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DT 12 Editorial FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 2017 TODAY Blood on our hands I shudder to imagine a scenario where we’d be on the receiving end -- whether it’s vandalism of our places of worship, or physical assault on believers of our faith PAGE 13 How we can manage the budget better Bangladesh’s budget is increasing, as is the pressure on the capacity to manage and implement the budget PAGE 14 FOCUS BANGLA A friend in Bhutan What’s holding us back? If we compare our position with other medium development South Asian countries, it seems we are lagging behind most of them PAGE 15 Be heard Write to Dhaka Tribune FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka-1207 Send us your Op-Ed articles: opinion.dt@dhakatribune.com www.dhakatribune.com Join our Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/ DhakaTribune. The views expressed in opinion articles are those of the authors alone and they are not the official view of Dhaka Tribune or its publisher. It is heartening to see Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina extend a hand of friendship to the Kingdom of Bhutan, our neighbours to the north we have so much to gain from. The PM met with King Jigme Khesar Namgyei Wangchuk, as well as Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, and signed six agreements and MoUs -- a sign of good things to come in the Bangladesh-Bhutan relationship for the near future. Bhutan has long been isolationist in its policies, but in recent years has been opening up to the world in terms of commerce and tourism, introducing democracy into its constitution as recently as 2008. The country’s recent economic performance has been nothing if not admirable, with the World Bank projecting a growth rate of 9.9% this year. It is a positive step for Bangladesh to increase ties now through the signing of deals pertaining to agriculture, the avoidance of double taxation, quality control of goods, and most importantly, allowing the land-locked country the use of inland waterways. The Dorjilung hydropower project is a great investment opportunity for Bangladesh, and could signal a new era in energy cooperation between South Asian nations. But Bangladesh also has much to learn from Bhutan -- its emphasis on happiness is a wonderful concept that economists are increasingly coming to appreciate. In a Forbes interview, when asked asked what his favourite thing about meeting people of his country was, Prime Minister Tobgay said: “To see genuine smiles.” A country like that is worth being friends with. Bangladesh has much to learn from Bhutan -- its emphasis on happiness is a wonderful concept that economists are increasingly coming to appreciate
Opinion 13 A tribute to Kamal Hossain on his 80th birthday DT FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 2017 • Rehman Sobhan Kamal Hossain will be 80 today, 20 April. This is hard to imagine given his continuing capacity to work professionally at the highest level both domestically and internationally and to travel across Bangladesh as well as all over the world. I would like to believe I am in better physical condition than he is but I bow my head before his courage, industry, energy and capacity to stay engaged. The only person I know in our generation and even those younger than us, who is more active than Kamal is our mutual friend, Amartya Sen. I have known Kamal for the last 75 years. We grew up together. In these early years Kamal, though younger than me was always the more studious, serious and purposeful. At school in St Xavier’s in Calcutta he was always near the top of his class, standing second over these years, to a diminutive Anglo-Indian boy by the name of Desouza. In three months of my winter vacations from St Paul’s I always provided the more frivolous intrusions into his academic life, playing games at his home, dragging him out to the Eden Garden’s to watch cricket, watching unsuitable movies about Frankenstein and Dracula. In later years, we attended university at the same time, Kamal at Oxford, me at Cambridge, where he was President of the Oxford University Majlis, when I was President of the Cambridge Majlis. I was by then more serious about the world but never entirely free of its frivolous side so Kamal always needed to get me to be more focused on the important things in life. In those formative years we both experienced our political flowering. From those university days we have also dreamt the same dreams together for our vision of Bangladesh and the society and world in which it may prosper. As part of our shared journey through the history and political landscape of Bangladesh there are few occasions where we have not travelled together. From the time that Kamal returned to Dhaka from Oxford in 1960 no moment has gone by when he has not thought about the problems and concerns of the people of Bangladesh and aspired to work for their betterment. From those early days in 1960 when we set up, what passed for a political think tank, the National Association for Social and Economic Progress (NACEP), He believes that a new generation will take up the torch to refuel the embers of the muktijudder chetona which used to meet in his living room at Kamal Court in New Bailey Road, we were exploring the road to a democratic, egalitarian, just and as it transpired, an independent Bangladesh. In our shared endeavours Kamal always remained more engaged than I ever was. Even before he went abroad on a full scholarship to Notre Dame University in Indiana, USA, after he stood first in all of East Pakistan, in the Intermediate examination of 1953, he was politically engaged. As a student at Notre Dame he had occasion to be inspired by and work as an assistant to Bhasha Matin, for the language movement. The moment he returned from Oxford in 1960 he was driving me to become more politically engaged than I was and taking me to meetings with Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy and through him with Bangabandhu, to learn our first lessons in politics. From the earliest stage of his legal career Kamal began appearing, pro bono, in political and human rights cases, appearing as a junior to such legal luminaries as SR Pal and AK Brohi. In 1964 he appeared for my student, Zakir Ahmed, in the famous case where Zakir and Fazlul Haq Moni had their degrees cancelled by Dhaka University for their involvement in challenging Governor Monem Khan’s appearance at the University Convocation. Both Matia Chowdhury and Rashed Khan Menon would remember that event from up close. Kamal did all the initial leg work for that case which went upto the Supreme Court where their judgement restored the degrees for Zaker and Moni. Later in 1966 Kamal appeared as a junior to SR Pal in the famous contempt of court case against the vice-chancellor of Dhaka University, Osman Ghani, filed by my colleague in the Economic Department, Abu Mahmood where Chief Justice Murshid ruled in favour of Mahmood. Eventually in 1968, Kamal who had just turned 31, appeared for Bangabandhu in the infamous Agartala Conspiracy case where he was one of his principal legal defenders, working besides Barrister Tom Williams who came from London to lend weight to the defence. Kamal’s intimate involvement with Bangabandhu and Tajuddin in the 1969-71 period, his association with Nurul Islam, Anisur Rahamn and myself, in’ drafting the historic Awami League manifesto for the 1970 election, his involvement in the final negotiations which served as a prelude to Yahya’s genocide on the people of Bangladesh and the nine months he spent under interrogation but unbroken, in Haripur jail in 1971, where he was indicted with Bangabandhu in their trial for treason against the state of Pakistan, are all part of our history. It was not unexpected that Bangabandhu would entrust Kamal, then only 35 years old, to serve as the first Law Minister for an independent Bangladesh and take the lead role in framing our constitution, which to this day remains a testament to the true spirit of the Liberation War and a role model for constitutions across the Third World. Once the constitution was drafted and adopted by the Parliament in March 1973 Bangabandhu invested Kamal with the even more challenging task of building up relations and projecting Bangladesh’s image across the world as his Foreign Minister. In a later period Bangabandhu added a further challenge to Kamal to serve concurrently as his Minister for Petroleum from where Kamal concluded the historic agreement with Burnal Shell to surrender their concessions to the Bangladesh Oil Gas and Minerals Corporation at a negligible price. After the assassination of Bangabandhu and his family on 15th August, Kamal refused to serve in the regime of Khondaker Mostaq where he was asked to resume his portfolio of Foreign Minister and spent the next 5 years in exile at Oxford. Kamal did not return to Bangladesh till 1980 where he engaged himself in rebuilding the Awami League. In this endeavour he was one of the key players, in the historic mission of persuading Sheikh Hasina to return to Bangladesh to assume the Presidency of the Awami League in May 1981. Through the 1980’s Kamal played a crucial role alongside Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia in the struggle to confront and unseat the Ershad autocracy. The rest, as they say, is history. I do not intend to retail Kamal’s story over the next three decades of our turbulent political history. In Bangladesh history, like truth and beauty, largely lies in the eyes of the beholder. Such a history continues to be written and rewritten but will one day find its own, more objective historians. What I will then say about Kamal, as he joins me in the demographics of the 80’s is that he, in my mind, remains one of the few people left in this country in public life whose honesty and integrity remain above question, who continues to believe, with all his heart and every fibre of his being, in the true spirit of muktijudder chetona which he was privileged to inscribe into the Bangladesh constitution of 1973. In an age of increasing cynicism and materialism, within a winner take all political culture, it takes a unique act of faith to sustain a belief that the values of the liberation struggle can be realised and not just as ritualised through slogans which bear little relevance to our contemporary realities. The difference between Kamal and me today is that I have embraced the teachings of the seer who prayed: ‘God give me the strength to bring about what change I can, the serenity to accept what I cannot change, and the wisdom to know the difference’. What makes Kamal a better if not a wiser man than me is that he challenges such nostrums for inaction. He continues to live out his years without serenity because he is unwilling to accept or tolerate the world as it is. The apparent serenity of those close to him to share his frustrations saddens and occasionally angers him. His own fires are fuelled by this continuing belief in our history of engaging in what were once deemed as unwise actions which have driven the people of Bangladesh forward even when the odds were totally against them. The experience of a people without a tradition of armed struggle to withstand the terrorism and genocide inflicted on them by the Pakistan army and emerge victorious in their struggle for national liberation, continues to inspire Kamal. He believes that a new generation will take up the torch to refuel the embers of the muktijudder chetona, to carry forward our unfinished liberation struggle. It is this undiminished hope which continues to drive Kamal forward. We can but hope that divine providence and the people of Bangladesh will one day give Kamal serenity not by accepting what he cannot change but by living long enough to witness the winds of change blowing across our land. Let us all greet him with love, respect, and hope on this memorable occasion and share, even for a few minutes if not though our own lifetime, his vision for a democratic, tolerant, self-reliant and truly just Bangladesh. • Rehman Sobhan is an economist. He is Founder Chairman of Centre for Policy Dialogue.
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