Sir -- some recollections

How do I write about a man who has meant so much to me and my family? As a career diplomat I was trained to control my emotions, yet tears swell up in my eyes and emotions overwhelm me as I write this piece to pay my tributes. In his death, the country has lost one of its outstanding sons. Mr. Kibria was so many persons in one man.

He was a meritorious student who topped the list in every examination, an internatinally acclaimed diplomat, a brilliant political strategist, a valiant freedom fighter, a language movement activist and yet, at the personal level, a loving husband, an affectionate father,a caring senior colleague and above all, a perfect gentleman. To all my contemporaries in the Foreign Ministry, Mr. Kibria was an institution, not a mere senior diplomat. He excelled in every aspect of our profession. To work with him was indeed a rewarding learning experience.

As a close friend of my eldest brother Late S.M. Ali, Mr. Kibria was known to my family for nearly six decades, from the days when my family lived in our sleepy hometown Maulvi Bazar. I was too young at that time to remember the details. My direct association with him began in 1969 when I went to Islamabad for on-the-job training at the Pakistan Foreign Ministry. Mr Kibria had returned to the Headquarters a few months earlier and had taken over the important job of Director (Personnel). Naturally, we had ample opportunities for close interaction with him at the Ministry. He also invited us to his house and introduced us to our dear Eva Bhabi and his young son Reza and little daughter Nazli. In the summer of 1970 he left for Washington DC to join the Pakistan Embassy. Little did I know that within months I would be posted to the same Mission and would get to know them very closely!

The stay in Washington DC turned out to be most eventful as we spent the critical days of our War of Independence together. I reached Washington DC in November 1970 leaving behind my newly-married wife Tuhfa [also known as Nishat to those close to the family] in Dhaka to complete her Masters examination. Sir and Eva bhabi took great care of me. After office hours, he would often take me to his house in Bethesda and after sumptuous dinner and delightful conversations, would drop me at my hotel in DC involving an hour's drive. Sometimes, he would invite me to formal dinners at their home and introduce me to high officials of State Department, US Government and Congress, World Bank, IMF, as well as diplomats from other Missions and members of the press corps.

Within months of my arrival in Washington DC, the Pakistan army began the genocide on our people and naturally those of us living abroad were deeply disturbed.

The Bangalee officials of the Embassy and other Bangalee expatriates living in the DC area regularly met in our senior officers' houses by turn. Mr. Kibria's contributions in these meetings were immense and largely helped in charting out a precise and concrete course of action. His ability to prioritise issues was simply incomparable.

I must also make special mention of the contributions of Late Enayet Karim, the then seniormost Bangalee officer at the Pakistan embassy, and Mr. A. M. A. Muhith, the economic counsellor, during that critical juncture of our nation's history.

It was the combined leadership of Mr. Karim, Mr. Muhith and Mr. Kibria that inspired the rest of us to fight for the Bangladesh cause in the USA. These three stalwarts also showered their kindness and love on Tuhfa and myself, and their doors were always open to us.

During the war Mr Kibria and Mr. Muhith worked tirelessly to propagate the cause of our independence. Mr. Enayet Karim had suffered two severe heart attacks during this time, but provided his senior colleagues with constant advice and guidance from his recovery bed. At that time I shared the same room with Mr. Kibria in the Bangladesh Mission in Washington DC and had the rare privilege of working very closely with him. He taught me how to mount a political campaign, convince important people in US congress and government, and how to motivate common American people to our cause. At the end of the day, I would discuss with him the course of events and he would give me his assessment. What impressed me most was the depth and dimension of his knowledge.

Soon after the independence of our country, Mr Kibria was called to Dhaka and asked to take over as Director-General (Political) in the Foreign MInistry. All Ministries--other than Foreign and Defence -- of the newly-independent Bangladesh were largely set up on the existing Departments of the former East Pakistan Provincial Government. Defence ministry had the huge cantonment structures in Dhaka and elsewhere. All that the Foreign Ministry inherited was a small Coordination office headed by a Director and housed in a rented building in Dhanmondi. Mr Kibria and our other senior colleagues set up the Foreign Ministry in the old Commissioner's building in Segun Bagicha literally from scratch. He was subsequently promoted as Secretary and served in that capacity until he was posted as our High Commissioner to Canberra.

My next encounter with the Kibrias was in Geneva in 1976 where they moved from Australia. I was then posted in Warsaw, Poland. Sir and Eva bhabi warmly invited us to visit them in Geneva. We drove down from Warsaw, and after the welcoming cup of tea Sir said, "Let me show you my garden." I was a little puzzled at his offer. As soon as we entered the garden at the rear of the residence, he put out his hand, and said, "Give me a cigarette. Eva has imposed a severe quota on my smoking." We laughed, and joined in a smoke without the knowledge of our wives.

Destiny again brought us together when Mr. Kibria was transferred as Foreign Secretary in 1978. He called me to the headquarters, and asked me to take over as Director [Personnel]. Unlike my other colleagues, I was literally asked to take over my charges straight from the airport. He also told me that I should not think about leaving Dhaka in three years. He specifically advised me to deal with administration in my first year, multilateral diplomacy in my second year, and to focus on India and the other neighbouring countries in my third year. Without knowledge of these three vital areas, he told me, I would never have a full grip of the fundamental aspects of our foreign policy.

In early 1979, he asked me to prepare a paper detailing the justification for a separate foreign service cadre for Bangladesh. Until then we did not have any separate foreign service cadre as such to run the foreign ministry, and the erstwhile PFS officers and people from other branches of government were being absorbed in the Foreign Ministry on an ad hoc basis. I prepared a six-page paper drawing on the experiences of our neighbouring countries. Mr. Kibria liked the report, and said that he would only strengthen the last part of the report giving more details about our future requirements. He persuaded the government to accept his proposal without any major change. Subsequently he constituted a committee and asked us prepare a detailed training programme for the Foreign Service officers, and played a vital role in the setting up of the first Foreign Service Academy in a rented building in Zikatola.

By that time the size of the ministry had increased and it was difficult to accommodate the officers in the existing structure. Under the personal supervision of Mr. Kibria, we embarked on the proposal for the construction of the five-storied annex building. Mr. Kibria left the Foreign Ministry in mid-1981 to take over as the Executive Secretary of the ESCAP. Early next year, I left for our Permanent Mission in New York. We met the Kibrias regularly during the General Assembly sessions, and once we had the pleasure of hosting him at our home. During that time I also went to Bangkok twice on official missions, and he personally picked me up from the hotel for dinner at his residence. Eva Bhabi and Mr. Kibria asked me sincere and caring questions about Tuhfa and my sons.

I came back to Dhaka as Director-General in 1992. Mr. Kibria had also returned to Dhaka from Bangkok a few months earlier and was staying at a rented apartment in Banani. He was at that time writing regularly for The Daily Star. During one of our visits, he told me that with the UN pension he could live comfortably in any country he chose, but what would he do there when there was so much to be done for his beloved Bangladesh?

During 1995-1998, I made a few official trips to Dhaka from Tehran [where I was the Ambassador]. I visited him at his home on those occasions. I remember, on one such trip before the Islamic Summit, he had enquired what my wife was doing in Tehran, and had regretted that she, as a diplomat's wife, never got the opportunity to utilise her talents. Later, during my years as Ambassador at Paris, I met Mr. Kibria each year during the Consortium meetings. His delegations every year included senior and veteran Secretaries from different Ministries. Yet, it was Mr. Kibria who conducted most of the negotiations and was directly involved in all aspects of the Meetings. After an official reception, or on evenings when he had no official programme, he would ask my wife to prepare "deshi" food for him, specially the Sylheti delicacy "shatkora".

In Paris, after I had successfully piloted the adoption of the International Mother Language Day resolution at the UNESCO, he sent me an official congratulatory message, and personally telephoned me to tell me how proud he was of me. We came to Dhaka on home leave in 2000, and Sir and Eva Bhabi hosted a feast for me, to share their pride and joy. When I returned to Dhaka to take over as Foreign Secretay in 2001, he was delighted. I deeply benefitted from his advice and guidance during the serious Bangladesh-India border crisis, the hostage crisis, the Third UN LDC Conference, and the UN Secretary-General's visit during my tenure as Foreign Secretary.

On my return to Dhaka early this month after a two-and-half-year sojourn in the US, I had called his home. I talked with Eva Bhabi and left my phone number. He called me as soon as he returned home, and we had the usual warm conversation. He told me that he would like to see me after Eid holidays, after his current preoccupations in his constituency. As Bhabi was to tell me when we had gone to their home on Friday after the janaza, he had come home, seen my phone number and had called me immediately, without waiting to hear about my conversation with her. Alas, I did not know that this preoccupation would snatch him from us. How I wish I had met him once before the cowardly people took away the life of this illustrious son of Bangladesh!

This brilliant Bangalee's love for Bangladesh was very infectious. In early 1972, while Mr. Kibria and his family were preparing for their return to Dhaka from Washington DC, teenager Reza and I had a conversation about driving in Dhaka. Reza had commented that he was not sure if he could drive among the rickshaws in Dhaka. ÊMr. Kibria, who had been packing his books at the other end of the room, had come over, and had reminded Reza that rickshaws were a part of the life of Bangladesh, and that if his father had not been a diplomat, Reza would probably have spent his entire life in Bangladesh. Imbued with such strong teachings and guidance from their parents, Reza and Nazli have grown up to be very nationalistic and down to earth, and have their feet firmly on the ground. This was one other lesson that I had learnt from Mr. Kibria. I have strived to instil in my sons this same feeling for the downtrodden of Bangladesh.

May Allah rest my respected Sir's departed soul in eternal peace, and give Eva Bhabi, Reza, Nazli, their spouses, Sir's grandchildren, and all of us who knew him so personally, the strength to bear this irreparable loss. Amen.

Syed Muazzem Ali is the former Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh.