This probably will read as another of the thousands of plaudits for Professor Yunus, a name now indelibly melded with revolutionary efforts at eradication of poverty, and of course, with Bangladesh. But no amount of plaudit will get near to expressing the honor and prestige that he has brought for us as a nation.

In a landmark departure from traditions, the Nobel Institute awarded the peace prize on an individual who did not dazzle the world with political wizardry, but with a radical idea that the poor can be trusted with fiscal responsibility. In an editorial note, the Financial Times observed (October 14) that in awarding the Peace Prize to Professor Yunus, “the Nobel Committee has shown imagination by recognizing three agendas that support peace: ending poverty, empowering women, and emphasizing the importance of trust in human relations”.

As I read the news and gloated over it like other Bangladeshis, I also recollected my warm memories of this great personality that I had the privilege of knowing early in my career as a civil servant. Much later, in 1999 I had an opportunity to revitalize this memory when Professor Yunus was the key note speaker in a conference in Washington DC commemorating 20th anniversary of the Hubert Humphrey Fellowship—a Fulbright program. I was asked by the sponsors to introduce the key note speaker as a formal gesture, to which I had responded with undisguised glee. This was a rare opportunity to reminisce about a person who had already made a name recognition with a maverick financial institution—the Grameen Bank.

As we bask in the sunshine that has been bestowed on us today in the international accolade of the pride of our soil, I feel attracted to the introductory remarks that I was privileged to make in honor of Professor Yunus that evening of November 1999. These were personal recollections, but I feel could share these again with our readers with some pride. Following is an exact reproduction of the remarks.

“I am honored and privileged to introduce our distinguished speaker this morning. However, I think this is a superfluous task. It is superfluous because Professor Muhammad Yunus does not need an introduction to this audience and for that matter any audience. His name and reputation precede him; he is a twentieth-century phenomenon in economic development, a man who has not only reached to the world’s poorest of the poor, but has also shown the world in that process that there is a superior alternative to blind practice of econometric models. He has shown that poverty cannot be alleviated with sporadic doses of economic aid, but by providing the poor with a level playing field, by creating self-employment opportunities, and by providing access to the means to create assets.

It is exactly 21 years ago while working as a district commissioner in the south eastern part of Bangladesh; I was introduced by a mutual friend to a maverick young professor of economics of Chittagong University. He was some kind of weird, my friend told me, because this US trained academic did not follow the norms of foreign trained professors in Bangladesh. He did not spend his after-hours in the University Club or hobnobbing with his peers. In stead he spent his weekends in a village hobnobbing with some farmers, not rich farmers mind you, but some sharecropper type. “May be he wants to make them literate”, the mutual friend had commented.

The mystery of this young professor’s hanging out with the farmers was soon unveiled to me. Within a few weeks of our introduction, the professor asked me if I could solve a small problem for a group of farmers that he was working with in a village near his University. The problem was supply of electric power for pump irrigation in the evenings in that village. As major domo of the district I had some clout over the power supply engineer, and I agreed to help. This over, I asked the professor if I could go visit this village and the group he worked with. He gladly agreed, and asked that I attend a meeting of his group. This is one summer evening that is permanently etched in my memory.

The meeting was in a thatched house which also served as a pump house. A group of about twenty people had gathered, apparently farmers. The professor introduced me to the group, and asked that the meeting proceed. I was not aware of the purpose of that particular meeting, nor was I aware what my role would be. But I expected the professor to take lead in that meeting. I was wrong. It turned out both of us were mere spectators.

The meeting was presided over by one of the farmers, and the agenda consisted of an account statement of the irrigation pump operation, status of some loans, and approval of pump irrigation schedule for the next week. It was an extraordinarily well conducted meeting, items were discussed collegially, and decisions were made on the spot. To me, a bureaucrat trained in the arcane ways of decision making this was a total surprise. Ladies and Gentleman, in a subtle but most effective way, the young professor had introduced me to his brainchild, group-based lending, and banking cooperative of the deprived, which he had launched in 1976.

That bright, maverick professor was Dr. Mohammed Yunus, and what I was privileged to see first hand was the first Grameen Bank. What started 23 years ago in a remote village of Bangladesh is a symbol of participatory economic development world wide. From one village, the Grameen Bank now covers nearly forty thousand villages of Bangladesh; from twenty odd members, Grameen has now close to two and a half million members. From a few hundred dollars, Grameen has now provided nearly three billion dollars in loans, to the poor, to the poorest of the poor. Ladies and Gentlemen, Professor Muhammad Yunus.”

[Writer’s Note: The above remarks were made in 1999, and since then Grameen Bank has reached over 6 million memberships and has a total 2226 branches in more than 7300 villages.]

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The Writer was Deputy Commissioner of Chittagong District from 1978-81.
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