Memoirs, travel tales and unheard agonies of a dazzling civil servant....
It is often difficult to define an individual blessed with multiple talents, and it gets even more difficult if that individual is intermittently ignored and rejected by political authorities simply for being on the right place but at the wrong time.
However, "Smiritir Digonte" (In The Horizon of Memories) is not Ahmad Mahmudur Raza Chowdhury's first book. The writer may not be an eminent name in Bengali literature or contemporary writing, but his storytelling prowess and command over his native language is slightly an inch above the adjective remarkable.
Foreword of the book, written by a distinguished former civil servant is convincing enough to trigger curiosity about the content in it.
Whether it is on the chapters of his career, travelling reminisces of a childhood friend or his deep and clear thinking of societal changes - Mahmudur Raza Chowdhury at this point in time is nothing more than a 'wholesome writer'.
The 298 page book "Smiritir Digonte" has been divided in seven main chapters with numerous sub-chapters and coloured photos.
Interestingly, Chowdhury begins his book not in a sequential order describing his life, but with a vivid flashback when he was appointed as the Private Secretary to the then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina while she assumed political office for the first time way back in the late 90s. Under the sub - chapters, he narrates some of the landmark moments of his career at its peak. He reflects back to his personal as well as professional experiences with the PM while being a key witness to some of the milestone events in the history of Bangladesh.
This particular style of arranging chapters allows the reader to pick and choose at will with a fast changing habit in reading pattern today.
These short anecdotes depict Chowdhury's sound, sensible but also critical reading of Sheikh Hasina both as a person and politician. He clearly specified political and personal attributes of the PM. He commended the prime minister where she deserved to be praised, and also criticised where he thought appropriate. That said - the writer is gifted with a sharp observation power with the exact set of moral scruples and decency in terms of usage of his language. He also touched over the issue of Dictum of Privileged Communication while admitting his limitations as a writer.
However, criticism and agonies apart Chowdhury also complimented a number of former civil servants and professional individuals for their service to the state.
In the second chapter and all sub-chapters falling under it, the writer maintained a similar style corresponding to the first, but included some of his key foreign visits with details. These chapters are particu
larly informative in terms of getting a clear look into of historical events coupled with observing certain traits of national and international heads of government and state.
Chapters 3, 4, 5 and 6 are all about the writer's professional experiences. And it is right on these chapters, this reviewer is utterly mystified on the whimsical and capricious nature of a bureaucrat's proper assessment, appraisal and promotion in Bangladesh.
Strictly a personal remark based on limited knowledge, if one reflects back over 50 years ago with an unbiased mind, Chowdhury and his Bengali CSP and PFS batch mates were, unquestionably, the 'cursed' members in the history of Civil Service of Pakistan.
Caught off-guard to choose between profession and patriotism, they chose the latter only to discover that it had a hollow meaning as far as their merit, career rights and apposite treatment were concerned in a newly born nation.
What a cruel mockery of fate, during the first and only tenure of Bangabandhu , Chowdhury is denied of his deserving job , and at the peak of his career he becomes the Number One Private Secretary to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Chowdhury is called to join civil service in the late 70s under a military dictator's regime, but under the condition by scrapping 7 valuable years of seniority.
His path to career growth is full of tumultuous contradictions, sufferings and surprises but he never loses hope. He makes the best of what comes his way, and this is the number one sign of a believer.
Chowdhury was also a PS to the late Military Dictator Ershad, but his post as PS-1 to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in a way, ends his career with a pre-mature death.
As a new BNP government assumes office, he is made an Officer for Special Duties (OSD) for a few months but never gives up hope. He grudgingly joins service under one BNP regime and then equally reprimanded when a different BNP regime assumes power.
It probably happens only in countries like Bangladesh where professionalism is often considered as a 'liability', and political loyalty as an 'Asset'.
However, having finished his 'Gardening Leave' he appears even more determined as the spearhead of Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institutions (BSTI). He takes the failing state-sponsored organisation to the level of a government entity to reckon with. With his minister's active support he re-creates BSTI. His short stint with the NGO Bureau is no less revealing.
But as luck had stored in for him, all political authorities forget the sincere civil servant. Let them forget, but the least they can do is kill their efficiency by politicizing their work ethics and principles. On that note - civil servants in the calibre of Chowdhury can now be termed as living relics of a forgotten era when people looked up at civil servants with awe - not because of the power the state bestowed on them, but how they exercised power in terms of honestly and efficiently running the administration.
To a greater extent, today's reality is the other way round since the objective of most civil servants are to exercise power , be a member of the ruling elite and 'make the most' under the political regime they are serving.
May sound irrelevant to many, but these days it is manifestly impossible to distinguish between a ruling party politician and a bureaucrat. It comes as no surprise why a big chunk of our ordinary people brands our secretariat and government offices as the ruling party's 'deputy offices'.
Whatever you may gain or lose in life, never lose hope and give your best. This is probably the number one message Ahmad Mahmudur Raza Chowdhury delivered through his latest book.
Chowdhury The Travel writer
As much as travelling broadens the mind, it also brings out the writer in you. First of all it is no less surprising how a hardcore civil servant could turn into a globetrotter of sorts.
Chapter 7 and all stories under it are travel tales ranging from Turkey, South America's Chile, and Argentina to the remote Easter Island ending with the writer's homeland in Sylhet. Each and every of his travel tales are soothing to the senses.
Chowdhury blends his travel tales with an appetising mixture of pages from history, geography, world civilisation, anthropology, politics and also adventurism. At times he appears in the silhouette of a 21st century Robinson Crusoe. At times he is a bohemian thinker, lost in imagination retelling the past in a different reality.
A common style he follows is that he narrates a simple journey while linking it with art, culture and literature of respective places turning it into a well-knit travel tale hard to put down until it is finished. It is only possible for widely read people with deeper contemplation.
However, his description of the failed Turkish military Coup and dynamics of Turkish politics and its position in global geopolitics appeared more of a professional diplomat's summary.
The question automatically arises, why a civil servant with such unquenchable thirst for travelling hadn't attempted to join the Foreign Service?
Then again given Chowdhury's quest to explore foreign lands, this reviewer's imaginative Ambassador Ahmad Mahmudur Raza Chowdhury would have been an apt mobile diplomat for sure, probably running Bangladesh Embassy from a museum, Coliseum or a history-heritage site.
Nevertheless, now that the process of 'complete politicisation' of the civil service is running in full steam , this book is a valuable guide for those aspirants who still dreams to make a difference in the face of all odds - never lose hope and give your best.
In the end I particularly admired the way Chowdhury concluded the book in the fashion of a James Bond spy thriller twist, where in the last scene it is always said 'James Bond will return'( Please read AMRC will return soon).
His epilogue confirms he will only retire after death - with or without a government gazette notification.
The reviewer is assistant editor, The Daily Observer
