Bangladesh On A New Journey: Moving Beyond the Regional Identity
Dr. A. K. Abdul Momen, MP
is a Bangladeshi economist, diplomat, politician and the
former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh and the Current Chairman of
Foreign Parliamentary Affairs Committee.
This book titled “Bangladesh on a New Journey: Moving Beyond
the Regional Identity” edited by Sreeradha Datta is a testament to the fact
that Bangladesh is on the road to achieve our Father of the Nation Bangabandhu
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s dream of Sonar Bangla, a prosperous, peaceful and
stable country under the dynamic leadership of his daughter Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina.
Bangla had a rich history and tradition and it was known as
the granary of India and supplier of elephants. It is Bengal that started the
campaign of humanity much before the Western world. For example, as early as 1408, Chondi Das of
Bengal promoted the concept of humanity and stated Òmevi Dc‡i gvbyl mZ¨, Zvnvi
Dc‡i bvBÓ——humanity is above all, even before the discovery of America in 1492
or before the European Renaissance in the 17th century. No wonder, Professor
Gopal Krishna Gokley stated and which was repeated by other luminaries
including Sorojini Naidu that “what Bengal thinks today, India thinks
tomorrow”.
In recent years, Bangladesh is not only the top UN
Peacekeeping troops, it also has been promoting a concept of Culture of Peace
(COP) for achieving sustainable peace across nations. It believes, if we can create a mindset of
respect and a mindset of tolerance towards others irrespective of religion,
ethnicity, color or race, only then spread of venom of hatred and enmity will
reduce leading to a world of sustainable peace and stability across
nations. There would be no violence, no
wars, no refugees, no uprooting of people from their own land and traditional
jobs.
Historically, both the All India Congress and the All India
Muslim League, those spearheaded the independence of Indian subcontinent,
started their journey in Bengal in 1885 and 1906 respectively.
Bengal or for that matter, India was the richest country
having nearly 25% of the global wealth and no wonder, being attracted by its
wealth and richness, one after another foreign powers, the Mongols, the Huns,
the Aryans, the Persians, the Arabs, the Portuguese, and finally, the British
ruled and plundered and looted its wealth. The British ruled it over 190 years
and made it a pauper, a poor county. But
Bangabandhu, the son of its soil always believe in its potentials and no
wonder, he hoped for a Sonar Bangla. He often said, “we do have fertile land
and hardworking farmers and given correct incentives, they can turn it into a
Sonar Bangla, the golden Bengal”. His
dream is coming true. Despite myriad
challenges, Bangladesh achieved remarkable economic growth, over the last 15
years, its GDP growth rate averaged around 6.6%, one of the highest in the
world, it reduced poverty more than half and achieved significant successes in
almost all socio-economic indicators pushing its life expectancy from low 50s
to almost 74 years now. That’s a remarkable progress ——- no wonder, Bangladesh,
once termed by the Western pundits as a ‘bottomless basket with no hope of
survival’ is now a vibrant economy, a land of opportunities. As per Boston
Consulting Group (BCG), it is becoming the 9th largest global market place, an
attractive destination for inward foreign investment and currently, Bangladesh
is playing an active part in the regional initiatives, it has become a Hub of
regional connectivity as it believes that ‘connectivity is productivity’. It is emerging as an important player in the
regional and global geopolitics being the 33rd largest economy, soon aspires to
be the 25th largest economy in the world.
Although I did not get the chance to read the book but read its
introduction that was sent to me and this book appears to be a testament that
the greater world is taking notice of Bangladesh’s triumph.
This book titled “Bangladesh on a New Journey: Moving Beyond
the Regional Identity” has 13 articles plus 3 write-ups and is consists of 287
pages. This book explores Bangladesh’s increasing importance in the regional
and the global stage. It highlights its standout economic achievements and its
transition from a low-income to a middle income country with great potentials.
It emphasizes the key drivers of growth including investment in human resource
development and significant infrastructure development notably the Padma Bridge
that aims at increasing the nation’s GDP growth by an additional 1.2% per
annum.
It also acknowledges the pivotal role of Bangladesh’s
vibrant civil society and highlights its priority on women participation in the
nation building efforts. However, it
misses one critical element in the growth process and it is, the role of
leadership. In fact, it is the
leadership skill of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her targeted approaches
plus her strong determination to achieve Bangabandhu’s dream of Sonar Bangla by
making it a Smart Digital Bangladesh by 2041 that energized the nation to
achieve spectacular growth. Only by
partial utilization of its agriculture resources, its RMG and its Expatriate
labor force, it achieved significant success.
Given its plentiful of waters all across the nation, it could be global
supplier of fresh drinking water or bottle water, and in addition, if its
watersheds, its hoars and marshlands are fully utilized for fresh water fish,
it could be a global supplier of fresh water fish worth of billions. The author overlooks its advantage of having
a very large young population who if are gainfully employed in IT or ITES
sector, the future of Bangladesh is likely to be much brighter.
Bangladesh’s foreign policy is on the concept of “Friendship
to all, malice towards none” as enunciated by Bangabandhu. He laid strong emphasis on peace and he said
and I quote, “peace is imperative for development” and he wished that
Bangladesh be the Switzerland of the East that would emit the message of peace
throughout the region. No wonder,
Bangladesh is opposed to nuclear proliferation and it opposes any proxy war in
the region. Following his footsteps,
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina solidified Bangladesh’s relationship with all its
neighbors; India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Maldives Thailand, Malaysia,
Singapore, and Indonesia including Myanmar.
It demonstrated its commitment to fostering regional cohesion through
active participation in all regional initiatives including BIMSTEC, SAARC, BBN,
ARF, IORA, BRI, etc. It took a global
leadership role in Climate change, Migration, UN Peacekeeping, and regional
security. It also maintained an excellent
relationship, spanning Southeast Asia, ASEAN, the Muslim world, the NAM, the
EU, the Commonwealth and the major powers of the world especially the United
States of America. Despite acknowledging
the persistent challenges that Bangladesh, a country of 170 million people
faces, the book maintains an optimistic outlook regarding Bangladesh’s future
progress.
During my tenure as the Bangladesh Foreign Minister, in
order to help achieve the roadmaps that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina outlined
such as becoming a developing country by 2021, a hunger-free economy by 2030,
and a Smart Digital Bangladesh by 2041, and given our geostrategic location,
and more importantly, given the need for creating opportunities for our
greatest resource, the young and hardworking youth, and also to make best use
of our waters and other resources, I introduced 3 policy packages and these are
(1) Economic diplomacy, (2) Public diplomacy and the third one, (3) Regional
Peace and stability packages.
My economic diplomacy package consists of 5 major elements
and these are (1) Increase of foreign direct investment (FDI) plus diversifying
its portfolio, (2) Increase trade and diversify its products and markets, (3)
Gainful employment of nation’s human resources both home and abroad, (4)
Technology transfer in order to help improve ease of doing business and finding
ways to mitigate river erosion, climatic vulnerability, and utilizing the water
resources, and (5) providing quality services to both our Bangladeshi Diaspora
and others in all our missions. Emphasis was laid on investment, trade and
employment in order to fully engage our human resources by creating gainful
jobs and we created an office Director General for Trade, IT, ITES and
investment within the Foreign Ministry. My Public Diplomacy initiatives were
designed to change the brandname of Bangladesh from a poor starving country to
a land of opportunities in order to attract FDI and also to appraise especially
our Western leaders and advisers that Bangladesh is the only country in the
world that sacrificed 3 million lives to uphold democracy, justice, Human
Rights and Human dignity. It will also
appraise people of all nations that our Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman spent most of his active life, almost 14 years in jails as he
demanded right to vote, right to food and shelter and to end economic disparity
and deprivation. In order to do that we
created a special Wing in the Foreign Ministry plus established Bangabandhu
Corners in all our missions abroad so that it organizes in cooperation and
partnership with our Diaspora and local educational institutions; universities,
schools, colleges, Think Tanks, community leaders, opinion leaders and the like
regular seminars, workshops, events, etc on Bangladesh. And my Regional Peace and Stability package
would like to create and guarantee an environment of peace and stability in the
region so that economic achievements can be sustainable. Indian subcontinent is very vulnerable and
emotion plays a big role in maintaining peace and stability. Any country or region that faces threat of extremism
and violence or wars, finds difficulty to sustain their growth and achievements
even if they may have plenty of resources. Threats of extremism and uncertainty
keep their potential investors away. As
against such scenario, the countries that enjoy peace and stability appear to
be doing much better. For example, because of peace and stability in Bangladesh
and India for last 15 years, both are benefited. Nearly 2.8 million
Bangladeshis visited India either for shopping, tourism or for medical treatment
and thus contributing to Indian economy.
Few thousand Indians are contributing to our economy by having jobs in
Bangladesh and helping their own country by remitting billions of foreign
exchange to India. More importantly, because of peace and stability, India
doesn’t have to spend billions of its dollars to protect its borders in the
eastern zone. I would like to propose to the researchers and the authors to
write books on the mutual economic and social benefits of resolving issues
through dialogue and discussion as Bangladesh and India have done. They have
set up an example for others to imitate.
Through developing a rock-solid bilateral relationship and through
dialogue and discussion, it resolved its border demarcation issues, its
maritime boundary and also most of its water sharing disputes peacefully. Not a single bullet was fired. This is an unique example of achieving
wellbeing of their peoples through friendship and political acumen, maturity
and leadership. Therefore, leadership
issue and diplomatic strategies are very important not only for growth but also
for sustainability.
As noted by many authors in the book, Bangladesh’s rise and
its successes have not been studied in depth especially in the West. Hopefully, this book is going to make a
significant contribution towards filling that void. The book offers valuable
insights into to the nation’s diplomatic endeavors. It allows us to see how the rise of
Bangladesh is seen by global academic community and analyze what they think
will be the next steps for Bangladesh.
I congratulate the editor Professor Sreeradha Datta and the
contributing authors for their write-ups and wish them to come up with more of
such books.