[GRASSROOTS-in-action] On Microcredit and Muhammad Yunus

[Guest guest]

Sukla Sen has done well by circulating Waldon Bello's well-written comment from The Nation, posted

online on 14.10.2006. Both, the Newspaper and the Writer, are the torch bearers.

 

"The Nation will not be the organ of any party, sect, or body. It will, on the contrary, make an earnest effort to bring to the discussion of political and social questions a really critical spirit, and to wage war upon the vices of violence, exaggeration, and misrepresentation by which so much of the political writing of the day is marred".

-- says The Nation's founding prospectus, 1865

 

Whereas, Waldon Bello is professor of sociology and public administration at the University of the Philippines and executive director of Focus on the Global South, a research and advocacy institute based at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. He is the author or co-author of many books on politics and economic issues in the Philippines and Asia, including, most recently, Deglobalization (Zed), and recipient of the 2003 Right Livelihood Award also known as the "Alternative Nobel Prize."

 

 

After reading Waldon Bello's comment, I punched the following Letter on 17th October, 2006 through their website feedback.

 

Waldon Bello's article "Microcredit, Macro Issues" has put in perspective the whole discussion. Ofcourse Muhammad Yunus, this year's Nobel Peace Prize Winner, is a sincere man. But by no means, he is the father of micro credit.

 

I had a long discussion with him in November 1994, in Dhaka, where I had gone to participate in the UNDP conference.

 

He himself told me that the Grameen Bank concept he borrowed from India. In India the Grameen Bank idea failed because of corruption. Under 20 Point Programme of Indira Gandhi and later under the Sanjay Gandhi Yojana, small loans of Rs.5000 were ordered to be disbursed. But the Nationalised Bank managers who operate on 10% commission basis sabotaged the very egalitarian idea of self- sufficiency through village industry, because 10% of Rs.5000 worked out to measly Rs.500, which was not enough even for a beer party.

 

Mohd. Yunus persisted and then ofcourse all those who saw opportunity in it pushed him further and he has walked away with a prestigious award which is highly politicised. Now Mohd Yunus has become the first recipient of Nobel Prize in Bangla Desh and consequently his deification will start. With that however if the Grameen bank idea gets further boost, then we would say cheers to him.

 

Dr. Leo Rebello

drleorebello