Introductory Statement by
Debapriya Bhattacharya
Executive Director, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) at the

Publication Launch of the Collected Works of Rehman Sobhan
Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel; Saturday 24 March 2007

 

- Your Excellency the Chief Advisor to the Caretaker Government and Chief Guest of the

   occasion Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed
- Hon’b le Chairperson and Member of CPD Board of Trustees Mr M Syeduzzaman
- Founder and Chairman of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Professor Rehman Sobhan
- Respected Discussants
- Excellencies, Esteemed Guests, Friends and Colleagues!

We have all assembled here this afternoon to celebrate the publication of Collected Works of Rehman Sobhan. On behalf of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), it is my proud and pleasant privilege to extend a warm welcome to all of you on this unique occasion.

We are extremely grateful for the kind presence of the Hon’ble Chief Advisor who has possibly overstretched himself, given his current preoccupations, to register his appreciation for his former teacher. You perhaps know that the Hon’ble Chief Advisor was one of the illustrious students of Professor Sobhan’s first batch in the Dhaka University, better known as the Batch of 1961.

We are much obliged to the galaxy of discussants who have witnessed time, life and works of Rehman Sobhan from close quarters. They have generously agreed to share their perspectives on this occasion.

We thank the chairperson for kindly agreeing to preside over this event.

Finally, we are truly overwhelmed and greatly inspired by your enlightened attendance. Many of you are Professor Rehman Sobhan’s students and colleagues, all of you are Professor Sobhan’s গুণগ্রাহী (admirer). We thank you all for joining us here today.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Today we have gathered here to commemorate the publication of an anthology in four volumes (including one in Bangla) containing the popular writings of Professor Rehman Sobhan. These volumes contain articles, regular columns in newspapers and magazines, op-eds, and interviews by Professor Sobhan. The companion volume in Bangla contains a select set of translated articles. In this connection, it is necessary to keep in mind that these four volumes do not include all the works of Professor Rehman Sobhan, only his popular works and that also the selected ones. These volumes do not also include his academic books which are 42 in number (including 3 in Bangla).

Among the total entries in these four volumes, numbering 222, the first one dates as far back as 1961, and the last one is dated 2006. Collating, classifying, editing, formatting, illustrating and printing this enormous volume of literature from diverse, dispersed (and often obscure) sources was a herculean task. Professor Rehman Sobhan has mentioned in his dedication of one of the volumes that “for CPD for whom no challenge is too great”. Indeed it is the intellectual passion, professional innovativeness, artistic creativity, and sheer hard labour of my CPD colleagues which have made this delivery possible.

The entire CPD family has contributed in different forms and varying degrees towards this publication. I would still like to single out a few of them. The unbridled enthusiasm and revealed commitment of Dr Uttam Kumar Deb, Senior Research Fellow, CPD have been the lifeline of the venture. Mr Mahboob Hassan, Outreach Manager, CPD conceived and managed the content design and formatting of the publication. Linguistic talent of Professor Hayat Mahmud greatly improved the Bangla rendition. Mr Avra Bhattacharjee, Documentation Officer, CPD provided significant editorial assistance. Mr Ashok Karmaker needs to be mentioned for his artistic inputs. There are many others and I do not want to bore you by reading out the CPD staff list. The entire process was ably led by Professor Mustafizur Rahman, Research Director, CPD and Ms Anisatul Fatema Yousuf, Additional Director in charge of Dialogue and Communication Division, CPD. To all of them I remain grateful.

I am humbled by the high degree of professional and personal commitment demonstrated by my CPD colleagues towards this venture. I am proud to be part of such an extraordinary collective.

Dear Guests,
On an occasion when you are confronted with the lifetime popular works of such an outstanding scholar as Professor Sobhan, one is seized by an urge for introspection. One feels inclined to take a step back and assess the context, concerns and challenges confronting his life and time.

I reckon his family circumstances played a big role in shaping Rehman Sobhan’s values and attitudes in life. His mother was an enlightened member of the Nawab family of Dhaka. On the other hand, his father after retiring from the colonial Indian Police Service opted for Pakistan and went on to become the Political Secretary to the Prime Minister. Subsequently he served as an ambassador. His father belongs to the first generation of post-Pakistan entrepreneurs who established one of the first tannery factories in Dhaka. Born in 1935 in Kolkata, Rehman Sobhan grew up at a time when anti-colonial movement gained momentum in the sub-continent; he witnessed the decadence of the feudal structure, noted the limits of growth of the new Muslim middle class and observed the constrained prospect of the emerging entrepreneurial class in the then East Pakistan.

An excellent academic environment nurtured and cultivated his natural ability to critically observe and assess his surroundings. He associated himself with the marginalized social groups on one hand, and the forces of promise and hope on the other. Rehman Sobhan’s alma maters included St. Paul’s School in Darjeeling, Atchison College, Lahore and the Cambridge University, UK. His subsequent academic pursuits took him to such institutions as Oxford and Harvard Universities and many of the reputed centres of excellence in the academic world.

Friends and Colleagues,
Fifty years back, in 1957, Rehman Sobhan started his professional career in the Department of Economics, University of Dhaka – where he taught till the beginning of the War of Independence in 1971. For many of you, Rehman Sobhan, first of all, is a teacher who still pursues his engaging augmentative style with great erudition while establishing his heterodox viewpoints. I do not know whether through his teaching Professor Sobhan has affected eternity or not, but he has definitely influenced a number of generations of students imbibing them with academic excellence, nationalistic feelings and often with a sense of purpose in life.

Excellencies,
For many of us Rehman Sobhan is a “liberation economist” (as there are liberation theologists). He is an economist who devoted his talent in search of a socio-economic paradigm which could liberate the people of this country from the threats of ignorance, poverty and insecurity. Some have complained that Rehman Sobhan was biased in his intellectual pursuit. Yes, biased he was! He was biased towards the marginalized and the deprived, voiceless and the disenfranchised people of this country. The storyline of all his works were underpinned by his quest for social justice, equity and equal opportunities for all. He emerged as possibly one of the most effective economists in Bangladesh to date whose political economic analysis and perspectives will generate confidence and enthusiasm for future generations who will seek to empower the citizens with their effective rights.

Friends and Colleagues,
Rehman Sobhan’s bibliography not only exposes an Odyssey of a Bangladeshi economist creating the milestones to independence, engaging in defining the development prospect of a newly born country, but also reflects the country’s subsequent struggle for socio-economic development. His seminal contribution in formulating the economic premises for the independence of Bangladesh, better known as the “Two Economies Theory”, is an achievement that would have been enough for a life time. But he never slowed downs. His writings are a true reflection of the developmental debate, discourse and experience that Bangladesh has passed over the past years. Thus, we see that major themes of his works have sequentially covered such areas as Political Implications of Food for Works Programme of Ayub Khan, Role of Public Enterprise in an Intermediate Regime, Crisis of External Dependence, Debt Default, Agrarian Reform, Critique of Adjustment Policies Reforms, Anatomy of Malgovernance and, finally, Strategies for Eradication of Poverty. He was always the first to address the idea whose time has come.

He taught us to blend academic rigour with civic courage. An example of this was publication of the monograph ‘A Decade of Stagnation’ during the heydays of anti-autocracy movement, a time when he was the head of semi-government organization, the BIDS. We later smuggled the monograph to the donor community’s annual aid group meeting which was being held in Sonargaon in October 1990. In fact, he was only 25 when his article on Economy of East Pakistan was withdrawn by the Pakistan Government because it was found to be politically unacceptable.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
In this connection we can not but mention Professor Rehman Sobhan’s role as a freedom fighter. He crossed over to India during the early months of the Liberation War in 1971 and was appointed “Envoy Extraordinary” in charge of Economic Affairs for the Provisional Bangladesh Government in Exile. In this capacity he was the first representative of the Provisional Government to reach USA in the month of May 1971. He was the first to address the leading US Senators to apprise them about the cause of Bangladesh. At that time, he had the unique distinction of addressing the National Press Club of Washington D.C., an honour which is sometimes accorded to the Heads of States. Rehman Sobhan continued to mobilize international opinion till the Victory Day.

Dear Guests,
While appreciating the role of individuals, Rehman Sobhan has always demonstrated his belief in collective actions. Thus, he remains one of the successful institution builders in the country. Launch of the post-independence Bangladesh Planning Commission, rejuvenation of BIDS in mid-1980s and founding of CPD in mid-1990s bear testimony to his organizational capacity and leadership qualities. As a leader, he has always striven to create and promote people with conviction and the will to carry on the task of nation building.

Dear Colleagues and Guests,
Many of you are possibly not fully aware that Rehman Sobhan has been and remains a distinguished personality in the international development community. He was a member of the United Nations Secretary General’s Committee for Development Planning, Member of the Executive Committee of the International Economics Association, Member of the Commission for New Asia, Member of the Board of UNRISD and the UN University. He was a member of the Group of Eminent Persons set up by SAARC Heads of States as well as that of the High Level Panel for the LDCs set up by UN-ESCAP. His forceful interventions in various fora are often respectfully recalled by those who did not necessarily agree with his propositions. He resigned from the famous Volker Commission, which was headed by the former Head of the US Federal Reserve, when he disagreed with him on his approach towards restructuring of multilateral financial system, arguing for better resource flow to low income countries.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
At the end of the day, what always impresses us is his human qualities – his noble values and good manners. His care for his low paid colleagues, inconspicuous public charity, active interest in diverse issues in life, strength to suffer personal tragedies gracefully. Indeed, he has a deep inner life which allows him to deal with the irritating details of the mundane. He finds time to pick the latest blockbuster from the DVD store, and also to pen a long review after reading Vikram Seth’s ‘A Suitable Boy’. Many of us who have learnt our trade at his feet received a bonus in the form of appreciation for pursuing high thoughts with passionate human interests.

Dear Friends and Colleagues,
One wonders why a man who is responsible for articulating the economic rationale for Bangladesh’s independence movement, who played an active international role for the provisional government, who shaped the reconstruction and development policy of post-independence Bangladesh, who with his research and policy works has systematically tried to create a self-reliant national economy, who for four decades has stuck to his guns in adverse conditions and has contributed in creating an independent civil society in Bangladesh – was never honoured with a national recognition. On second thought, it does not come as a surprise, Professor Sobhan had always been on the other side of the barricade – fighting against the establishment for development rights of the poor and the marginalized. He was always a rebel with a cause. Thus, his real recognition emanates from the affection and respect of his students, colleagues and conscious citizens at large. To quote Voltaire, “It is to him who masters our mind by the force of truth, not to those who enslave them by violence (and may I add, money), that we owe our reverence”.

It is in this spirit that the CPD family has paid its humble tribute to its teacher, mentor and Guru by publishing these volumes for present generation and the posterity. Bangladesh is going through an unprecedented phase of its nationhood. We trust works of Professor Sobhan will find new relevance in this challenging and changing times.

Thank you for your attention.