Editor's Pick

Nobel laureate and politics

29 October 2006, 18:00 PM
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Syed Noor Hossain, Former Ambassador, Dhaka
Every Bangladeshi was overwhelmed with joy when the announcement came that Dr. Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize. We were also elated when another Bengali, though not a Bangladeshi, Professor Amartya Sen, received Nobel Prize in Economics after the great Bengali poet Rabindaranath Tagore. But Dr. Yunus is our own. He made his contributions for the uplift of millions of poor in Bangladesh and helped millions of others around the world. When I was the Bangladesh ambassador in Brazil not too long ago, I discovered that the average Brazilians knew only one Bangladeshi - Dr. Yunus. Well, you may call that a failure on the part of our diplomats but that was the fact!

We were profoundly elated with the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Dr. Yunus. Now the Nobel Laureate has caused a new excitement among us that he might enter politics and float a new political party. Personally, I wholeheartedly support and welcome the idea. Today we do not know whom to vote for because most MPs, ministers and many leading politicians dirtied their hands with looting of national resources. Black money rules politics and it has become synonymous with dirty business, corruption and crime.

Can Dr. Yunus show us the ray of hope? I believe he can. Unlike some renowned politicians who splintered from the main parties for one reason or the other, Dr. Yunus carries no stigma. After becoming a Nobel Laureate he is now as large as Bangladesh itself. Through his hard social work over the years, championing the cause of the poor through micro credit, Dr. Yunus has established grassroots level contacts with the people and he has the Grameen network. He did not do it to get votes. But now if he and his political party need support to save Bangladesh from the quagmire of dirty, corrupt and criminal politics, millions should come forward to support him. Will decent people, who shunned politics before, join his political party? I believe they will. There are honest businessmen, retired civil servants, academics, and professionals in many fields who would love to see a Bangladesh re-born free from corruption, crime and domination of black money. Let Dr. Yunus make us forget that we are now the No.1 in the world as a corrupt country. His Nobel Peace Prize made us forget that momentarily. Now let us help him forget it permanently.

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It was a shame to see our Finance Minister justifying how Dr. Yunus won his Nobel Prize (referring to the article published in The Daily Star on October 20 'Saifur critical of Grameen Bank').

Then let me take the chance here to congratulate Dr. Yunus for making us proud as a nation. I remember a few days ago I went to an open talk held in our university where Dr. Mahathir Mohammed was asked to give a speech. He mentioned a few times that he wanted to see a Noble Prize winner here in Malaysia within 2020.

We have got that prize well before many other developing countries!

Mahmudur Rahman Erash, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Multimedia University, Malaysia
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