DHAKA
\nBangladesh Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus says it is a \u201cmillion-dollar question\u201d why the prime minister hates him, but says many believe she sees him as a political threat. Yunus, 83, is credited with lifting millions out of poverty with his pioneering microfinance bank but has earned the enmity of long-time Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
\nLast month, several of his firms were \u201cforcefully\u201d taken over, weeks after his conviction in a criminal case his supporters say was politically motivate \u201cShe calls me bloodsucker, calls me all the dirty things she can come up with,\u201d he said.\u201dWhy (does) she hate me? Some say it\u2019s political… (that) she sees me as a political opponent,\u201d he added, carefully avoiding directly accusing Hasina himself.
\nIn January, Yunus and three colleagues from Grameen Telecom, one of the firms he founded, were sentenced to jail for six months after they were found guilty of violating labour laws.All four deny the charges, and have been bailed pending appeal. Yunus, who is facing more than 100 other charges over labour law violations and alleged graft, said the forcible takeover of his companies was related to a lack of democracy.
\n\u201cThose cases are made on flimsy grounds,\u201d he told media in an interview in the capital Dhaka last week.Since I don\u2019t see any legal basis for that, probably it is politically motivated.\u201dAround 160 global figures, including former US president Barack Obama and ex-UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, published a joint letter last year denouncing the \u201ccontinuous judicial harassment\u201d of Yunus.
\nThe signatories, including more than 100 of his fellow Nobel laureates, said they feared for \u201chis safety and freedom\u201d. Hasina, 76, won her fourth consecutive general election in January, in a vote without genuine opposition parties, with a widespread boycott and a major crackdown against her political opponents. Critics accuse Bangladeshi courts of rubber-stamping decisions made by Hasina\u2019s government.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a one-party state because other parties don\u2019t count,\u201d he said. \u201cWe cannot express our views and go to the polling booth and exercise our voting right\u201d. In 2007, Yunus launched the \u201cNagorik Shakti\u201d or \u201cCitizen\u2019s Power\u201d movement to offer a third option in politics dominated for decades by Hasina and her rival Khaleda Zia.
\nBut he said he backed out of politics after power struggles and squabbling rivalries rapidly left him disheartened.\u201dI am not a political guy, I am not going to do that,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I immediately announced that I am not going to create a political party.\u201dYunus stressed the critical need for democratic rights.
\n\u201cIf you don\u2019t have democracy, human rights will disappear,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause nobody will object, because nobody is there to protect you, the rule of law has disappeared\u201d.He is cautious not to say the latest attempt to take over his companies was orchestrated by the government, but noted a stark lack of official response.
\n\u201cIf there was a rule of law, in the case of taking over the buildings and offices and so on, when I go to the police, police will immediately come because their responsibility is to protect me,\u201d he said.\u201dPolice didn\u2019t do that. They just walked away, they didn\u2019t see anything wrong. That\u2019s not rule of law.\u201dHe fears for the future of his \u201cThree Zero\u201d plan, which is aimed at slashing carbon emissions, ending unemployment and cutting poverty.
\n\u201cIf I am put in jail, that will be a big blow to the whole movement around the whole world, where people are spending their day and night devoting themselves to create a new kind of world,\u201d he said. But Yunus is determined to remain in Bangladesh, rejecting offers to continue his work in self-imposed exile in Switzerland or the United States.
\n\u201cI keep saying no, no, I have to be here, this is where it all began,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not only me — it\u2019s my whole group of people nationwide who are devoted to this, their lifetime they spent on this,\u201d he added. \u201cIf I shift, the whole thing will fall apart. It will split the whole thing into destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DHAKA Bangladesh Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus says it is a \u201cmillion-dollar question\u201d why the prime minister hates him, but says many believe she sees him as a political threat. Yunus, 83, is credited with lifting millions out of poverty with his pioneering microfinance bank but has earned the enmity of long-time Prime Minister Sheikh […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391418,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-391403","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n