Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and Chief Adviser of Bangladesh’s interim administration, has come under fire for his leadership, especially in regards to press freedom and minority treatment. Yunus has been under fire from Michael Rubin, a senior scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, for purportedly supervising measures that restrict journalistic freedom and allow extremist organisations like Jamaat-e-Islami to develop clout in Bangladesh’s sociopolitical scene.
Using Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Aung San Suu Kyi as examples, Rubin’s piece in 19FortyFive compares Yunus’s activities to those of other Nobel laureates who have come under fire for policies that go against peace and human rights principles.
There have been reports of severe crackdown of journalists during Yunus’s presidency. Notably, freelancers Shakil Ahmed and Farzana Rupa have been imprisoned on alleged false charges and have had no contact with their families.
Furthermore, it has been stated that more than 1,000 journalists who were deemed “too secular” were fired, and that well-known journalist Julfikar Ali Manik was singled out for attack because of his coverage of Islamist activities. Rubin has also drawn attention to the predicament of Fazle Karim Chowdhury, a well-known human rights activist whose electorate has traditionally supported Bangladesh’s Hindu community. The persecution of Chowdhury raises concerns about minority groups’ safety under Yunus’s rule.
Rubin has urged the U.S. Secretary of State to think about punishing Yunus under the Global Magnitsky Act, stressing that the Nobel Peace Prize shouldn’t absolve people of responsibility for acts that violate press freedom and human rights.
The circumstance is indicative of a concerning pattern in Bangladesh, where political unrest and claims of violations of human rights are becoming more prevalent under Yunus’s direction.
