Publicity stunt of Muhammad Yunus debunked

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Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, who has earned extreme controversies centering his role with Grameen Bank project has now come up with a massive publicity stunt, although none of the local or international media has yet succeeded in debunking this mystery. Immediately on seeing the news about issuance of “statement” of 40 individuals, who are being falsely portrayed as “global leaders”, a team of investigative reporters of BLiTZ began investigating the matter.

According to a website opened by Mohammad Yunus, a number of individuals namely Bono, Musician and Activist; Sir Richard Branson, Founder, Virgin Group; Lord Mark Malloch Brown, President, Open Society Foundations [an organization funded by George Soros]; Hillary Rodham Clinton [Hillary 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; 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 International Herald Tribune; Jane Goodall, Primatologist and Activist; Al Gore, Former Vice President of the United States; 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; 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; Senator Donald Riegle, Former US Senator from Michigan, Former Chairman, Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Development; 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 have written a letter to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stating: “Professor Yunus is one of seven people in history to have received the Nobel Peace Prize, the US Presidential medal of Freedom, and the US Congressional Gold Medal, a group that includes Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Theresa, and Elie Wiesel”.

Most of the above-mentioned individuals are not world leaders. Moreover, Jennifer Lopez, who was appointed as ambassador of ‘Grameen America’ last year did not sign this statement.

In June 2022, Muhammad Yunus spend lavishly towards publicity stunt in spreading the information about his appointing Jennifer Lopez.

According to our reporters, Yunus spent cash in spreading the “news” about issuance of “statement” by Hillary Clinton and other through a number of PR agencies, including PR Newswire. Founded in 1954 by Herbert Muschel with headquarters in Chicago, Illinois, PR Newswire, now named as CISION PR Newswire has emerged into the leading Press Release services in the world.

But Muhammad Yunus was not satisfied just by placing his so-called statement as press release with PR Newswire and few other PR agencies against payment. He also spend significantly in getting it published as sponsored post or advertisement in The Washington Post and it is also learnt that it may also appear in few more newspapers against payment soon.

On March 7, a full-page sponsored post lauding Dr Muhammad Yunus, Owner of Grameen Telecom and owner of around 34 percent share of Grameen Phone, was published in The Washington Post with the details of so-called statement issued by Hillary Clinton and others.

About the matter, the minister further said, Dr Yunus is a senior citizen of Bangladesh. Showing due honor and respect, I want to say that I didn’t see issuance of statement through advertisement in such a way in Bangladesh. I don’t know whether it happens in the international arena or not. The question is that how much logical the issuance of statement through advertisement and publishing it by paying millions of takas.

Yunus aspires to become President of Prime Minister

The above letter has been publicized days after Muhammad Yunus held a long telephonic discussion with Tarique Rahman, Acting Chairman of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) where Tarique and other leaders of the party have agreed to elect Yunus as Bangladesh’s president once BNP comes to power in 2024, although Yunus wants to be the Prime Minister in BNP’s government as the party is currently unable to field Tarique Rahman or Khaleda Zia as the candidate.

Muhammad Yunus has reportedly pledged to get international support in favor of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), once the party will announce him as its prime minister in the next government. Meanwhile, an editor of Dhaka’s leading English-language newspaper reportedly is coordinating media publicity on behalf of Yunus.

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