A credit to politics

It’s good to see that the pioneering banker and microcredit economist, Muhammad Yunus, is applying his tremendous intelligence to the field of politics.

Yunus is already a legend in his home country and around the world, and was the deserved recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize last year, for his “efforts to create economic and social development from below”. His application of microcredit economics has enriched thousands of lives, yet he retains a touching humility, evident in our interview this week.

“I established the Grameen Bank but even I cannot buy a share of the bank,” he says. “I am only an employee of the bank. The borrowers are the shareholders and the owners of the bank. It is owned by poor people — poor women in particular — and it serves them to change their lives.”

His truly democratic party — tentatively titled ‘Citizens’ Power’ — proposes to establish political goodwill, proper leadership and good governance in order to build a new Bangladesh. As the man himself explains: “Poverty is not caused by poor people; it is caused by the institutions we build; concepts that we have developed, policies that we pursue. That has created poverty.”

I’m sure you’ll join with me in wishing this remarkable man the very best of luck in the murky world of politics.

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