Capacity to accept others' opinions is declining: Jamilur Reza Chowdhury

Professor Jamilur Reza Chowdhury
Prothom Alo

Jamilur Reza Chowdhury (1943-2020) was an upright and meritorious man, in every sense, an exemplary personality. He was known to his students as JRC. In an interview with private TV channel Boishakhi on 14 March 2014, Jamilur Reza Chowdhury opened up about himself and talked about the country’s advancement, prospects and problems and, above all, his hope. Manjurul Ahsan Bulbul took the interview:

Q :

Let’s begin with the story of how you became Jamilur Reza Chowdhury

I grew up in an engineering environment. There were a few engineers in our family,including my father. Even before I learnt the alphabet, I would riffle through pages of engineering magazines. I couldn't read, but I would look at the pictures.

Q :

What did you dream to be in the future? Did it come true?

Many people need to think about what discipline to study, which profession to take up. I did not have think about that. The decision was, I would study science in school and would study engineering after completing HSC from Dhaka College. And that is what happened.

Q :

Did you have any thoughts about your profession?

I had no foolproof plan to become a teacher, but I became interested in teaching while doing a thesis in the fourth year at university. The head of my department also encouraged me. And at that time, it was a tradition for those who would stand first, second or third, to join as a teacher though the starting salary of any other job was three to four times higher.

The beginning of my teaching career was very interesting. I began without any formal interview. The day my results were published, I went to the department head for his blessings. After congratulating me, he said I don’t have time to talk to you now. Your results are good, you begin taking classes of third year. One of our faculty is absent now, you take his classes.

I didn’t have any preparation but I went to the classroom and found that some of my classmates who dropped out for a year, were now my students.

Professor Jamilur Reza Chowdhury
Prothom Alo

Q :

Were you involved with any organisations outside of studying?

When I was a schoolboy and we were in Mymensingh, I suddenly decided to form a club. I wrote ‘East Bengal Boys Club’ on a metal sheet and hung the signboard on the roof of our garage. It was a sports club. It was in 1953 that I got involved with a big organisation. We shifted to Gopibagh in Dhaka in 1952. At that time, Musa bhai, who later earned huge fame as journalist ABM Musa, used to run a club in Gopibagh, Brothers Union and I joined. Though it was basically a sports club, it had a big library. It also used to organise cultural programmes, including plays. Overall, I got involved with the club. But the play for which I rehearsed for a long time, was never staged.

Q :

At one stage of teaching, you went out of the country and returned with new dreams …

I’m fortunate that many opportunities came my way. I’m a civil engineer. I studied that too. At the age of 25 I completed my PhD. I resumed teaching upon returning home. But while doing my PhD studies at Southampton University in England, I changed my track a bit. I veered to computer science a bit from structural engineering. I worked for my PhD research in 1966 to 1968. Computers had just come into existence. The programming of mainframe computer was very tough but I did not want to let the chance go by. While studying this, I realised computers are the future. This will not only be in science and technology, rather it would become essential in daily life as well. I wrote a chapter in my PhD thesis on this.

Q :

What was the state of computers in this country at that time?

The first computer of this region arrived in Dhaka in 1964. That was placed at the Atomic Energy Centre. IBM-1620 was the most developed computer of that time. When I returned home, I saw that was the only computer.

Professor Jamilur Reza Chowdhury
Prothom Alo

Q :

BUET got its first computer at your initiative …

It's almost like that. Courses on computer were not offered at BUET then. I managed to make my teachers and colleagues understand the importance of computers. I prepared a syllabus and started teaching Computer Science. That was the beginning of teaching Computer Programming in the country. But BUET had no computer of its own yet. At that time the price of a computer was around 10 million taka. Then at BUET we agreed to buy a computer with one year’s development budget in the equipment fund. That was done. This is how BUET got its first computer.

Q :

Your responsibilities also increased …

Yes. When I joined the department, I was the youngest faculty. There were so many seniors at the department that I could not even imagine that I would be the head of the department in 20-30 years. I went to England with a fellowship of Visiting Professor in 1974-75. Upon returning I found the department almost empty. Almost all of my senior faculties had gone abroad with high salaries and posts in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Malaysia, Singapore etc. I became the second most senior faculty member in the department. The person senior to me became a member of the planning commission. This is how I got the chance to become the head of the department. That was the largest department of BUET then, with around 1,000 students. I took the challenge. Of the 10-12 faculties only I had a PhD degree. Nowadays, this is one of the largest departments not only in Bangladesh but also in the whole world. There are over 50 faculties with PhD degrees in one department alone.

Q :

Outside of teaching, you became involved with various infrastructural development of the country since then …

I was fortunate enough to be involved with most of the infrastructural development works of the country in the last few decades. Construction of high rises was my specialisation. The tendency of constructing high rise buildings began in Dhaka in the 70’s. Many would come to BUET for advice at that time. My colleagues and I joined with a lot of interest. That was the beginning. Look, there was just 600-700 kms carpeted roads in East Pakistan during the partition in 1947. Of that, 80 per cent was in Sylhet. Not many roads in Dhaka were carpeted. Muddy roads could be seen just outside of the town. Now, the length of carpeted roads is around 225,000 kms. Even in 1972, we did not have big bridges, all of the communication was ferry-based. But, now, there are bridges over almost all of our large rivers, only one is left, Padma Bridge. We will be able to move on our national highway network without any ferry once the Padma Bridge is constructed.

Professor Jamilur Reza Chowdhury
Prothom Alo

Q :

Do you think development is on right track?

I think, it would have been if there was a bit more speed. Our infrastructural index is not good in the global context.

Q :

Where is the problem, why can’t we increase the pace?

Politicians or the government’s mindset is responsible for the slowness in infrastructural work. Whoever is in government, wants to take the whole credit. Large infrastructure is not a thing to be completed in the tenure of one government. For example, the Bangabandhu Bridge, the first survey for this was done in 1969. Later Japanese worked on it from 1972 to 75. The feasibility study was done in 1985. The construction began in 1993 and ended in 1998, through tenures of several government. But those who finally inaugurated it want to take the entire credit. This outlook is not right in cases of infrastructural development. If you think of Padma Bridge, the feasibility study was completed in 1998. Later the Japanese came again. Through many incidents, the implementation work began during the tenure of current government.

Q :

Is corruption a big hindrance for such works?

Among the projects I was involved with, Jamuna bridge was the largest up until the Padma Bridge. World Bank said Jamuna bridge cannot be made, it would not sustain. River training is not possible. Still we’ve completed the project well. We did not have to spend excessively. There was no corruption. When the government was changed in 2001, the new government formed a committee to investigate into the corruption of the earlier government in constructing the bridge. They (the BNP-Jamaat government) found two instances of corruption, one was that two large sign boards were made without floating tenders and the second was that the task of photography exhibitions, organised at divisional towns, was given to a notable photographer alone. There was no other corruption in the millions of dollar project.

Professor Jamilur Reza Chowdhury
Prothom Alo

Q :

But so many things were said about Padma Bridge. Your were one of the five-member international advisory team. Would you clarify what happened actually?

The problem is, sometimes the government officials, sometimes media, confuses these things. In such projects, there is a consultancy firm that prepares the design and supervises the work. Another is the contractor firm. Many big firms get involved in both the process. Everyone needs to pre-qualify before finalising the list. Lobbyists become very active at this stage. Lobbying is a reality in the World Bank headquarters as well. This is before getting the work order. This lobbying is to include names in the pre-qualification level. Though many firms do not have capacity, ambassadors and their countries lobby for these. They have people in Washington, they also get involved. Sometimes, they give wrong information. We identified some of those in the committee. We said, you said that you have done that work, but we have information that you were not involved with that specific project; another firm has done that. Many of such firms have local lobbyists who work with governments and various other quarters. Some of them got aggrieved with our decision. One of them threatened, since you did not include my firm, I make sure this project never gets started. That man is a Bangladeshi. He is not in the country now. The government tried to find him. The whole project got delayed due to a small package of $3 billion. A shortlist was made for appointing the construction consultant, who would supervise the work, like a consortium, not any individual firm. Five firms of various countries were finalised. They would supervise different works groups. Some are bridge specialists, some river training specialists, some approach road specialists. Around 200 engineers would do the work for over four years. The final technical evaluation report was sent. World Bank, ADB, JICA said everything is alright. But the problem arose when the financial offers were opened. Everyone hoped they would be first. But in reality, Canadian and British companies became first. At first the British firm became the first but they had a weakness. The offer should include, let us say the calculation of plane fare for communications between Dhaka-London-Dhaka for 400 times. They showed this plane fare unusually cheap. They become the lowest bidder. All the members of our committee said this is abnormally low. Again, in a footnote the company said while preparing the bill, they will calculate the real cost. But they demanded, this must be evaluated considering the lowest calculations. Drawing an average of the four, we saw they do not remain first in a narrow margin. This company and the ones that were discarded earlier, started plotting to foil the project. Since the Canadian company SNC Lavalin acknowledged their fault, something must have happened somewhere. They have been blacklisted from the projects of World Bank and they did not challenge this decision. But the World Bank’s allegations about Bangladesh were not right. At one stage, the World Bank put pressure on the government, demanding all sorts of changes. They just had hunches without any evidence.

Q :

Now we are constructing the Padma Bridge …

This is truly possible. We have developed continuously. Remittance income is encouraging, forex reserve is also noteworthy. The lack of trust of foreign contractors in us has also been dispelled.

Professor Jamilur Reza Chowdhury
Prothom Alo

Q :

The computer entered the country through you. Now, where are we?

The country is making advancement in this sector, no doubt. We begin many things early but cannot hold on. We move through a crisis-fraught situation. There are political conflicts. Sometimes, we fail to achieve long-term goals while mitigating temporary problems. I was the convener of the committee that composed the ICT Policy in 2008. We submitted 305 recommendations, and work began with that. We have people well versed in ICT but the general tendency of the government is to work with -specialists. The right people do not get appointment at right places.

Q :

You were a part of the government, albeit for a short time. Any experience on why this is so?

I was in the government for 82 days only. Our responsibility was to oversee the general election. We were constitutionally bound not to take any policy decision. We decided we won’t go beyond the task of holding the election. Through my 82 days experience I realised why people do not want to relinquish power. Sycophants encircle you from every side, they would say you are supremely powerful. I would do anything you would say. I would say our bureaucrats are also partially responsible for not giving the proper advice. On one side, the politicians need to think of pleasing the voters, on the other hand, they calculate the money spent in elections and how to recover that, and so the expenditure would increase in the next elections.

Q :

Any problem in the implementation of decisions?

Roughly, maybe there were some problems in taking and implementing decisions. Earlier, it was the meritorious who would make policies and implement but government jobs do not attract the meritorious students now. Youth these days are interested in the private sector, corporate world or NGOs. Or, they want to do something of their own. Appointing meritorious people directly through interview in big posts could be an alternative. Those who are doing well at the mid-level in private sector could be appointed in government jobs. Pakistan once even appointed a secretary from the private sector. The whole system of our government is file-based and note-based. Many public employees are victimised on political considerations even after taking good decisions. Many bureaucrats with integrity were made victims while trying to catch the politicians of the previous government. This is why a tendency has grown among them, not to take risks. Just sitting in office without doing anything.

Q :

What can the people who think of the country, society and development do, while remaining outside the government?

It is unfortunate that the government thinks that those who criticise some of its tasks are opposing them. Rehman Sobhan has written a book, 'My Critic, My Friend'. Many things would have moved faster if everyone had this temperament. I suppose, those who are in power think, ‘We know every solution’. I’m a bit apprehensive now. It seems the government becomes nervous whenever it hears the words ‘civic society’, ‘noted citizens’. They cannot accept it. The capacity to accept the opinions of those, who like the government but speak with principle, is decreasing.

Q :

Is there any scope for optimism about the future?

I’m very hopeful. I’ve worked with meritorious youth at BUET. They are confident that they will take the country forward against all odds. Their confidence makes me hopeful. Another thing is, the entire world has acknowledged women’s development in Bangladesh. This is unprecedented. One of our girls has conquered the seven summits, one of our students Musa has climbed to the summit of Mount Everest. These are evidence that confidence leads to success. The youth dividend we would get in 2025-30 is unimaginable. I’ve seen the village people are also interested in learning and doing something new. Overall, I’m very hopeful.

* This piece has been rewritten in English by Shameem Reza