With Yunus, Without Bangladesh

thinking loud

With Yunus, without Bangladesh

Published : Friday, 19 April 2013 Financial Express Dhaka

Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus speaks during the Congressional Gold Medal presentation ceremony after he received the award on April 17 in the Rotunda of the US Capitol in Washington, DC.

— AFP Photo

Mamun Rashid writes from Washington, DC

The Rotunda Hall at the Capitol at Washington, DC was full with Senators, Congressman and those who really matter in the field of global peace and fight against poverty in late morning of April 17, 2013. Incidentally, one country and a humble man from it Muhammad Yunus were the only focus of all. He made it again to become the seventh person in the world to receive one after another three prestigious awards - Nobel peace prize, presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal, approved by two-thirds of the US Congressmen. 

This writer could not check his tears when Richard Durbin, the Senator from Illinois, shared his views on Yunus with the audience. Yunus is the first Muslim in the world to have received the Congressional Gold Medal. It was all for his life-time contribution to elimination of poverty from this world and creation of continuous opportunities for the people at 'bottom of the pyramid' to stand on their own feet and create better future for themselves. Now with this honour for Yunus, not only the humble man from Chittagong, Bangladesh, the majority of the US Congressmen resolved to 'send poverty to the museum'. 

The medal itself contained slogan 'Amra Daridroke Jadughore Pathabo', (we will send poverty to museum), written in the Bangla language. What an honour for the Bangla language itself!

For the first time in my life (I happened to be there incidentally at the invitation of John Boehner, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives), I could see and hear so many Senators Rush Holt from New Jersey, Ileana Ros from Florida, Michael Enzi from Wyoming and one of the staunchest supporters of the professor Senator Durbin and more importantly Democratic leader of the US House of Representative Nancy Pelosi, Republican leader of the Senate Mitch McConnel, Majority leader of the Senate Harry Reid and Speaker of the House, speaking about his success in poverty alleviation in an otherwise not-so-significant country Bangladesh and more importantly through export of this home-grown concept to other countries. Yunus was given profuse applause for addressing issues of poverty and human development.

The hall was full of people who matter in decision-making in the United States as well as in the rest of the world. But we were very few from Bangladesh. This was more evident when a very senior Congresswoman from California mentioned, "No matter what is happening in his home country Bangladesh, we in the United States of America all love and esteem the professor for his commitment to social justice, creation of opportunity for the poor and more importantly letting the business to work for social emancipation". The same was echoed by many other Senators and Congressmen, with the last one being Congresswoman Grace Meng from Queens saying that it was an extremely tough job to convince the two-thirds of the Congress members to agree and resolve the case for rewarding fight against poverty, but Professor Yunus and his work seemed to have 'made it' for most of them.

Each one of the Senators and Congressmen and women was extremely articulate and they focused on a life-time opportunity for a business teacher from anywhere in the world. Their choice of words, the applauses and more importantly the sentence-making were superb. I wish many of my friends could attend the rare function only to appreciate the speeches. Unfortunately, for reasons well meaning to my readers, there was least presence from Bangladesh. Thanks to Ambassador Akramul Quader for showing up at the ceremony.

No matter what a segment of our government machinery or few of their 'obliging' friends in the media and other professional fields think about him, Professor Yunus has made Bangladesh to consider itself to feel proud of. If I have not misunderstood Congressman Rush Holt, the world should not at all be surprised if they see this personality, now at 73 years of age, being nominated again for a Nobel prize for pushing the entire business world into 'social business' and therefore involving 'business' to solve newer issues for the mankind. The only regret is, this may be too late for many of our politicians to address dishonour they did show not only to the professor but also to their own conscience and more importantly to their country and countrymen.

We salute our 'son of the soil' Professor Muhammad Yunus for the rare honour he brought for Bangladesh in the comity of nations. One day our future generation will only visit the museums to see 'what poverty was all about'.

(The writer is a banker and economic analyst. 

E-mail: mrashid1961@gmail.com)