The Yunus controversy
A report was published recently titled Yunus siphoned Tk 7 bn aid for poor in the leading newspapers. Interestingly enough, one of the leading dailies of the country decided to publish the news a day later. The justification was that they wanted to verify the information prior to publishing the news. However, while publishing the news in an article form on Friday, this newspaper failed to portray both sides of the story. Rather, the tone of the article seemed to defend the rationale behind his fund transfer. Clearly, the article wants to divert the readers attention from the real issue. The question is not whether the fund transferred to a different entity was used for the poor. The question is whether the legal agreement allowed Yunus to transfer the money this way.
If Yunus is so clear about his justification, why didnt he inform the donor agency prior to the fund transfer? It is also interesting that nowhere in the article any question is raised about the donor agency which later complied with Yunuss request to compromise the agreement. This is important from the viewpoint of transparency and accountability and the citizens of the donor country have a right to know about such transfers of grant money. So, when question is raised about Yunus breaching the agreement, equal attention should also be given to raise concern about the compromise made by the officials of that donor agency. A responsible journalist should ask whether the donor has the authority to make such a compromise with grant money for which they are accountable to their taxpayers and whether the compromise made by the donor was permissible by the laws of their country. If not, the people should demand an answer from officials of the agency. Journalists should not forget to raise this aspect in their reporting.
I am also concerned about the timing of the news release. Why is this being disclosed after 18 years? Surely it has been known for long by all the actors concerned. Recently, Yunus started raising concerns about Telenor, a Norwegian Telecom, regarding a violation of a gentlemans agreement on GrameenPhones share. My guess is that the interested party considered this the right time to threaten him to silence by bringing up something he had done in the past and reminding how he was protected at that time by the concerned agency.
It is strongly recommended that responsible journalism should not forget to highlight the other side of the coin while criticising Yunus and microcredit.Tahera Jabeen
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