Assalamualaikum wr wb, Ada yang mengatakan bahwa Grameen Bank yang dikelola pemenang Nobel Muhammad Yunus di Bangladesh bukan Bank Syariah. Namun saya melihat Grameen Bank pada beberapa sisi justru lebih Islami daripada sebagian Bank Syariah yang ada di Indonesia.
Pertama Grameen Bank tidak membutuhkan jaminan. Jadi orang miskin, khususnya wanita, bisa meminjam tanpa perlu memberi jaminan. Nah di Indonesia, jangankan tanpa jaminan, rumah di dalam gang saja ada bank Syariah yang tidak mau menerima sebagai jaminan. Hebatnya meski tanpa jaminan, tingkat pengembalian nasabah Grameen Bank tetap tinggi! Padahal Islam itu bukankah mempermudah? Bukan mempersulit? Sebagai contoh, ketika ummat Islam harus membayar untuk mendapatkan air dari orang Yahudi, Nabi segera meminta sahabat untuk membeli sumur air tersebut. Akhirnya rakyat bisa mengambil air dengan gratis. Itulah Islam yang diajarkan Nabi! Kenyataannya justru bank Syariah kerap lebih mahal pengembaliannya daripada Bank Konvensional. Sebagai contoh untuk pinjaman rp 50 juta dalam tempo 10 tahun, total pinjaman yang harus dikembalikan di BCA hanya rp 98 juta. Sementara di satu Bank Syariah ternyata rp 146 juta. Meski menurut staf Bank Syariah nilai tersebut tidak bakalan naik, tapi justru bisa kurang. Tapi seandainya kurang jadi rp 120 juta, kan tetap lebih besar dan memberatkan ketimbang Bank Konvensional? Hebatnya lagi, pinjaman di Grameen Bank benar2 dirasakan manfaatnya bagi rakyat banyak. Sekitar 50 juta orang merasakannya dan mereka terlepas dari kemiskinan yang akut. Pinjaman yang diberikan tidak banyak. Pertama pada tahun 1974 hanya US$ 27 ke 42 keluarga. Satu orang dipinjami kurang dari 1 dollar! Nah kira2 sudah adakah Bank Syariah di Indonesia yang menjadi Bank bagi rakyat miskin seperti Grameen Bank? Dan jika (orang yang berhutang itu) dalam kesukaran, maka berilah tangguh sampai dia berkelapangan. Dan menyedekahkan (sebagian atau semua utang) itu, lebih baik bagimu, jika kamu mengetahui. [Al Baqarah:280] Allah memusnahkan riba dan menyuburkan sedekah... [Al Baqarah:276] Dari ayat di atas jelas Allah memerintahkan kita untuk mempermudah. Bahkan sampai ke tingkat sedekah. Jadi meski tidak mampu memberi sedekah, harusnya Bank Syariah bisa lebih ringan pembayarannya ketimbang Bank Konvensional. Bukan karena memanfaatkan sentimen agama, akhirnya besar pengembalian pinjaman justru lebih tinggi/berat dari Bank Biasa. Bank Syariah harus memakai strategi lain. Bagi hasil sudah bagus. Cuma untuk pinjaman rumah masih seperti akal-akalan dengan Allah. Misalkan harga rumah Rp 100 juta. Ceritanya Bank Syariah membeli rumah itu dan menjual ke nasabah seharga Rp 200 juta secara cicilan. Seharusnya Bank Syariah bisa menekan pengembalian dengan bekerjasama dengan Developer rumah. Misalkan harga rumah rp 100 juta, maka ke Bank Syariah diberi diskon sebagai marketing hingga Bank Syariah membeli seharga Rp 80 juta. Bank Syariah menjualnya ke nasabah dengan harga pasar Rp 100 juta (kas). Kalau cicilan meski bisa lebih besar, tapi tidak harus sebesar Bank Konvensional Sekali lagi memang semua tergantung niat. Apakah niatnya Lillahi taala atau hanya untuk mencari untung sebesar-besarnya. Kalau Muhammad Yunus dari Grameen Bank, saya menangkap kesan semangatnya yang tinggi untuk menolong rakyat miskin. Tak heran Grameen Bank disebut BANK FOR THE POOR http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grameen_Bank The Grameen Bank (Bangla: গ্রামীণ ব্যাংক) is a microfinance organization and community development bank started in Bangladesh that makes small loans (known as microcredit) to the impoverished without requiring collateral. The system is based on the idea that the poor have skills that are under-utilized. The bank also accepts deposits, provides other services, and runs several development-oriented businesses including fabric, telephone and energy companies. The organization and its founder, Muhammad Yunus, were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.[1] History Muhammad Yunus, the bank's founder. Muhammad Yunus, the bank's founder. Muhammad Yunus, the bank's founder, earned a doctorate in economics from Vanderbilt University in the United States. He was inspired during the terrible Bangladesh famine of 1974 to make a small loan of $27 to a group of 42 families so that they could create small items for sale without the burdens of predatory lending.[2] Yunus believed that making such loans available to a wide population could ameliorate the rampant rural poverty in Bangladesh.The leadership skills of Dr. Akhtar Hameed Khan (founder of Pakistan Academy for Rural Development now Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development)[3] proved a source of inspiration for Yunus to start Grameen Bank. The Grameen Bank (literally, "Bank of the Villages", in Bangla) is the outgrowth of Muhammad Yunus' ideas. The bank began as a research project by Yunus and the Rural Economics Project at Bangladesh's University of Chittagong to test his method for providing credit and banking services to the rural poor. In 1976, the village of Jobra and other villages surrounding the University of Chittagong became the first areas eligible for service from Grameen Bank. The Bank was immensely successful and the project, with government support, was introduced in 1979 to the Tangail District (to the north of the capital, Dhaka). The bank's success continued and it soon spread to various other districts of Bangladesh and in 1983 it was transformed into an independent bank by the legislature of Bangladesh. Bankers from ShoreBank, a community development bank in Chicago, helped Yunus with the official incorporation of the bank under a grant from the Ford Foundation.[4] The bank's repayment rate was hit following the 1998 flood of Bangladesh before recovering again in recent years. The Bank today continues to expand across the nation and still provides small loans to the rural poor. As of mid-2006, Grameen Bank branches number over 2,100.[5] Its success has inspired similar projects around the world. [edit] Application of microcredit 16 Decisions 1. We shall follow and advance the four principles of Grameen Bank: Discipline, Unity, Courage and Hard work in all walks of our lives. 2. Prosperity we shall bring to our families. 3. We shall not live in dilapidated houses. We shall repair our houses and work towards constructing new houses at the earliest. 4. We shall grow vegetables all the year round. We shall eat plenty of them and sell the surplus. 5. During the plantation seasons, we shall plant as many seedlings as possible. 6. We shall plan to keep our families small. We shall minimize our expenditures. We shall look after our health. 7. We shall educate our children and ensure that they can earn to pay for their education. 8. We shall always keep our children and the environment clean. 9. We shall build and use pit-latrines. 10. We shall drink water from tubewells. If it is not available, we shall boil water or use alum. 11. We shall not take any dowry at our sons' weddings, neither shall we give any dowry at our daughter's wedding. We shall keep our centre free from the curse of dowry. We shall not practice child marriage. 12. We shall not inflict any injustice on anyone, neither shall we allow anyone to do so. 13. We shall collectively undertake bigger investments for higher incomes. 14. We shall always be ready to help each other. If anyone is in difficulty, we shall all help him or her. 15. If we come to know of any breach of discipline in any centre, we shall all go there and help restore discipline. 16. We shall take part in all social activities collectively. Grameen Bank Building in Dhaka Grameen Bank Building in Dhaka Grameen Bank is best known for its system of solidarity lending. The Bank also incorporates a set of values embodied in Bangladesh by the Sixteen Decisions.[6] The system is the basis for the microcredit and the self-help group system now at work in over 43 countries. Although each borrower must belong to a five-member group, the group is not required to give any guarantee for a loan to its member. Repayment responsibility solely rests on the individual borrower, while the group and the centre oversee that everyone behaves in a responsible way and none gets into repayment problem. There is no form of joint liability, i.e. group members are not responsible to pay on behalf of a defaulting member. (Mohammed Yunus) [7] In a country in which few women may take out loans from large commercial banks, the fact that most (97%) loan recipients are women is a significant accomplishment. In other areas, Grameen's track record has also been notable, with very high payback ratesover 98 percent. However, according to the Wall Street Journal, a fifth of the bank's loans were more than a year overdue in 2001.[8] More than half of Grameen borrowers in Bangladesh (close to 50 million) have risen out of acute poverty thanks to their loan, as measured by such standards as having all children of school age in school, all household members eating three meals a day, a sanitary toilet, a rainproof house, clean drinking water and the ability to repay a 300 taka-a-week (around 4 USD) loan. === Ingin belajar Islam sesuai Al Qur'an dan Hadits? Kirim email ke: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ____________________________________________________________________________________ Catch up on fall's hot new shows on Yahoo! TV. Watch previews, get listings, and more! http://tv.yahoo.com/collections/3658

