Speech of Mr M Syeduzzaman
Member, CPD Board of Trustees and Chairman, Bank Asia at the

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

 

Introduction:

Hon’ble Chief Advisor, Prof Rehman Sobhan, respected Advisors, Excellencies, distinguished discussants, Ladies and Gentleman:

On behalf of the CPD, and on my own behalf it is my great pleasure to invite you all to this Launching ceremony of the collected works of Prof Rehman Sobhan. I consider it a great honour to be asked to chair this unique event.

We might be tempted to think that this is a standard book launching ceremony, in the conventional sense, to promote the books and the author-only with the difference that this has a high profile where the Head of the Govt; members of the Council of Advisor, and the diplomatic community is present. It is not, for Prof Rehman Sobhan does not need to be promoted.

This is an occasion for presenting to our younger and the future generation, the thought and action of an extraordinary person of an extraordinary generation, to which, I, like many of you present here, am proud to belong. It is an occasion to give exposure to our new generation to the dominant theme of Rehman Sobhan’s life-his search for equity and justice, reflected in his writings on the academic, political and social issues of our time.

We are here today to celebrate a lifelong achievement of a person of our generation which will be a source of inspiration for our future generation.

We salute today the unprecedented wisdom that Rehman Sobhan has shown in addressing the “concerns that have driven his intellectual life”-to use Prof Amartya Sen’s word. These could not have been better expressed than in the two words: “Challenging Injustice”.

Concluding Remarks:

Ladies and gentlemen, it is now my turn to make a few concluding remarks, when I read Amartya Sen’s foreward to the collected works of Rehman Sobhan, I thought he had exhausted all that could be said about Rehman’s collection of writings. Speakers this afternoon have added new dimensions. I, therefore, feel completely helpless, and wonder, whether I could add anything more. I seek your indulgence in advance if there are some repetitions in my statement, and if there are some personal touches in my reflections.

I came to know of Rehman Sobhan when I went to Cambridge in 1957 for higher training as young civil servant of Pakistan shortly after he had left; and I did not meet him until 1961, here in Dhaka. Two young Pakistani students at Cambridge- Jamal Nazrul Islam, whom many of you know, and Harunar Rashid (both of them Ph.Ds later on told me a lot about Rehman.)

I met Rehman on a few occasions in the 1960s. Before we started working together in the Bangladesh Planning Commission soon after our Liberation, I had met him on two occasions-once in February in Dhaka in the critical days of 1971(probably in the house of Ali Joon Ispahani), and again in September 1971in Washington D. C. when Rehman was untiringly exposing the cause of Bangladesh’s Liberation in the campuses of many U.S. Universities and in other political/intellectual fora.

In those early encounters, Rehman struck me as a highly emotional and sentimental person, but also as a fighter with brutal frankness, with no fear of losing anything.

In the years that followed, when we worked together in the Planning Commission, on the Board of BIDS, or on the Board of the CPD, and in the civil society movement, my impression of Rehman changed to that of a visionary and a super-manager. This was evident from the way he gave leadership to his team in the Planning Commission, turned BIDS into an internationally reputed institution in the 1980s, the way he managed the work of 29 Taskforces (in ’90-’91) in less than three months, and the way he has established the CPD as a centre of excellence, and a leading civil society “think-tank” respected in the region and beyond. On this occasion I cannot resist the temptation of mentioning one thing, Rehman Sobhan was Member of the Planning Commission in charge of Energy, Industry and Infrastructure sector. He was my boss. I was working as the Secretary of the Ministry of Planning, basically serving the Commission in its effort to prepare the First Five Year Plan of Bangladesh (effective July 1, 1973) and to help the Members in establishing arrangements with other ministries for its implementation. But my main job was to negotiate foreign assistance (as Secretary of the ERD) in support of the plan. Our system was that the Member in charge of a sector, with his team, would negotiate the approved projects with the donors-their scope, design, cost, implementation arrangements etc. After that the secretary of the ERD would conduct the formal negotiations with the donors on the basis of pledges/ commitments, terms and conditions, and sign the aid agreements.

To my great surprise, Rehman called me in July 1974 to say that he had completed negotiations for the requirements of the entire Power Sector - generation, transmission and distribution, programmed for the entire Five Year Plan Period! Earlier, we in the Planning Commission had agreed that infrastructure facilities must be built ahead of demand, if we could mobilize the resources.

I mention this, Mr Chief Advisor, only to contrast with the dismal situation in which we find ourselves in the power sector.

In the years after he left the Government and the BIDS Rehman, through his ceaseless writings, lectures and actions, has come out as the “Quintessential Political Economist”, again to use Professor Amartya Sen’s words. His writings on the political, economic and social issues, bring out again and again, only one thing-that of Justice and Equity, for which he has been fighting since 1961. To me it seems that his initial vision has come back in full circle, and he is still fighting for Equity and Justice.

That is why the economic, social and political transformations in Bangladesh have pained him, as is so evident in his analysis of “Two Societies”, where he brings out his frustrations.

I think I shall be correct in saying that Rehman’s concerns for Equity and Justice was extended beyond the national borders - to the rest of the developing world. Here he joins the ranks of Amartya Sen and Mahbubul Huq, two other eminent sons of South Asia, in convincingly advocating shift of policy priorities from only growth to reduction of poverty and enhancement of human development.

Rehman’s attachment to Bangladesh has not evolved out of Bengali nationalism, but out of his determined dedication to the cause of Equity, Justice and Fairplay, with overwhelming emphasis on the weak and the undefended. His attachment to Bangladesh comes out of the fact that he has been nearest to the injustice and inequity here, and before that in Pakistan. Destiny has placed him in certain parts of the world, but his concerns extend to the rest of the developing world.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Concern for equity and justice in a poor society can come from two directions - from logic, or from a deep understanding of the linkage between economics and social dynamics. But as I have seen and understood Rehman, mainly from his writings, apart from personal interaction it is his bent. Had he been less educated or less rich, or had he been born in another country, he would have been the same person, with passion for equity, justice and fairplay-specially for the poor, the weak, and the undefended. Rehman is one economist who has been always vocal about linkage between principles and action, again for the weak, poor and vulnerable, and again extending beyond our border. From this point of view I consider him a co-sharer in a joint venture with Yunus and Abed, two other illustrious sons of the soil.

Rehman’s concerns in the most recent years as his writings and lectures will show, about malfunctioning of the democratic process, leading to malgovernance which gave rise to deficiencies in policies and losing control on our development agenda; all these finally leading to what he calls “crisis of the state and its gradual delegitimization, driven almost entirely by malgovernance and corruption in public dealings.

As early as 1996, he had said, in the context of the then prevailing political crisis, “How little our political leaders have learnt” The present political crisis, or shall I say, Mr Chief Advisor, the one we have just left behind, reinforces that belief that “ like the Bourbons they learn nothing and forget nothing,” as Rehman has also frequently said.

• The society will be anxious to see how the next generation of political leaders and professionals conduct themselves.

• I shall be failing in my duties, Mr Chief Advisor, Sir, if I do not point out, how crucial the next steps of your Government will be, in that context and direction.

Finally, I would like to mention about one exceptional quality that Rehman has demonstrated. He is never inward looking. For the present generation, he has been, and is, a broad two way bridge between our country and the rest of the world. And for the coming generation he will remain as evershining example of compassion and cosmopolitanism, which are essential ingredients of civilization.

Professor Rehman Sobhan has been, and will remain ever, a civilized architect of public policy. May he live long to inspire us and to give us courage.