Prof. Dr. M. Shamsul Haque.
There have been several articles in newspapers on the quality of leadership in Bangladesh. Most of the paper discussed the recent tussle on the BB order to remove Dr. Yunus from the position of CEO of Grameen Bank. The GB was established 27 years back to extend micro-credits to the poor landless women in Bangladesh. Dr. Yunus and his Grameen Bank were awarded the Nobel Prize for peace in 2006, although he was originally recommended for the Prize in Economics. The model he originated in 1976 and spread all over rural areas in Bangladesh and in over 60 countries of the world including the richest country, USA. It proved to be a viable model of employment generation by self-financed groups. Before that the dominant economic model was that of “trickle down” which did not work so well as far as reduction of poverty for the bottom of population in many countries. Prof. C.K. Prahlad (late) a management guru of Indian origin advised multinationals in the USA and other western world to target the markets at the “bottom of the pyramid” to increase sales through miniaturization of consumer goods. Following the advice GE developed a low cost mobile ECG machine for sale in India. Dr. Yunus developed a model of micro-credits to reach the poorest of the poor much earlier and that model of banking-banking for the poor without any collateral. Prahlad suggested miniaturization of products to exploit market opportunities with a view to make profits for the investors whereas Grameen Bank is owned and managed by the poor along with Dr. Yunus and three nominated directors from the Bangladesh Bank for 25% investment by the state in 1983. Over the years that proportion of investment came down to below 3-4% as Grameen Bank borrowers reinvested their earnings in the capital of the bank. That bit of help from the state proved to be a hindrance on the continuation of Dr. Yunus as its CEO for some more years. The matter of his continuation is now in the Supreme Court, but the world has reacted sharply against his removal without giving him an opportunity to arrange a smooth transition in the management of Grameen.
Whatever be the outcome on his case the model is well established and it will thrive here and abroad as it deals with reduction of poverty, a nagging problem despite economic growth. Dr. Yunus has proved to be a broker of dreams for the poor and he will remain a leader for ever. Among others a very informative article appeared in the Daily Star of April 2, 2011 by David Bornstein, who did extensive research on GB. The paper was published in the NY Times under the heading , “Grameen Bank and the Public Good.”. The paper cited three other studies on micro credits done at other places in the USA. Research by Collins, Morduch, Rutherford and Ruthvan culminated in an excellent book named as “Portfolios of the Poor. How the Worlds Poor Live under $2 a Day.” They tried to look into the lives of 300 poor families from Bangladesh, India and South Africa over a period of time. Among other findings, Morduch and his colleagues “suggest that microfinance may be the most effective at helping the poor
People to avert traumas of a day to day , hand to mouth existence . It may allow them to smooth out their cash flows so that life is not such a bumpy and stressful ride.” Many of us who grew in poor farming families in Bangladesh know what that means. No certainty was there for the next meal of whatever poor quality during the lean months of mora-kartrik and hard -dry chaitra-baishak until 1960s when only one main rice crop used to be grown and the annual flooding used to damage aus and jute on the fields. Money lenders were the only source of limited cash with confiscatory charges for interest and repayment of loans. The fact that loans are available and that too with their own savings has a large positive impact on behaviour of the poor that can not be measured by any statistics. Grameen model gave a culture of self dependence with “strategic” outlook as found in the study mentioned above. That is what makes a sea change in the lives of the poor people that may not be captured in rising standard of living as it is expected by government officials. Malcolm Gladwel the author of the famous NYtimes best seller book, “Outlier” called such changes in behavior spread among people like a virus does for some diseases. That happened during the American revolution and in all revolutions there after including our war of liberation in 1971 and the recent peoples’ revolutions in the Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and other middle eastern countries. In fact all discovery in the field of sciences were the result of revolutionary approaches and micro-credit revolution under the leadership of Dr. Yunus followed the same established path. Nothing could be more important for development than such socio-psychological change in behaviour of the people.
In this connection one can not avoid discussing the quality of political leadership in Bangladesh. Bangabandhu, the father of the nation dreamt of an independent Bangladesh. He fought for it through out his whole life and succeeded in 1971 through a bloody war of liberation. He was a visionary leader and a broker of dreams for the people of Bangladesh. How far he succeeded in delivering on the promises after independence is a different matter. After his assassination in 1975 by a section of the armed forces, governments came and gone, but none so far proved to as visionary leader by any measure. Instead the poor has become poorer and the rich become richer in Bangladesh. It matters little if regimes after regimes built so many bridges, factories, airports, roads, highway and expressways. The role of a leader is to energize people to a better future and create conditions for the people to change their lots through millions of activities every day and week. No government can and should promise to solve all problems of the people. A leader should only demonstrate good quality in terms of political culture so that others can adopt them in the various spheres of life. Unfortunately not many in this country have shown such good cultural norms by going beyond partisan politics and hatred for the opposition parties and the people. Dr. Yunus has become a victim of the political hate culture that is holding advancement of the country and by demonizing him we as a nation has lost our prestige in the world community. Ultimately it is the people who will suffer as the world has down graded Bangladesh by a few notches already and more will follow in the future. We should not have tried to discredit a Nobel Prize winner and a leader of the poor people all over the world.
The writer is a professor of finance and Vice Chancellor Northern University Bangladesh .
