Last Monday was Finance Minister AMA Muhith’s 83rd birthday. I returned home from abroad at around 6pm the same day. I had to tend to a lot of pending work at the office, and could only afford enough time to send Mr Muhith a congratulatory “happy birthday” through SMS at around 11:30pm. “At 54, I feel more tired than I should. You’re 83 and not even retired,” I texted him.
Mr Muhith is possibly the oldest finance minister we’ve had, possibly even the oldest cabinet member in the world.
“Who could be the most appropriate individual as the finance minister of an emerging economy?”
The answer, inevitably, comes back to “a young and energetic person held in high esteem for his or her knowledge and wisdom by other cabinet members and the development partners.”
Then how is it that Bangladesh -- a vibrant and developing nation -- has the oldest cabinet member in the world as its finance minister?
A question to which most replied: “Muhith is the most balanced person in the entire cabinet ... and development partners like him! In Bangladesh, the development planning and execution process is mostly handled by civil bureaucrats. Muhith knows them well and they respect him quite a lot. It is therefore easier for Muhith to get the job done through them.”
Others have weighed in, saying that “the finance minister must be an honest person. Prime Minister Hasina has seen the most honest person in him among the entire cabinet.”
A few of them thought that “Muhith is the best choice among all ruling party stalwarts. Others are either deemed to be corrupt or too eccentric.”
However, if you ask me, Mr Muhith is a true prodigy as a Bangladeshi civil servant. He comes from a very good background and thereby represents the erstwhile known to be “elite society.” Because of a chequered career in civil service, he is well-respected, linked with development partners, has a global outlook, and can get the job done by both juniors and peers alike.
We know of many civil servants of Pakistan -- they are supposed to be articulate, smart, and well-networked. But only few of them can boast of having been involved in our Liberation War. Muhith played a distinctive role in currying international opinion in favour of our independence.
He has written many books championing the cause of an independent Bangladesh. He is extremely articulate.
His English is as good as his Bengali (which is very good, if you weren’t convinced). He knows what fight has to be fought and where and when to retreat. Surprisingly, he is also a true lover of art -- a place where his heart lies most, I suspect
I came across Mr Muhith in the early 90s. He, along with his few friends, organised the Paribesh Bachao Andolon, which ultimately emerged as the Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon, or BAPA. I’ve met him at many painting exhibitions and book launch programs. He respects his peers and has never talked ill of them.
A truly decent human being. I know for certain that he has nothing but respect for his predecessor, the late Saifur Rahman, and even Professor Muhammad Yunus.
I witnessed his tenacity while the World Bank financing plan for Padma Bridge fell through.
Even though the financing of Padma Bridge didn’t pan out as it should have, Mr Muhith got the World Bank to finance many other large projects and pushed them to come up with even larger budgetary commitment.
Many of my friends think I am a little biased while it comes to commenting on Mr Muhith. They don’t like it when I write highly about an individual they refer to as “Mr Rubbish” and/or “Mr Bogus.”
But I am not so biased that I may gloss over the government’s, and more importantly the finance minister’s, ineptitude in not being able to do much in introducing some discipline to the financial markets in Bangladesh and their apparent failure to create some buoyancy in the capital market.
Unfortunately, the finance ministry was not able to take a strong enough stance against Hall-Mark and Basic Bank scams, either.
I do give a lot of credit to Mr Muhith for promoting a culture of tolerance and mutual respect.
Bangladesh has, no doubt, produced, and will continue to produce, many brilliant individuals. But most of them won’t champion the cause of the common man, as most are content in fulfilling selfish desires, unlike Mr Muhith -- we need people like him to stand in between the extremes. It is because of people such as him that our country has not broken into becoming a full-blown battlefield.
Whether or not Mr Muhith has proven himself a successful enough finance minister, people will remember him for his good nature, his simplicity, his tolerance, and his forward-thinking ideas.