Nobel winner's entry into Bangladeshi politics stirs debate
Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize last year. Now he's starting a political party in Bangladesh.
By Mahtab Haider | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the March 15, 2007 edition
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DHAKA, BANGLADESH - When Bangladeshi microloans banker Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize last year, he became the darling of a nation often known only for its abject poverty and devastating natural disasters.
Mr. Yunus – whose antipoverty microloans to poor women have earned him the nickname "banker to the poor" – was celebrated here for his refusal to toe a party line in a country where even top academics are sharply divided across rival political camps. His modest lifestyle and his three-decades-long dedication to the antipoverty cause were extolled in the media, and there were popular demands that he should head an interim government.
His stature at home grew with his international acclaim and close personal friendship with former President Bill Clinton and his wife, presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton (D) of New York, which many believed helped cast Bangladesh in a more positive light.
But six months later, Yunus is surrounded in controversy.
The Nobel Laureate has launched his own "Citizens' Power" political party, capturing the public imagination with promises of a departure from the violence, vitriol, corruption, and abuse of power that has characterized Bangladeshi politics. But many ordinary Bangladeshis say that Yunus should not sully his image by joining politics. Others question his decision to launch a party at a time when a military-backed interim government is ruling Bangladesh in a "state of emergency" after violent protests forestalled elections scheduled for Jan. 22.
The new regime has detained almost all major leaders of Bangladesh's two main political parties, the Awami League and the BNP, including the former prime minister's son, to investigate their links to corruption.
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