Bangladesh has paid dearly for the row between Dhaka and Washington over Nobel laureate Dr Md Yunus and the Grameen Bank, a former top diplomat has said.
The country failed to secure threshold funding from the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), and some believe the squabble cost Bangladesh funding for the Padma Bridge.
“I had a series of meetings with State Department officials, senators and congressmen and they candidly expressed their concern about the fate of Dr Yunus and the independence of Grameen Bank,” former Bangladesh ambassador to the United States Akramul Qader told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
“Their primary concern is that without Dr Yunus, Grameen Bank will be no more. Moreover, they feel that the micro-lender will lose its independence if it is run under the Grameen Bank Act, 2013, instead of the original 1984 Ordinance,” he said.
Akramul was Bangladesh’s envoy to the US between mid-2009 and late 2014.
The emails of former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, recently disclosed by the State Department, reveal that she too was extremely concerned about Dr Yunus.
Robert O Blake, former assistant secretary of the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, said at a press conference in Dhaka in March 2011: “If there is no compromise [between the government and Dr Yunus], I think it will have an effect on our bilateral relations.”
Akramul said Bangladesh had fulfilled 11 out of 20 of the Millennium Challenge Corporation criteria but was not considered for the MCC threshold programme.
“Many countries which fulfilled fewer criteria than Bangladesh were considered eligible for the funds,” he said.
The row over Grameen Bank definitely had an impact on Bangladesh’s eligibility for the MCC funds, the former envoy said.
When asked if the tussle with Yunus cost Bangladesh the Padma Bridge, he said: “It might have.”
A senior official of the foreign ministry, asking not to be named, said there was a very good possibility that Washington was behind the cancellation of the Padma Bridge loan.
In 2010, the government entered into a contract with the World Bank for $1.2 billion in financing to build the bridge.
In 2012, the World Bank cancelled the Padma Bridge project on grounds of alleged corruption.
Akramul Quader said the corruption allegations had been proven false and that the lender had cancelled the deal for other reasons.
“It is very difficult to understand the diplomacy of the State Department. They can be very tricky,” said the senior foreign ministry official who asked not to be named.
Washington has immense influence over the World Bank, the lead lender for the Padma Bridge project, the official said.
“By tradition, a US citizen holds the presidency of the global lender,” he said.
But Akramul said the Grameen Bank issue had ultimately died down. “When Hillary Clinton visited Bangladesh as secretary of state in 2012, she only expressed concern over Dr Yunus and Grameen Bank.”
Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus was removed from the post of Grameen Bank managing director in 2011.
Dr Yunus and Grameen Bank include among their many admirers, President Barack Obama, former US president Bill Clinton and many senators and congressmen.
The US administration and many lawmakers have urged the government to come to a compromise with Dr Yunus.
