Grameen Bank borrowers from different parts of the country yesterday termed the government attempt to remove Professor Muhammad Yunus 'motivated' and 'biased' and feared the bank will not sustain after his exit.

They expressed their shock and anger over the move to remove the Nobel laureate from the position of managing director of Grameen Bank and urged the government to review its decision and allow Yunus to run the bank for the sake of the poor.

"Grameen Bank and Prof Yunus are inseparable. We want him to lead the bank as long as he is alive,” said Amzad Hossain, a borrower at Pirgachha, Rangpur.

Like him, many borrowers in his locality have improved their economic conditions with the help of microloans from the bank, he said.

The reaction of the borrowers, who account for nearly one-third of the country's total microcredit beneficiaries, came after Prof Yunus on Wednesday faced a central bank order to give up his position as managing director of Grameen Bank.

Romila Khatun, 53, a Grameen Bank borrower at Kushtia Sadar, became angry over the attempt to remove Dr Yunus and said it was a 'conspiracy' to destroy the bank.

"Grameen Bank was established by Yunus for the poor people like us, not by the government. He brought attention of the world to Bangladesh through his activities and the government now is trying to destroy it," Romila said.

"If the government does not withdraw its decision, we (the poor) from across the country will launch a long march to the Prime Minister's Office to protest the conspiracy of destroying the bank."

The news of the government attempt also came as a shock to 52-year-old Fazilatunnesa, from Dumuria, Khulna. "I am really stunned to know about the removal of Yunus," she said.

"Grameen loans helped me came out of extreme poverty," said the women who built a poultry farm with the money from the bank.

She said microfinance has allowed her to run the poultry farm and helped get two of her daughters married off.

In its almost 30-year journey, the microcredit institution has financed 83.5 lakh borrowers, mostly women, who own 95 percent of the total equity of the bank.

As of January 2011, the bank of the poor has disbursed Tk 60,400 crore without collateral.

Out of this, Tk 53,650 crore has been repaid, thanks to millions of poor borrowers who have already proved the skeptics wrong by sending message to the world that poor are bankable.

Grameen Bank and 1,000 other microlending organisations provide support to three crore poor people to help them become self-employed.

The success of microfinance in Bangladesh has encouraged introduction of microcredit practices in many countries including USA, China and India.

Hafizur Rahman, a borrower of Grameen Bank of Gangachara, Rangpur, said Prof Yunus is the pride of the nation.

"Pressuring Yunus to step down from his post is a curse on the nation. It is a conspiracy to politicise the bank to breed corruption.”

Sobezon Bewa, 60, from Aditmari, Lalmonirhat, feared that Yunus' removal from the bank would be harmful for the poor.

“We have already purchased some cultivable lands (nearly one acre), a grocery shop and four cows through profits from my small business that was set up taking loans from Grameen Bank," said Bewa.

Before borrowing from Grameen, Bewa had only four decimals of land.

Azmira Akhter of Chandanaish, Chittagong, has been a borrower of the bank since 1998. In the last 12 years, she has borrowed Tk 80,000 and built four thatched shops on the family-owned land at her village market Rowshanhat and rented those out.

“It's true that I collected money from other sources also but the loans from the bank were a great help for me,” said 33-year-old Azmira.

Khurshida Begum, a borrower at the microfinancier's birthplace, Jobra, Hathazari, Chittagong, said the loan is very helpful to do small business.

“This is the duty of the government to save countrymen from poverty but they failed to do this. Through the microcredit system, Yunus has done the government's job, which is exemplary for the government as well as for others,” said Yasmin Akhter, another borrower at Jobra village.

The story of Sajeda Begum of Patiya, Chittagong, is quite different. She borrowed Tk 100,000 from the bank last year to meet educational expenses of her children. This January, she took Tk 150,000 more to send her eldest son to a Middle East country.

Shopkeeper Khalilur Rahman and his wife Baby Akhter at Delduar, Tangail, were also sad hearing the news about Yunus.

“When a branch of the bank was set up here, Prof Yunus came and had meetings with us sitting on the floor. I am very sad about his removal," said Akhter adding that Yunus had established the organisation by his talent and none can run the organisation like him.

“The small loans provided by the bank helped me improve my family's economic condition," she said. "Grameen provided me the first loan at a time when no organisation lent the poor and landless without any collateral."

Her husband Khalilur Rahman termed the move of the government intentional, and said:

“We, as a nation, have not learnt to honour any one. Dishonouring Prof Yunus is a self destructive attempt.”

Another borrower, Shafiqul Islam at Lalmonirhat said Yunus is the person who has opened scope for ultra-poor to get loans.

"The government's move to remove him from Grameen is not right and wise," said Islam who turned his fate from day labourer to a vegetable trader through loans from the bank.

He has also built a tin-shed house from the profits of his business.

Swapan Kumar Shil, a borrower in Patuakhali, said Yunus' idea of microloans helped the poor people.

"We had to face harassments in every ways to get loans from banks. But Grameen Bank people gave us loans at our doorsteps saving our time, and saving us from the harassments."

Swapan borrowed Tk 77,000 as education loans from the bank to help his son continue education at Jagannath University in Dhaka.

"It is a harmful decision taken by the government. We want to know what 'wrong' Yunus has done," said Uttam Shil, another borrower.

"Grameen Bank and Yunus are undividable," said Shatabdee Rani, another borrower.

News: Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ Mar-04-2011