Are India and Pakistan panicking? They shouldn't, since a developed Bangladesh is a good thing for the region.
The people and media of Bangladesh should become more active in asserting its role in the region - that it would continue to work for a poverty, corruption and nuclear arsenal free region. Bangladesh should be a strong voice to extend the nuclear arsenal free area from East Asia to Kaparapu N-S line which divide the current South Asia in two parts - Eastern South Asia and Western South Asia.
[At the beginning, let us make it very clear that we send out this article with a great deal of hesitation. Like many of the previous articles, we have called something based on advance analysis and synthesis of weak signals coming from the events. Unlike in other instances, however, this is one time when we really hope that some of our assertions and assumptions made in this article aren't true. We would be happy if we are proven wrong demonstrated through future events. However, the nature and implication of the outcome of these analysis and their importance for the nation have impelled us to share the thoughts now. Its better to be wrong than being trapped in something bad. We hope our policymakers would give some time on this]
The recent drama with Prothom-Alo carton demonstrate the evil polarization that is happening underground. Jamati interest is being helped by the corrupt leftists. As of now, it still is an accusation, which will be true only if we knew whether Prothom-Alo admin knew about the consequences and took a calculated risk in a volatile time, which would only benefit the religious thugs. Symptoms are there to be concerned, only time will confirm whether this is something that Bangladeshi policy makers as well as regular citizens should be concerned about. We hope that this conjecture would not become something that would be increasingly supported by the events on the ground.
The headline of this article and the big conjecture that we made at the beginning ask for some serious explanation - so that the readers are well informed and follow the reasoning behind the allegations. It is our position to clearly state that nothing is being alleged out of the air - there are specific signals on the ground, surrounding the events, the way the events are being unfolded, planned and executed - and also the players - everything indicates to a possible dark nexus. Implications of such a nexus is too dangerous for the general people of Bangladesh and its national security. That is why each of its citizens should be on guard. Also look at the events surrounding some explosions in strategic industries like fertilizer factories, garment industries and EPZs.
Are India and Pakistan panicking about Bangladesh? Well, yes, they have every reason to panic about the recent developments of Bangladesh. Remember the Washington Post article titled "In Bangladesh, 'a Quiet Revolution'? If this perception starts sinking into the world opinion and specifically, within the mindset of the Indian and Pakistani general public, the establishment in India and Pakistan has every reason to panic. Isn't it? Off course, we should qualify this assertion with a "right wing" establishment of these countries. And it seems their intelligences are in control of right wingers as is the case in many countries.
Aside from the traditional corrupt elite that has been ruling the nations in this region, there is also other strategic matters of importance from economic perspective. Just think about one hypothetical question. Would China want a economically mighty Japan just beside it? For Japan, it did not matter what China wanted. Japan was a developed nation even before such a wish became a factor. But with the case of Bangladesh, there is a game being played and the result is undecided whether it can become the pioneer of real development - the first in the region.
However, it is plainly clear that if a uniform country like Bangladesh starts its journey towards good governance through jailing most of the social culprits (read traditional social elites) and with additional help from its geographical location, it will very soon become a economic hub like Singapore or UAE.
That would certainly mean that the development pace of Bangladesh will outnumber that of India. It is actually already the case for many human development indicators as tracked by the UN. So, if India wanted the current CTG in Bangladesh to fail or slow down with its projects ( i.e. run out of time), somebody who understands international politics, wouldn't be surprised. But why would Pakistan be panicking? Well, those matha mota Panjabi fools don't always need a very good reason to panic, they were panicking when the their nation were born. Until, the people of that country becomes successful in taking the power out of those Punjabis, Pakistan will never be ruled by its own national interests - rather they always serve others. So, whenever there is a smell of money or so-called financial benefit, they go for it. They have done it in the past with China, US and now it seems, they are contemplating to start oiling the Indians! In a sense, its not bad. Peace might come that way in the Western part of South Asia.
Coming back to our topic for today, so, what is the consequence of that polarization in Bangaldeshi politics? Indian lobby (P.A.) was playing their card with the latest so-called Mohammad (PBUH) cartoon. This card was being printed in such a sensitive time, when Jamatis (Pakistani Lobby) are sensing worse days ahead. So, they ask for some help from the corrupt leftist intellectuals. And the leading ones among them obliges with material that they can use for their advantages. And a drama commences... Who looses in this drama? Who is the villain of this drama? The real villains are are trying to position themselves as victims, while the hero in this episode gets a smoked perception.
We need to recognize that when this CTG looses it face, Bangladesh and its people looses. And whenever they are not performing, either because of the two evil lobbies acting within the country or because of inexperiences of the govt., the people should volunteer help to them. And we hope that they are also learning, in the meantime.
The most important thing to notice is that - if you take a good look at these materials - these are nothing. We often make jokes like this. It is like saying that writing Lal Salo would be hurting the feelings of majority muslims!! So, why still such a fuss? That is the indication of nexus - which is dangerous.
Expect more similar things / incidents in near future. Also, they would be increasing the pressure on CTG for trial of war criminals - a good cause with a bad intention of putting the CTG into a hard position. If that demand gets traction among the general population - that pushes Jamat towards edge - who would be politically benefited from every incident similar to the recent cartoon incident that would be planned and initiated by the Prothom-Alo or Menon or AL type players. So, do you see a win-win pact for both lobbies? Both Indian and Pakistani Lobby is benefited if there is some uncertainty or even worse things happen. And they are trying their best and do not expect such things to lessen, but expect an increase if our analysis is true. Off course, there are two underlying assumptions. We are assuming that the traditional lobbies in both India and Pakistanis are currently being controlled by ultra segments of the society. Is this base assumption true which makes the hypothesis of this article a possibility? Only time will say.
Apparently, the CTG is in bad position with both lobbies - the so-called open minded ones and the closed minded ones. Who benefits if CTG looses grounds? The corrupts - Khaleda and Hasina and their chamchas - are directly benefited if CTG looses ground. Who looses if CTG is in a bad shape? Bangladesh looses - it's development train is pushed out of track again - which makes both India and Pakistan happy. The people of Bangladesh should not sit idle at this juncture.
What is there for us to do - one would ask? Do we have the power to fight against two local giants? We should learn lessons from Gandhi and Mujib - to use the power of mass people. The call for peace.
So, what can we do about it - if its true? Talking big is easy - like giving advise to follow Mujib or Gandhi - this kind of advise is easy. But do we have a realistic action plan to suggest that we the people of Bangladesh can follow? Here are some thoughts.
Now a days - you will find a lot of maya-kanna for a country which used to be British Raj (basically Bangladesh, India and Pakistan). Now, one may ask why Afghanistan is not included in the hypothetical South Asian Super-state that some of the grown up fools of this region is suggested? The answer is certainly obvious. The Afgans did not allow the Brits to occupy their country for long. So, the idea of this South Asian Super State is tied to British rule, isn't it? Why would somebody still romance with the British period in South Asia? Off course, that is the hallmark of mentally weak - losers, somebody who has a serious problem with inferiority complex. The Indian right wing always suffer from the inferiority complex - this is increasing by the day. Why we are talking about this, anyways? To indicate the hollowness upon which the state of India or the Pakistan stands today. Do we suggest to dismantle them? That would be too pricey a process. Moreover, we as a nation do not have much to say about them. We are not like them who pokes around to smell the bad always - we as a nation should be focusing on the strength of general people of these two countries and these two somewhat artificial societies (if that can be called a society, at all) that would eventually advance the cause of human kind.
To be specific - we as a nation are committed to fight against three things. We want poverty out of our map. We struggle to remove corruption out of our society. And we also do not want nuclear arsenal buildup within or around our country. We should focus on these three things. We should be making policies that makes sure that people in our neighboring region do not face poverty - as we ourselves struggle out of poverty trap. Bangladesh should facilitate people to people contact within its neighboring region to extend the nuclear arms free East Asia up to the Ka-Pa-Ra-Pu (Kaparapu) North South Line that connect the cities of Kathmundu - Patna - Ranchi - Puri (That would also include the land of Bangladesh, the north-eastern states of India, Bhutan will saved from any possible nuclear targeting). Eastern South Asia should be added to the already nuclear arsenal free South-East Asia. Thinking in terms of Eastern South Asia has many advantages and it goes with the explicit recognition of the fact that people in this region faces similar kind of challenges and they should communicate more in the context of private sector. Even the monoliths like World Bank, ADB recognizes this fact which is demonstrated through their making a separate agency called SEDF which basically makes development strategy for Eastern South Asia - to some extant.
On the government and private sector level within Eastern South Asia, Bangladeshi society should come forward to provide leadership in the region and bring the people in this region towards a common goal. That should, off course, be done with keeping the ground realities in mind because of the fact that the region has several international boundary. These boundaries makes it difficult to deal with the issues at the governement level and private sector co-operation will be a better strategy within current circumstances. Although a better strategy would be to have different regions of Bangladesh co-operate with their adjacent sub-regions within Eastern South Asia. However, empowering the current administrative units (e.g. districts, divisions, upozilla) to make deals with adjacent provinces of India or Bhutan or Nepal is a bit troublesome for Bangladesh. Keeping that in mind, introducing provincial government system within Bangladesh might facilitate an important tool in that regard. Within the current political parties of Bangladesh, there are many who beleives that introduction of provinces in Bangladesh would be a good thing - say for example - divide the whole country in 19 provinces based on the initial districts that we had at the beginning. Or simply the current Zilla Porishod bodies can be reformed to give it a flavour of provincial government with some added responsibility for the bordering districts. Given the high population density, it might be a good idea and it might be easier to manage. Also, this would give a mechanism to empower the bordering regions of Bangladesh to deal with their sister regions across international boundaries without much involvement of national governments. It seems that it would facilitate building a more cohesive region in the long term - if managed well. Off course, it may introduce other complications for Bangladesh, so a proper and thorough analysis is needed for this.
What would this Kaparapu N-S line mean? This would mean that people of the eastern part of south asia would work together to pressure India so it does not deploy or install any of its nuclear weapons east of this line. That would ensure the security of the region. If a public opinion can be built around this issue irrespective of national boundaries, the national security of Bangladesh will greatly improved that will enable further human and economic development of the region. Lets start working on that direction. A small step towards a peaceful world. The true civil society organizations throughout the region and ASEAN should pick up on this to influence the monolith that is today called as India.
India and Pakistan should become responsible players within the world stage - but before that they should become responsible towards their own people. When Crores of its population go to bed hungry, its a shame that they are spending money on weapons of mass destruction. Shame, Shame!
Both these countries should also realize that a developed Bangladesh will be an inspiration for the billion plus populace of the rest of south asia and beyond. They should be a facilitating force towards that development, not disturbing force. Bangladesh should also make sure that it start engaging the grass-roots population in the region that would help build person-person connection within the region and help promote exchange of ideas that would lead to a more peaceful world.
The body language of the policy makers of Dhaka should also change - they should act like leaders, talk like leaders if they want to become leaders. They should also re-assure the governments of the other regional countries that Dhaka do not romance with influencing other countries internal matters - as long as they do not interfere with the national security of its own. Dhaka should also make another thing very clear. It does not like the fact that India is fencing out itself for no conceivable and civil reason. And you will also be surprised that the free-thinkers and humanists of the world never noticed that. But Dhaka should not protest that - its their matter what they want to do with their border. As long as they keep the legal distance from the no-mans land, we should be fine. But people of Bangladesh should really work hard for the day - when India takes off the fence because the government in Delhi wants to make sure that its people can easily pour into Bangladesh to find a good living, a good earning and a good life - just like many in East Asia goes to Singapore, or many Chinese or Koreans used goes to Japan. If that day really comes, we want to make it clear to the people in the region - our door will not be closed, but we will open our doors to our neighbors first, then the rest of the world. Let the Bangladesh become the Singapore for people in the Eastern South Asia what Singapore had become for people in South Eastern Asia. Let Bangladesh become Japan for the people in the Eastern South Asia what Japan had become for people in North Eastern Asia. Amen.
If you thought some of the ideas are worth of your reading time, please forward it to others. If you have an ear to the members of the CTG, policy makers and strategists, please forward it to them. If you have an ear to the journalists and news editors of the electronic media, discuss it with them. Hope they would look at the suggestions and give due diligence.
Thanks for your time,
Innovation Line
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Note: This is a freelance column, published mainly in different internet based forums. This column is open for contribution by the members of new generation, sometimes referred to as Gen 71. If you identify yourself as someone from that age-group and want to contribute to this column, please feel free to contact. Thanks to the group moderator for publishing the article.
We have not seen the Liberation War, but we know if we can free the country from corruption first, we will eventually get to other dreams soon. Because of corruption, we could not even get into information highway for years, let alone other dreams!
This is the kind of article for which we started this column. Because of ongoing mess, a gift from our older generation, we often get diverted. Now that it seems some sanity is returning in Bangladesh, we would try to go back to our original plan.
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