, who could hardly be insensitive to the concerns of the millions of women who own Grameen Bank or to the political consequences of their alienation. Nor could she be unaware of the domestic political and diplomatic capital so painfully accumulated by her, which is being squandered over an issue which is quite peripheral to her immediate political agenda.
The time has come for the prime minister to re-evaluate the politically costly advise being fed to her. She has already demonstrated her maturity and statesmanship in her decision to resile from her government's unwise decision, based again on poor advice, to take over Arial Beel. She should now decide to put this unsavoury as well as destructive episode over Grameen Bank behind her and move on.
This may be done through an invitation to Prof. Yunus to meet with her and the finance minister, where all the misgivings she may have accumulated about Grameen Bank and Prof. Yunus should be discussed in a spirit of constructive engagement. The prime minister should then personally invite Prof. Yunus to assume the Chair of the Board of Grameen Bank and for them to open a new chapter in the relations between the state and Grameen Bank. Under such a dispensation the search for a managing director of international stature should be initiated.
Within such a spirit of reconciliation, the prime minister should perceive Yunus not as her adversary, which he obviously cannot be as she is the democratically elected leader of the country, but as an asset in the building of a din bodol where poverty and injustice can be banished from Bangladesh. The measure of a leader is the ability to transform her perceived adversary into an ally. The measure of a statesman is a leader who can join hands with her adversary in building a better tomorrow for the generations to come.
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(As translated and explained by Muhammad Asad)
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Dispenser of Grace.
Surah AL – MAIDA (The Repast) Chapter 5. (Verses 8 to 11)
O YOU who have attained to faith! Be ever steadfast in your devotion to God, bearing witness to the truth in all equity; and never let hatred of any- one lead you into the sin of deviating from justice. Be just: this is closest to being God-conscious. And remain conscious of God: verily, God is aware of all that you do.
God has promised unto those who attain to faith and do good works [that] theirs shall be forgiveness of sins, and a mighty reward; whereas they who are bent on denying the truth and giving the lie to Our messages – they are destined for the blazing fire.
O you who have attained to faith! Remember the blessings which God has bestowed upon you when [hostile] people were about to lay hands on you and He stayed their hands from you. Remain, then, conscious of God: and in God let the believers place their trust.
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Editor: Khwaja Sayeed Shahabuddin, sayeed425@gmail.com Tel. (92-21) 3567- 4639 & 0300-292-1903
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