National

Suu Kyi 100 percent to blame: Yunus

In what the United Nations has called "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing", in recent weeks more than half a million majority-Muslim Rohingya have fled Myanmar for neighbouring Bangladesh, reports Al Jazeera.

Myanmar's security forces and Buddhist vigilantes have been accused of mass rape, murder and the burning of entire villages.

Nobel Peace laureate and economist Muhammad Yunus placed the blame on de facto leader and fellow Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

"I'll put 100 percent of the blame on her because she is the leader," Yunus said.

When asked if Myanmar's military is actually wielding the power and rendering her essentially powerless, Yunus replied, "Well, then she should resign."

Yunus also said that by staying on in government Aung San Suu Kyi is "absolutely" giving her blessing to the military and its actions in Myanmar.

"Not only that, verbally she's defending it," he added. "She says, 'I don't know why these people are going. No, we don't have atrocities. No, it is Arakanese who are attacking us.' All kinds of things ... She gets all the blame and she's responsible for it, and she has to fix it."

In the interview, we also discuss his new book, and Yunus warns that the way the concentration of wealth has taken place in the world is leading to a ticking timebomb.

For this week's Headliner, we speak with Muhammad Yunus, the author of the new book, A World of Three Zeros: The New Economics of Zero Poverty, Zero Unemployment, and Zero Net Carbon Emissions.