Tk 7.8m Ad on Dr Yunus in Washington Post: A plot to defame Bangladesh govt

A new conspiracy has been hatched to defame the Bangladesh government through depicting Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus as a ‘victim of unfair treatment’.

Mentioning about an open letter where some 40 global leaders expressed their “deep concerns for the well-being” of the former managing director of Grameen Bank, a full-page advertisement was published in the Washington Post on March 7.

The next day English daily 'Daily Star' published the advertisement in the form of news, but it didn’t mention that what type of unfair treatment or attack Dr Yunus was subjected to and no specific information to justify the allegation was mentioned in the advertisement.

Quoting the advertisement, the Daily Star stated that the global leaders wrote to the Prime Minister that it is painful to see Prof Yunus, a man of impeccable integrity, and his life’s work unfairly attacked and repeatedly harassed and investigated by the government.

An open letter in the Washington Post for Tk 7.8 million

Page seven of the Washington Post was used for publishing this advertisement. On March 7, the open letter was printed on that page in 18.5 inches and five columns.

The size of that advertisement was 90 and a half column inches. Out of the total six columns on that page, one column was news and there was another two-and-a-half-inch ad at the bottom.

It has been calculated that according to the rate of February 1, 2021, the cost of advertising was USD 52,128. If it is converted into taka it stands at Tk 55,77,696. But the cost of everything has increased in the last two years. Due to which the advertisement rate of the newspaper has also increased.

According to information available online, the Washington Post’s current advertising rate is USD 807 per column inch. According to that, the cost of this advertisement of Dr Yunus is USD 73,033.

If per dollar is exchanged at Tk 107, the cost of the advertisement stands at Tk 78,14,584.

How prominent persons see the open letter with advertisements

Dhaka University’s former vice-chancellor Dr AAMS Arefin Siddique thinks the government has not treated Yunus in a way that necessitates an open letter and publishes it as an advertisement.

He said that the government has not treated him in any way that warrants such a statement. But the mass people of this country are well aware of what kind of harmful activities Dr Yunus conducted in Bangladesh.

Asked about the open letter of 40 prominent people about Dr Yunus, senior journalist Naeemul Islam Khan said the statement is based on under information. If we look at the ad very simply from the beginning, there are no details on where Dr Yunus’s activities in and outside the country were affected.

He termed that the allegations brought in the letter are completely baseless.

Signatories to the letter are:

Bono, musician and activist; Sir Richard Branson, founder, Virgin Group; Lord Mark Malloch Brown, president, Open Society Foundations; Hillary Rodham Clinton, former US Secretary of State; Sam Daley-Harris, founder, RESULTS and Civic Courage; Lt Gen (rtd) Romeo Dallaire, founder, Dallaire Institute for Children, Peace and Security; Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president emerita, Children's Defense Fund; Vicente Fox, former president of Mexico; Peter Gabriel, musician; Ron Garan, former Nasa astronaut, and Kul Gautam, former deputy executive director of Unicef and assistant secretary general of the UN.

Pamela Gillies, former vice-chancellor and professor emerita, Glasgow Caledonian University; Peter C Goldmark, Jr, former CEO, Rockefeller Foundation and Int'l Herald Tribune; Jane Goodall, primatologist and activist; Al Gore, former vice president of the US; John Hewko, CEO, Rotary International; Mo Ibrahim, entrepreneur and philanthropist; Baroness Helena Kennedy, KC Member of the House of Lords UK; Kerry Kennedy, president, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights; Ted Kennedy Jr; Vinod Khosla, venture capitalist, and Ban Ki-moon, 8th secretary general of the UN.

Annie Lennox, singer, songwriter, and activist; Arthur Levitt, former chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission; Gene Ludwig, founder and CEO, Springharbor Holdings & Former US Comptroller of the Currency; Paul Maritz, former CEO of VMWare; Michael H Moskow, former president and CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago; Narayana Murthy, founder, Infosys; Sir Robin Niblett, former chief executive, Chatham House; Jan Piercy, advisor, Southern Bancorporation, former US board director, World Bank; Robert Post, sterling professor of Law, Yale Law School; Donald Riegle, former US Senator from Michigan, former chairman, Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Development, and Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland.

Ellen Seidman; Yeardley Smith, actress; Sharon Stone, mother; Dr David Suzuki, prof emeritus, University of British Columbia; Peter Tufano, former dean, Saïd School of Business, Oxford University; Melanne Verveer, former US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues, and Jimmy Wales, founder, Wikipedia.

All the complaints against Yunus

Allegations of corruption against Yunus are not new. Twelve years ago, Norwegian state television aired a documentary about Grameen Bank shifting billions of taka against Yunus.

In addition, Dr Yunus’s Grameen Telecom corruption probe is on. The organisation has been accused of misappropriating workers’ money, embezzling Tk 45,52,13,000 without distributing the money of welfare fund among its workers and transferring Tk 2,977 crore to affiliated institutions through money laundering.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has already interrogated Grameen Telecom managing director Nazmul Islam regarding the complaint.

Dr Yunus wanted to come to power removing the leaders of the two major parties during the 1/11 army-backed government. At that time he also announced to form a party called Grameen Party.

Apart from this, his name has come up behind the cancellation of funding for the Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project.

The US lobby is active to make Yunus a hero

In October last year, the US lobby started the campaign to make Yunus a hero. On October 6, Sweden-based media outlet Netra News published a report about him.

The online media, funded by an NGO of the US, published a report by controversial journalist David Bergman. He wrote the ACC of Bangladesh has come up against Yunus.

A week later on October 13, the British newspaper The Economist tried to make Yunus a hero. It is said Bangladesh has increased persecution against Nobel laureate Yunus.

Dr Yunus will have to appear before the ACC this month, and may face a travel ban.

Based on this report of the Economist, Human Rights Watch chief Kenneth Roth claimed in a tweet saying that there is a false propaganda against Dr Yunus.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) mainly works to establish US policy in various countries. The organisation has made statements at various times on behalf of the war criminals and to end the trial of war crimes trials in Bangladesh.

Nicholas Kristof, a journalist of CNN based in the United States, also followed the path of HRW chief. He retweeted HRW chief’s tweet where he wrote Dr Yunus has done a lot for the world.