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REMEMBRANCE

Saifur: From a reporter’s diary

Sajjadur Rahman
On the sidelines of a meeting in 2005, a European finance minister had asked M Saifur Rahman on corruption and bad governance in Bangladesh. Saifur replied promptly.
"More people pass through Farmgate every day than your entire country's population,” Saifur told his counterpart. “We are doing miraculously."
Saifur referred to Farmgate as a busy traffic point in Dhaka to satirise the European minister.
There was no further question from the European minister.
Saifur, an eloquent and outspoken person, died in a road crash on Saturday at the age of 77.
Most of the time he used to talk in his local Sylheti dialect and thus often made others laugh at his accent. He cared little.
For the media, Saifur was a steady source of news. It was rare that the former finance minister did not make news. When there was no news on economic issues, reporters, especially from television channels, asked him on political issues. No dearth of news.
Saifur, Bangladesh's longest-serving finance minister, for 12 years, was credited with turning the country into a free-market economy. He helped the country's financial sector develop on a strong foothold.
During his tenure as a finance minister in 1991-96, the economy grew at nearly 5 percent and in the next term, 2001-2006, the growth was nearly 6 percent. Poverty was also reduced significantly -- from over 48 percent to 40 percent between 2000 and 2005.
But his impressive success was in private sector-led economic development. Entrepreneurship had been developed during his tenure.
Economy came under the control of private sector from
bureaucracy during his lime, said Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman, an economist and the former adviser to the caretaker government.
There may a debate on whether Saifur was against the donors or in favour of them. But clearly he was vocal against the donors' illogical conditionality.
"The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund had said that there would be a Qiyamat (doomsday) after the phase-out of MFA (multi-fibre arrangement) in garment export. I told them that nothing would happen,” Saifur told reporters sometim e in 2005.
He had to face a lot of pressures from these multilateral lenders on regular fuel price adjustments that
were being done by other countries.
"Regular adjustment of fuel prices is not possible for Bangladesh. We may go for periodical adjustment," he had told reporters after a meeting with a donor.
It is known to many, if not all, how donors put conditions before giving money.
On the delay in release of WB's development support credit, the minister said he had carried out many reform programmes in line with its prescription.
"I hope the country's development will not stop without their money," a confident Saifur had said.
fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue, a private think tank.
As the finance minister of a poor and politically corrupt country, Saifur had to check and balance many local issues also.
In the middle of 2005, price of rice shot up and there were some sorts of crisis in the market. When reporters asked the finance minister about the issue, he said: "Millers in the northern parts of the country are hoarding by taking easy bank loan." Soon after, he had hiked the interest rate for the loan of the millers.
Saifur believed in a strong financial sector because he thought investment would depend on a sound banking sector. He had helped the central bank to be strong so it could regulate the banking sector prudently.
"With the Oriental Bank scam. Saifur had suggested that BB follow the law of the land," recalled the then central bank governor Dr Salehuddin Ahmed.
Saifur blamed some banks publicly for taking higher interest rates, charges, commissions and random opening of letter of credit. He had used the words - some irresponsible banks -- for several times.
He did not allow banks to go scot-free. He had amended the banking laws and brought down the number of directors, limited loan ceiling to bank directors and imposed some sorts of restrictions for directors’ relatives in the activities ofa bank.
In fact he was in news all the time. The former finance minister did not even let the media out of criticism.
Several times he came down hard on the media for what he said was 'misreporting' on the price hike of essentials and undermining' the BNP government s success in different sectors.
sajjad @thedailystar. net
At the end of 2005 or in early 2006, a visiting IMF mission led by its senior official Thomas R Rambaugh had a meeting with Saifur at his office. They had talked on an IMF suppon credit.
When reporters asked the minister whether he sought help from the international lender, he replied: "The finance minister can't seek help to them. They are not our bosses."
Economist Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya also pointed out the traits of the former finance minister.
"I also greatly appreciated the former finance minister's public resistance to illogical donor conditionality," said the distinguished