The 1988 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership

RESPONSE of Mohammad Yeasin

I am a small man from Bangladesh. I work for the small man. My formal schooling is very little. I read only up to sixth grade and my English pronunciation is very poor. I beg your pardon for that.

Today I feel very emotional. I know that I am not qualified to address such a distinguished gathering. I have been honored with the great Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership. At this memorable hour I thank God for the honor that he has given me. I pay my hearty salutation to the soul of late President Ramon Magsaysay. He is remembered by this great award. I believe he will remain immortal in the minds of millions of people for this great work. May God give him peace.

I thank the honorable members of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation that they have selected a small rural worker like me for such an award. This will give inspiration to millions of rural development workers in Bangladesh and in the rest of Asia.

Today I remember Akhter Hameed Khan, the founder-director of the Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development and the architect of the Comilla Model, which is widely known throughout the world. Director Khan received the Magsaysay Award in 1963. I was a devoted student of his. He was my teacher, friend, and philosopher in the field of rural development.

Being inspired and guided by Director Khan, I formed with eight other members the Deedar Cooperative Society in 1960. On the day of formation, we decided that each one of us would sacrifice one cup of tea everyday and would put the money into a savings account. Today, 1,650 members of the Deedar Society are following the same practice, although the price of tea has gone up. This way we have accumulated our capital and assets of U.S.$300,000.

When I started my work as an organizer of my village cooperative, I did not know that for this work I would one day be honored in an international forum like this. But since I was a poor man myself, the poverty of my village people disturbed me; since I was young I wanted to do something for them. When I learned about the cooperative way of development, I dreamt of a good future. I faced many problems but I was always hopeful. I never became pessimistic. Today Deedar has become a model cooperative society. The achievement of Deedar is now a great inspiration for the other villagers of Bangladesh. The Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development (BARD) is now experimenting with a project called the Comprehensive Village Development Program, using Deedar as a model for a cooperative society. The influence of Deedar upon hundreds of cooperative organizations is great. Many people visit Deedar daily to learn of our experiences.

In building Deedar, I faced many difficulties in the initial year. But within a period of seven to eight years, I was able to motivate the villagers and show them the way to self-respect and self-reliance. I tell my villagers that we are not helpless, we should not live on the mercy of others. We can build our own future. I love my people and my organization. In return my people give me their support. We put our labor together. I feel that sincerity, hard work, and devotion do not go unrewarded.

I experimented with a number of my own ideas, which were let democratically accepted by cooperative members. The reason for the acceptance was that I had developed them by working very closely with the villagers. I did not impose ideas. Most of my experiments produced good results and some of the tested ideas were accepted by government.

I confined my role to leading the organization. I remained in the same post for more than twenty-five years. Deedar is my only dream I want to die as a social worker since I believe that the struggle in which I am involved has yet a long way to go. My people are still poor and have to travel far. This award, and this honor that you have given me, will provide new enthusiasm and inspiration to me and to my colleagues.

My award is a recognition of the good work done by the members of my society. I believe it will inspire millions of rural development workers working at the grass-roots level in Asia. It will be rewarding me when these workers receive such awards in the future.