A memoir with a difference
Tuesday, 31 March 2009
Syed Fattahul Alim
Autobiography of a professional-turned-politician spanning his life from his birth in 1932 until his retirement as the finance minister of the country in 2006
Every autobiography is part of history. The one under review titled 'Kichu Katha, Kichu Smriti,' which can be rendered in English as 'A few comments, some notes from memory,' by M. Saifur Rahman, the former finance minister of the country, is undoubtedly part of history. The fact that the author of this memoir is a national figure makes the book an engaging document of historical significance in its own right.
The book tells the story of the writer's early life in his family as well as among his own people and also tells how the socio-political environment of the time crafted his public persona that made him what he became in the end. Writing in the first person, the author of this memoir narrates why and how he chose a career path that catapulted him to the world of politics and led him to cast his lot with the destiny of the nation.
No attempt has been made to dramatise the string of events that constructed the author's life. The chronicler has tried to record the events in a plain, matter-of-fact manner as they happened in real life. Even his participation in the language movement when he was a student of Dhaka University, his being a witness to the police brutalities against his fellow students and the resulting casualties that followed he tells in a reporter's style where the reporter himself was very much a part of the event. Even his arrest from his room at the Dhaka University's Salimullah Muslim Hall and consequent imprisonment in jail he has narrated in a down-to-earth language-no drama; no hero recounting his daring exploits like the ones the audience so often hears in February, the month of the language martyrs every year.
Former Finance Minister of the country M. Saifur Rahman is a person who need not be introduced afresh to his readers. He has been the longest serving finance minister of Bangladesh. He held the very sensitive portfolios of business adviser, commerce minister and then of finance Minister in the government of President Ziaur Rahman in the late 1970s and early 1981 until Zia's death. He held the same portfolio also in the short-lived government of President Justice Abdus Sattar, who was overthrown in 1982 in a military coup staged by General Ershad. Later, he again took charge of the country's finance and planning under the elected governments of BNP led by Begum Khaleda Zia between 1991 and 1996 and 2001 and 2006.
The narrative covers the entire period of the writer's life since his birth in an extended family in a sleepy village of Bahar Mardan in the Moulvi Bazar district under the Sylhet Division on October 6 in 1932 until he retired as the finance minister of the country as the term of the last elected BNP government that he served ended in 1996. Being orphaned at the age of six after his father Abdul Basir's death, he was reared by his loving mother Talebun Nesa and under the overall care of his paternal uncle. He was the eldest of the three male children born to his parents. His uncle Md. Shafi was a very kind and big hearted man and loved young 'Bastu' (the nickname of Saifur Rahman) more than his own children. His uncle believed that his Bastu would one day become a very successful person and bring name and fame to himself and to his family. In later life, Saifur Rahman not only did live up to his dear uncle's expectations, in real life, he, in fact, did more than that. He became a key figure in the government and politics of Bangladesh, framed its financial policies and ran the financial administration of the country over a period that spanned three decades between 1976 and 2006. However, between this period there was the nine-year rule of Ershad and five years of democratic government of Sheikh Hasina when he was in the opposition camp.
He narrates in the memoir how after his graduation in Commerce from Dhaka University, Saifur Rahman made an adventurous travel to London for higher studies where he chose a rather dry subject-chartered accountancy-for his future professional career.
His days in London brought him in contact with Third World leaders, especially those from the post-colonial emerging nations of Africa. He watched them delivering speeches at the Hyde Park to tell the world about their struggles for national liberation. He came in touch with an international cross-section of political activists and ideologues. Such exposures contributed towards widening his views about the issues of development and different socio-political ideologies. This further sharpened his awareness about the condition of his own people he had witnessed in his adolescence during the British colonial period and later as he experienced in his adulthood when he was a university student during the language movement.
After he joined his job in Pakistan upon finishing his studies, he came in contact with eminent personalities like Justice Muhammad Ibrahim, the then law minister of Pakistan, who further contributed towards providing him with a fresh insight into the situation of his fellow Benglalees under the state of Pakistan. In the beginning, however, he avoided politics as a career. On the other hand, he was rather looking for a professional career that would ensure him a secure job, which is why he chose accountancy, a subject he never loved, though. For even in his retired life after serving the country as its finance minister for a long time, he rued his choice of accountancy early in his career. He wished he could rather become a lawyer, a dissatisfied Saifur Rahman admitted in this memoir. This was a classic case of psychological conflict between the subject of study one loves and the subject one finally chooses for a career, a conflict that is common in the lives of many otherwise successful people in Bangladesh as elsewhere in the world.
Though he settled on a secure job after completing education, destiny thought otherwise. He got married to Durre Samad Rahman, who belonged to a renowned and respectable Muslim family of Chittagong, received higher training from his office to become administrative chief of the company. But he refused to continue in the monotony of service life. He returned to his homeland, then East Pakistan, and took charge of the Chittagong chapter of the consulting firm styled Rahman, Rahman and Huq he had earlier launched along with his two other partners when he was in Pakistan. So, Mr. Rahman was again home amidst his own family and his people. He was inducted in the national pay commission.
It gave him the opportunity to come in contact with Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman even before independence. After Bangladesh won its independence, he was for the second time included in the national pay commission and that again at one stage created the opportunity for his becoming intimate with the liberation war hero, the then colonel Ziaur Rahman. Zia, on his part, during a critical juncture in the national life took charge of the country and became its President. President Zia developed a strong liking for Saifur Rahman and later inducted into his government first as an adviser and then as a minister in his cabinet of ministers.
So, willy-nilly Saifur Rahman entered into the slippery career of Bangladesh politics. So is the story of a career conscious professional, who forwent his lucrative prospect of getting at the top of a multinational company and opted for a professional career just for the sake of independence, creativity and building something on one's own.
Slowly the memoir sheds light on his principled and fiercely independent character, which was demonstrated again and again during his stint with politics in President Zia's government. He continued to work with the elected governments led by Begum Khaleda Zia, the widowed wife of President Ziaur Rahman. His loyalty to Zia's cause was demonstrated through his allegiance to Begum Zia even after President Zia's death. It proves how committed he was in his loyalty to the man who brought him in the limelight of national politics for the first time. But as it happens to any person who brooks no hypocrisy and is given to in-your-face style of speaking in unmasking the truth, small wonder he drew the wrath of many quarters.
The present chronicle serves to reveal his intimate persona underneath the apparently sardonic and haughty shell of his public persona. In public life, he has also been known for his sharp sense of humour and an intimate and frank style of speaking. As a result, he has been equally liked and disliked by his colleagues for his outspokenness and candid style of expressing his views.
Such idiosyncrasies apart, he is also known for his singleness of purpose and for the courage of his conviction. Throughout the pages of this memoir, such particular aspects of his character comes out in sharp focus again and again.
He emphasised honesty in politics and in professional, social and family life, but regretted that it is becoming conspicuous by its absence nowadays. As it slowly unfolds, the wider canvas of the writer's role in the nation's government and socio-political life as a tough taskmaster and as the formidable 'financial guru' of the government becomes evident. The book also reveals that he really ran the show in the areas of the governance he controlled. But in his commentary about himself as related in the memoir, the author tried carefully to avoid being too obvious. As in the domestic scene in national politics, so in the international forums, during bilateral deals and also when he represented Bangladesh at the multilateral bodies, his presence has been loud and clear.
He was the introducer of many firsts like the ubiquitous Value Added Tax (VAT) in setting the financial and fiscal discipline of the economy right.
Always a believer of liberal democracy and supporter of free market economy, he is against sacrificing the individual at the altar of the so-called herd, group or community. He, however, is also against unfettered free market-ism, which can be termed 'Social Darwinism' as well. To put briefly, he has been in favour of the 'middle course' in politics and economy and against all kinds of extremes.
Considering that the author's career has been a rich, chequered and tumultuous one and that he was in the national spotlight during the major part of his life, the book could be made more interesting than it is now in its present form. That is so because he was closely attached to the person who was in charge of the nation and a chapter of its history.
He was privy to the kaleidoscopic turn of events surrounding the rise and death of President Zia. He was an insider of the then government when the palace conspiracies were being hatched. The usurping of state power by a general from an elected government, his long nine years' rule, the launch of the democratic movement and its fault lines, emergence of Begum Khaleda Zia as a tough organiser of anti-autocracy movement and an astute political leader who rebuilt Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) virtually from its ashes, the victory of the democratic government and her getting elected as the prime minister of the country for three terms and all the stories of successes, failures and follies that went with these events he had been privy to almost of all of those. It was the unfolding of a vast drama in the life of a nation that he has been witness to.
After all, it is also the drama that every reader craves for even in an autobiography, in case, the teller of the story is a famous personality acting his part from the very centre of power.
Small wonder in spite of the author himself, he could not help some elements of drama to creep into the storyline of the present memoir to embellish its otherwise dispassionate narrative to some extent. In this manner, the book has undoubtedly brought to life many yet untold anecdotes from the post-independent history of Bangladesh.
Save some typographical mistakes, the book makes an enjoyable reading. It appears the book was taken to the press in a hurried fashion. A better reading and editing of the script may remove the typographical mistakes in the next edition of the memoir.
The 352-page-long book chronicling the life of a hard-nosed professional-turned politician, illustrated with 68 pages of photographs printed on offset paper with hard covers is priced Tk 650. The price cannot be considered high given the cost of paper, printing, editing and all the attending paraphernalia in their recent context. But it is still at the higher end if the purchasing power of the general readers is taken into account. A cheaper paperback version of the book can meet such demand of the less well-to-do section of the readership.
Autobiography of a professional-turned-politician spanning his life from his birth in 1932 until his retirement as the finance minister of the country in 2006
Every autobiography is part of history. The one under review titled 'Kichu Katha, Kichu Smriti,' which can be rendered in English as 'A few comments, some notes from memory,' by M. Saifur Rahman, the former finance minister of the country, is undoubtedly part of history. The fact that the author of this memoir is a national figure makes the book an engaging document of historical significance in its own right.
The book tells the story of the writer's early life in his family as well as among his own people and also tells how the socio-political environment of the time crafted his public persona that made him what he became in the end. Writing in the first person, the author of this memoir narrates why and how he chose a career path that catapulted him to the world of politics and led him to cast his lot with the destiny of the nation.
No attempt has been made to dramatise the string of events that constructed the author's life. The chronicler has tried to record the events in a plain, matter-of-fact manner as they happened in real life. Even his participation in the language movement when he was a student of Dhaka University, his being a witness to the police brutalities against his fellow students and the resulting casualties that followed he tells in a reporter's style where the reporter himself was very much a part of the event. Even his arrest from his room at the Dhaka University's Salimullah Muslim Hall and consequent imprisonment in jail he has narrated in a down-to-earth language-no drama; no hero recounting his daring exploits like the ones the audience so often hears in February, the month of the language martyrs every year.
Former Finance Minister of the country M. Saifur Rahman is a person who need not be introduced afresh to his readers. He has been the longest serving finance minister of Bangladesh. He held the very sensitive portfolios of business adviser, commerce minister and then of finance Minister in the government of President Ziaur Rahman in the late 1970s and early 1981 until Zia's death. He held the same portfolio also in the short-lived government of President Justice Abdus Sattar, who was overthrown in 1982 in a military coup staged by General Ershad. Later, he again took charge of the country's finance and planning under the elected governments of BNP led by Begum Khaleda Zia between 1991 and 1996 and 2001 and 2006.
The narrative covers the entire period of the writer's life since his birth in an extended family in a sleepy village of Bahar Mardan in the Moulvi Bazar district under the Sylhet Division on October 6 in 1932 until he retired as the finance minister of the country as the term of the last elected BNP government that he served ended in 1996. Being orphaned at the age of six after his father Abdul Basir's death, he was reared by his loving mother Talebun Nesa and under the overall care of his paternal uncle. He was the eldest of the three male children born to his parents. His uncle Md. Shafi was a very kind and big hearted man and loved young 'Bastu' (the nickname of Saifur Rahman) more than his own children. His uncle believed that his Bastu would one day become a very successful person and bring name and fame to himself and to his family. In later life, Saifur Rahman not only did live up to his dear uncle's expectations, in real life, he, in fact, did more than that. He became a key figure in the government and politics of Bangladesh, framed its financial policies and ran the financial administration of the country over a period that spanned three decades between 1976 and 2006. However, between this period there was the nine-year rule of Ershad and five years of democratic government of Sheikh Hasina when he was in the opposition camp.
He narrates in the memoir how after his graduation in Commerce from Dhaka University, Saifur Rahman made an adventurous travel to London for higher studies where he chose a rather dry subject-chartered accountancy-for his future professional career.
His days in London brought him in contact with Third World leaders, especially those from the post-colonial emerging nations of Africa. He watched them delivering speeches at the Hyde Park to tell the world about their struggles for national liberation. He came in touch with an international cross-section of political activists and ideologues. Such exposures contributed towards widening his views about the issues of development and different socio-political ideologies. This further sharpened his awareness about the condition of his own people he had witnessed in his adolescence during the British colonial period and later as he experienced in his adulthood when he was a university student during the language movement.
After he joined his job in Pakistan upon finishing his studies, he came in contact with eminent personalities like Justice Muhammad Ibrahim, the then law minister of Pakistan, who further contributed towards providing him with a fresh insight into the situation of his fellow Benglalees under the state of Pakistan. In the beginning, however, he avoided politics as a career. On the other hand, he was rather looking for a professional career that would ensure him a secure job, which is why he chose accountancy, a subject he never loved, though. For even in his retired life after serving the country as its finance minister for a long time, he rued his choice of accountancy early in his career. He wished he could rather become a lawyer, a dissatisfied Saifur Rahman admitted in this memoir. This was a classic case of psychological conflict between the subject of study one loves and the subject one finally chooses for a career, a conflict that is common in the lives of many otherwise successful people in Bangladesh as elsewhere in the world.
Though he settled on a secure job after completing education, destiny thought otherwise. He got married to Durre Samad Rahman, who belonged to a renowned and respectable Muslim family of Chittagong, received higher training from his office to become administrative chief of the company. But he refused to continue in the monotony of service life. He returned to his homeland, then East Pakistan, and took charge of the Chittagong chapter of the consulting firm styled Rahman, Rahman and Huq he had earlier launched along with his two other partners when he was in Pakistan. So, Mr. Rahman was again home amidst his own family and his people. He was inducted in the national pay commission.
It gave him the opportunity to come in contact with Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman even before independence. After Bangladesh won its independence, he was for the second time included in the national pay commission and that again at one stage created the opportunity for his becoming intimate with the liberation war hero, the then colonel Ziaur Rahman. Zia, on his part, during a critical juncture in the national life took charge of the country and became its President. President Zia developed a strong liking for Saifur Rahman and later inducted into his government first as an adviser and then as a minister in his cabinet of ministers.
So, willy-nilly Saifur Rahman entered into the slippery career of Bangladesh politics. So is the story of a career conscious professional, who forwent his lucrative prospect of getting at the top of a multinational company and opted for a professional career just for the sake of independence, creativity and building something on one's own.
Slowly the memoir sheds light on his principled and fiercely independent character, which was demonstrated again and again during his stint with politics in President Zia's government. He continued to work with the elected governments led by Begum Khaleda Zia, the widowed wife of President Ziaur Rahman. His loyalty to Zia's cause was demonstrated through his allegiance to Begum Zia even after President Zia's death. It proves how committed he was in his loyalty to the man who brought him in the limelight of national politics for the first time. But as it happens to any person who brooks no hypocrisy and is given to in-your-face style of speaking in unmasking the truth, small wonder he drew the wrath of many quarters.
The present chronicle serves to reveal his intimate persona underneath the apparently sardonic and haughty shell of his public persona. In public life, he has also been known for his sharp sense of humour and an intimate and frank style of speaking. As a result, he has been equally liked and disliked by his colleagues for his outspokenness and candid style of expressing his views.
Such idiosyncrasies apart, he is also known for his singleness of purpose and for the courage of his conviction. Throughout the pages of this memoir, such particular aspects of his character comes out in sharp focus again and again.
He emphasised honesty in politics and in professional, social and family life, but regretted that it is becoming conspicuous by its absence nowadays. As it slowly unfolds, the wider canvas of the writer's role in the nation's government and socio-political life as a tough taskmaster and as the formidable 'financial guru' of the government becomes evident. The book also reveals that he really ran the show in the areas of the governance he controlled. But in his commentary about himself as related in the memoir, the author tried carefully to avoid being too obvious. As in the domestic scene in national politics, so in the international forums, during bilateral deals and also when he represented Bangladesh at the multilateral bodies, his presence has been loud and clear.
He was the introducer of many firsts like the ubiquitous Value Added Tax (VAT) in setting the financial and fiscal discipline of the economy right.
Always a believer of liberal democracy and supporter of free market economy, he is against sacrificing the individual at the altar of the so-called herd, group or community. He, however, is also against unfettered free market-ism, which can be termed 'Social Darwinism' as well. To put briefly, he has been in favour of the 'middle course' in politics and economy and against all kinds of extremes.
Considering that the author's career has been a rich, chequered and tumultuous one and that he was in the national spotlight during the major part of his life, the book could be made more interesting than it is now in its present form. That is so because he was closely attached to the person who was in charge of the nation and a chapter of its history.
He was privy to the kaleidoscopic turn of events surrounding the rise and death of President Zia. He was an insider of the then government when the palace conspiracies were being hatched. The usurping of state power by a general from an elected government, his long nine years' rule, the launch of the democratic movement and its fault lines, emergence of Begum Khaleda Zia as a tough organiser of anti-autocracy movement and an astute political leader who rebuilt Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) virtually from its ashes, the victory of the democratic government and her getting elected as the prime minister of the country for three terms and all the stories of successes, failures and follies that went with these events he had been privy to almost of all of those. It was the unfolding of a vast drama in the life of a nation that he has been witness to.
After all, it is also the drama that every reader craves for even in an autobiography, in case, the teller of the story is a famous personality acting his part from the very centre of power.
Small wonder in spite of the author himself, he could not help some elements of drama to creep into the storyline of the present memoir to embellish its otherwise dispassionate narrative to some extent. In this manner, the book has undoubtedly brought to life many yet untold anecdotes from the post-independent history of Bangladesh.
Save some typographical mistakes, the book makes an enjoyable reading. It appears the book was taken to the press in a hurried fashion. A better reading and editing of the script may remove the typographical mistakes in the next edition of the memoir.
The 352-page-long book chronicling the life of a hard-nosed professional-turned politician, illustrated with 68 pages of photographs printed on offset paper with hard covers is priced Tk 650. The price cannot be considered high given the cost of paper, printing, editing and all the attending paraphernalia in their recent context. But it is still at the higher end if the purchasing power of the general readers is taken into account. A cheaper paperback version of the book can meet such demand of the less well-to-do section of the readership.