Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus, on Wednesday, came down heavily on the government, for its reported initiative to change the ownership structure of Grameen Bank. He said the people of Bangladesh will never allow anyone to deprive the poor women of the country, by snatching the bank away from them. Urging the government to let Grameen Bank proceed on its “glorious path with the existing law”, Dr Yunus said if the law is replaced, as proposed by the inquiry commission, it will lead to a national disaster.
“Every option that the inquiry commission has proposed will result in a disaster for the bank. We must protect this bank, keeping in mind that the fates of 40 million poor people are linked with it,” he added.
He said that the stakeholders of the Grameen Bank also belong to Bangladesh.
“We should not forget that they are also voters. Nationalising or breaking into pieces a world-renowned privately owned institution of the poor, will be a case of extreme abuse of power by the government. The recommendations offered by the inquiry commission are not worthy of any serious consideration. Nonetheless, these recommendations are extremely destructive. We must work together to resist them,” he stated.
He mentioned that the Grameen Bank Commission is going to organise a workshop at the BIAMAuditorium, on July 2, to discuss its recommendations for legal changes to the Grameen Bank structure.
“It has been announced that finance minister AMA Muhith will deliver his valuable comments about his experience in this regard. There will be a discussion with experienced and distinguished persons of the country at the workshop, on the eight-page working paper of the commission, ‘The Future Structure of Grameen Bank: Some Options’”, he said.
According to Dr Yunus, the working paper proposes three options, including restructuring Grameen Bank as a government bank, with 51 per cent or more shares in the bank being held by the government. The government would also have a majority of seats on the board of directors of the bank.
“The second option is to transform Grameen Bank into 19 or smaller Grameen Banks, following the structure of the Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board. Each of the separate 19 Grameen Banks would be separately registered. There would not be any legal relationship between them. Each would have its own independent management structure.
“The current Grameen Bank head office will be given the responsibility of becoming the regulatory organisation for this new Grameen Bank family. This apex regulatory organisation will provide registration to each of these 19 small Grameen Banks. This apex body will control and supervise the small Grameen Banks. It will coordinate among the small Grameen Banks at both the national and international levels. The small Grameen Banks will cover the costs of running the apex body,” he mentioned in the statement.
According to the third option, Grameen Bank may be transformed into an organisation resembling a private company, other than a cooperative or credit union. Under this option, the Commission envisages a problem in registering Grameen Bank under the Companies Act – that of holding annual general meetings with huge number of Grameen Bank borrowers (currently 8.4 million). This meeting is an indispensable requirement of the Companies Act, and there is no way of avoiding it.
Opposing these recommendations, Dr Yunus said Grameen Bank is a unique institution, created under a unique legal structure. The effectiveness of this legal structure has been successfully demonstrated over the last 30 years, by the organisational efficiency and power of the bank’s operations.
“What offence has Grameen Bank committed that it must be broken into pieces? Someone has to explain this,” he stated.
“The Grameen Bank Ordinance, with amendments up to 2008, is a beautiful legal structure for the fulfilment of the ideals and objectives of the bank. Any change in this structure will be devastating for the bank. The amendment in 2008 included provisions to open Grameen Bank branches in urban areas, and for the election of Grameen Bank chairman by its own board of directors, rather than be appointed by the government. These provisions stood cancelled, as the present government did not ratify them at the start of its term.”
Dr Yunus also noted that some “enthusiastic” people must have inspired the inquiry commission to make such recommendations, on the basis of the “grand success” of the government in managing Sonali Bank.
“Please do not try to snatch the poor people’s bank out of their hands. There is no reason to believe that it will be a pleasant experience for the government to engage in a char-grabbing fight with the 8.4 million poor families, by changing the law with a stroke of the pen.
There should be no reason to expect that the people of the country will sit idly and watch the organisation, that has brought them recognition and glory across the world, be grabbed, broken into pieces and destroyed,” he added.
-With The Independent input
