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February 11, 2007

Cautious Welcome

Bangla Version
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Go For It
• Let us dream
• Council of custodians
• We welcome the move
• The Romantic Middle Class
• Cautious Welcome

Don't Do It
• Bad Idea
• They won't support you
• Delink yourself first
• You will ruin yourself
• Not your piece of cake

News Links
Feb 14, 2007

• Prof. Yunus to form his party within this month
• Prof. Yunus to run in next election
• Dr. Yunus and his political journey
• I will leave Grameen Bank


Feb 13, 2007

• Prothom Alo
• Daily Star
• Janakantha

Dear Prof. Yunus:

I wholeheartedly welcome you in politics. However, if you think that you will become the prime minister in our next parliamentary election, you will surely be disaapointed. You have already said that probably you would contest the next election independently. I dont see any reralistic chance for your party to win majority of the seats in the next election, if his pary decides to contest. The reform has to continue for years for creating a level playing field for your party from where they can win the election.

There is another process for you to come to power quickly which may not be 'Democratic'. Personllay, I won't mind that. We have seen enough of democracies. Where is the democray in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, China? But people there are happy. Yes, there is democracy in India but they took much longer than those countries to come up.

Many people strongly criticize Grameen Bank's 35% interest rate. But I found something different in your website:
" Government of Bangladesh has fixed interest rate for government-run microcredit programmes at 11 per cent at flat rate. It amounts to about 22 per cent at declining basis. Grameen Bank's interest rate is lower than government rate. There are four interest rates for loans from Grameen Bank: 20% (declining basis) for income generating loans, 8% for housing loans, 5% for student loans, and 0% (interest-free) loans for Struggling Members (beggars). All interests are simple interest, calculated on declining balance method. This means, if a borrower takes an income-generating loan of say, Tk 1,000, and pays back the entire amount within a year in weekly instalments, she'll pay a total amount of Tk 1,100, i.e. Tk 1,000 as principal, plus Tk 100 as interest for the year, equivalent to 10% flat rate. "
Source: http://www.grameen-info.org/bank/GBGlance.htm

Dear Sir, I think you should try to clarify the interest mechansim of Grameen Bank as much as possible as part of your political profile building. There seems to be a huge negative propaganda about Grameen Bank's high interest rates and profitability.

I wish you the best of luck in this noble journey.

Miraj Rahman
Banani, Dhaka
Feb. 14, 2007