This is a personal choice of four personalities; yours might differ !

Mohammed Yunus (creator of the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, Nobel Peace Laureate, 2006) and Abdul Kalam (scientist, author of Mission India, currently president of that Republic) both surprisingly, but separately, stressed the same idea: “that poverty need not exist any more in the world”. Their approaches to solving the problem of poverty in Bangladesh and India respectively (and indeed in the entire world) may be vastly different but the goal is the same: eradicating poverty and improving the quality of life.

Mohammed Yunus is the driving force behind the village micro-credit system (The Grameen Bank), which has helped around 7 million individuals (and millions more if one includes their families) emerge out of destitution. Born in Bangladesh, Dr.Yunus took a Ph.D from an American University before going to work as a professor of Economics at the University of Chittagong. He first discovered, during a period of famine in Bangladesh in the seventies, that “very small loans could make a disproportionate difference to a poor person”. Reading his book Banker to the poor, one is struck by the similarity of his concern with that of Mother Teresa, also working in Bengal, only on the other side of the border. His novel approach was to lend to the poor (low income or no income people), in trust, without any guarantee (hence no “sale by levy” threat!!) overwhelmingly to women (in this overwhelmingly Muslim country), small sums to enable them to start income-generating projects, however small. (Conventional banks as we all know lend only to those whom they consider credit-worthy, hence never lend to destitute persons!). The resulting empowerment to self-help was in total and sharp contrast with the existing situation of people who go to moneylenders and, who, when they can’t pay back the exorbitant rates, become virtual prisoners of their lenders. In rural areas, 98% of loans granted to poor people without any guarantee by Grameen Bank are honoured! What is the equivalent percentage at MCB? SCB? DBM?

Abdul Kalam has a vision of India eliminating poverty by 2010 and becoming a fully developed country by 2020, through science and technology, allied with modern, good governance. Born in a relatively poor Muslim family from Tamil Nadu, he took his first degree at St. Joseph's College (1950), Tiruchi, followed by a post-grad. in Aeronautical Engineering at the MIT, Madras in 1957. He is a proponent of “radical changes in Government administration”, towards service orientation and facilitation, conversion from action as administrator to a role of “manager and team player”. Instead of exercising controls and curbs, he believes that Governments should “function by regulation and adopt a promotional role”.

Similarly, he believes in making wide use of all recent advances in science and technology for the benefit of all people. Himself a distinguished scientist, he cites success with the Green Revolution in agriculture, which has given India almost full self-sufficiency in food and advances in Space Technology, which starting from scratch just a few decades ago, has given the world instant communication for radio, TV, telephone and the Net, through satellite-based systems.

In the IT field, for example, he is a supporter of “open-source software over proprietary solutions” and believes that the use of open-source, freely available software on a large scale will bring more people the benefits of IT.

I can only hope that everyone (politicians and scientists, administrators and industrialists alike) who were with me at Vaghee Hall last year to listen to Pr Kalam have each in their respective fields, retained his far-reaching words! On a diplomatic level, having succeeded in getting Sonia Gandhi and Abdul Kalam to come here, an ideal future speaker and guest to the Government and people of Mauritius would be Pr Yunus.

Their openness to others and to other religious traditions is also remarkable. Pr. Kalam, for example in his book India, A vision for the new millennium quotes at the opening of chapters, these sources, amongst others: The Old Testament, The Buddha, Desha bhakti of Gurajada, Subrahmanya Bharathi, Tagore and Gandhi, Gell-Mann and Von Braun! He maintains “No religion has ever mandated killing others as a requirement for its sustenance or promotion.”

I will not dwell on the two other faces: Osama Ben Laden and Saddam Hussein. Their use of terror, whether internationally or within their own country, can only be condemned outright, as are all other uses of targeted or (worse) indiscriminate violence to destroy people, to destroy other living things, habitats or indeed the natural environment.

IN CONCLUSION:

In our quest for world peace and harmony between all men and considering the four faces of Muslims mentioned in this essay, we should strive to educate our youth to emulate Mohammed and Abdul, in no way Osama and Saddam.

Comparative studies using foursome groups of personalities from amongst Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews, from amongst political leaders and writers, actors and sportsmen, scientists and industrialists could be most useful! Taking France as an example, can someone in the know give us a comparative study of their “gang of four”(no, not D’Artagnan, Arthos, Porthos, Aramis), but, at this stage, the four hopefuls for next years Presidential race, namely Nicolas, Segolene, Laurent and Dominique?