Sunday Guardian
May 15, 2011
A confederacy of dunces
Zafar Sobhan
May 15, 2011
A confederacy of dunces
Zafar Sobhan
How far it carries truth???
To: alochona@yahoogroups.com
From: Ezajur@yahoo.com
Date: Mon, 30 May 2011 06:27:38 +0000
Subject: [ALOCHONA] A confederacy of dunces
Sunday Guardian
May 15, 2011
A confederacy of dunces
Zafar Sobhan
Jonathan Swift said it best: When a true genius appears, you can know him by
this sign -- that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him. If there
was ever any doubt as to the rights and the wrongs of L'affaire Yunus, one
has only to consider the motley assortment of mediocrities and
attention-seekers who make up the anti-Yunus camp to get a good sense of the
merits of their case.
The prime minister's animus against Yunus is well known, but who has been
whispering in her ear and providing the intellectual and legal ballast for
the anti-Yunus witch-hunt?
Ironically perhaps, the key figure behind the campaign, according to sources
familiar with the prime minister's modus operandi, is a pettifogging
journeyman advocate of little distinction who has long been considered a
somewhat comical figure among his legal brethren.
Today, however, Advocate Tawfique Nawaz (not Barrister, he failed the Bar on
multiple occasions) is in the ascendant. His practice is flourishing and he
was recently hired to represent Bangladesh in a high-profile international
arbitration case even though he has scant experience in such matters.
Questions have been raised in the Bangladeshi media about his fitness for
the job and the potential conflict of interest inherent in the fact that he
is the husband of the foreign minister and a long-time ruling party loyalist
with no readily apparent qualifications for such a crucial assignment.
Not only did Nawaz represent Bangladesh Bank in its recent court case to
remove Yunus as managing director of Grameen Bank, but, according to sources
close to the prime minister, it is he who is the legal brains and animating
spirit behind the anti-Yunus campaign.
He is thought to be the author of the unsigned legal memo that the
government has been distributing, outlining its beef with the Nobel
laureate, and that has formed the basis for anti-Yunus articles penned by
the government's allies in the media.
Incidentally, two of the most damaging anti-Yunus pieces were written by
Nayeemul Islam Khan and Salahuddin Shoaib Choudhury, and it would be hard to
find another hack in Bangladesh with a reputation lower than theirs.
Another key figure in the anti-Yunus ranks is Muzammel Huq, the embittered
ex-Grameen employee who has now been installed by the government as the
bank's chairman, again, with scant apparent qualification for such a
position.
Huq has since got into hot water for an embarrassing anti-Yunus rant in the
New York Times and for forwarding an anti-Yunus article filled with obscene
invective to dozens of high-placed recipients, calling into serious question
his fitness for the post, if not his sanity.
Interestingly enough, Nawaz is also very close to a key member of the
Grameen Bank review committee that recently disgraced itself with its
severely flawed submission to the government.
Indeed, this is not his first time squaring off against Bangladesh's
non-profit sector, and, coincidentally perhaps, one of his allies in his
last battle was the member of the Grameen Bank review committee on whose
sole legal analysis the committee based its conclusions.
Nawaz first came to public attention when he sued Brac Bank a decade ago,
arguing that Brac (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee), as an NGO, did
not have the right to engage in banking operations. The argument was
dismissed by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in 2001, the court
ruling that as long as Brac Bank profits were used for Brac's social
mission, there was no issue.
Nawaz's co-counsel in the Brac Bank case was none other than Advocate Mohsen
Rashid, who somehow found his way onto the Grameen Bank review committee,
where he was the sole legal authority for the committee's faulty legal
analysis that has brought its conclusions into such disrepute.
Failing to get the rest of the committee to sign on to his more outlandish
interpretations, Rashid even went so far as to pen a hysterical addendum to
the report that is embarrassing in its legal vacuity. In the end, it is
small wonder that the review committee ended up issuing such a one-sided and
flimsy report.
So, this is what the anti-Yunus cabal looks like: the same clowns who tried
and failed to bring down Brac in 2001, a couple of discredited hacks, and a
disgruntled ex-employee who has achieved extraordinarily little since his
exit from the bank a decade ago.
Yup, these are just the guys the prime minister wants by her side.
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