Non-interventionism is a core EU Charter principle, member states obligated to respect the sovereignty of all nations - disputes to be settled "by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered."
All member states "shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state…"
"Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the EU to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter…"
The principle of non-intervention protects the sovereignty, political independence, and territorial integrity of all nations across the world.
Interfering in the electoral process of other nations is longstanding EU policy - notably in Bangladesh, Central and South America, Africa, Central Asia, Iraq, Ukraine, Iran and many more.
The EU seeks dominion over planet earth, its resources and populations, wanting the countries worldwide subservient to its interests. Sovereign and independent governments are targeted for elimination - the EU used as a belligerent instrument in pursuing their geopolitical aims. It can be taken as a given that it is wrong for countries to try to influence the outcome of elections in other countries by covert means. But I find it amusing that like the US, the EU also, of all nations, is complaining about this practice. Is there any nation on Earth that has a worse record than the US and EU countries when it comes to interference in other countries in choosing their leaders?
Apart from secretly funding individuals, private groups, and political parties in other countries, fomenting unrest and orchestrating so-called 'spontaneous' demonstrations, placing articles in their media, and so on, the US and the EU do not stop there and even sponsors coups, the murders of foreign leaders, and outright invasions if all those fail to achieve the goal of installing governments that will do their bidding.
Like America, the EU elites think that they have the right to meddle in the internal affairs of other countries but are outraged when others do it to them. "60 different independent countries have been the targets of such interventions," International Researcher Levin's writes. "The targets came from a large variety of sizes and populations, ranging from small states such as Iceland and Grenada to India, Bangladesh, Brazil…" It's important to note that these cases vary greatly - some simply involved steps to publicly support one candidate and undermine another.
But almost two thirds of interventions are done in secret, with voters having no idea that foreign powers are actively trying to influence the results.
Levin told Fact Check he was surprised by how common EU election interference was. "Such interventions can frequently have significant effects on election results in the intervened country, increasing the vote share of the assisted side by 3% on average - enough to determine the identity of the winner in many cases." According to Levin's research, those countries where secret tactics have been deployed by the EU include many countries like Bangladesh. Levin's research points out that, historically, election meddling has actually been far more common than other methods of political intervention, like military invasions and coups.
Covert interventions have been done by many countries over the years and - because they are shrouded in secrecy - it's impossible to get a comprehensive picture of every instance across the world. Nearly 50 years later, a former secret agent admitted: "We had bags of money that we delivered to selected politicians, to defray their political expenses, their campaign expenses, for posters, for pamphlets."
This means many of these incidents broadly remain facts, but without the detail to tell the full story. The true extent to which the EU was actually involved in these cases in the past may not be known for years. Now come to the dumb founding point: Media reports revealed Ambassador and Head of Delegation of the European Union (EU) to Bangladesh Charles Whiteley on 15 November last said they will be following the next general election "very closely" because the international community is "very interested" in what happens in Bangladesh amid its growing engagement globally as a developing economic powerhouse. The EU envoy made the remarks while responding to a question at "DCAB Talk" held in a city hotel. If we scuttlebutt his full comments, we can easily catch up with the dictum that he made his remarks perspicaciously like Chanakya, an ancient Indian foxy diplomat and his full statement is marked by skill in deception!
Whiteley's line of reasoning is also self-contradictory. It is clean-cut meddlesome in the internal affairs of polls in Bangladesh, an independent and sovereign country. Now it is fit to raise the question by us that we should also call press conferences on the elections in the EU countries. We want to see: what will be his reaction then? He may be identified as Kau?ilya or Vishnugupta of ancient India and so, he sounded-out, "I think we'll be following it very closely. Why we'll be following it very closely is not because we want to interfere but the international community is very interested in what happens in Bangladesh."
Neither the UN nor the European Union (EU) have the right of meddling in the internal works of any independent and sovereign state across the world. This general line of orientation by the EU in Bangladeshis rather alarming and also appalling. We must accuse the European Union of meddling in our internal affairs. We ask the election commission to make decision based on the country's law and its domestic procedures.
We must lash out at the EU's bullyrag in response to their audacity to have seen their admonishing over the would-be national polls in Bangladesh.
"But as John Selden, the 17th century English jurist and scholar, put it: Preachers say, 'Do as I say, not as I do.' It's an attitude that empire builders have adopted since the dawn of history, and the EU is no exception in the firmament of Bangladesh's national polls.
Make no mistake about it - the EU Ambassador's case is a big-ticket decision. A lot of reputations are riding on this for Bangladesh. The European Commission has overstepped its role and its mandate. So, it must be stopped targeting our country's own state of affairs. Across the world, democratic societies, institutions, processes and values are under increasing external and internal attack. The coronavirus crisis has, meanwhile, exacerbated the systemic struggle between democracy and authoritarianism, prompting authoritarian state and non-stateactors to deploy a broad range of overt and covert instruments in their bid to destabilise the democratic counterparts. Against this backdrop, and following a string of examples of hostile meddling by authoritarian actors to undermine democratic governing processes in countries, such as, Bangladesh, the focus on foreign interference continues to sharpen.
Before and during the election, many are worried that the EU and the likes of it would try to replicate a so-called EU model to meddle in the election in our country.
The west and particularly the US - have a long history of rigging polls, supporting military coups, channeling funds and spreading political propaganda in other countries, but the irony of fate is that the EU always chooses to remain silent about America's misdeeds mysteriously. So, it will not be exaggerated to say that the EU has many hats and it is also the apple-polisher of American administration!
It will be Bangladesh's people deciding about our own fate. Our strength is in our unity … we believe in the same values: family, nation, and a strong and independent Bangladesh. No matter what happens, Bangladesh can always count on the support ofpeople of Bangladesh. Just as it's historically done, the country is standing strong against all foreign pressures. By convening the press conference on Bangladesh's would be national polls, the core principle of non-intervention flagrantly violated time and again by the EU. We can't give any bravado to the EU envoy Whiteley under any setting. Rather, we condemn him in the most corrosive language!
Anwar A Khan is an independent political analyst who writes on politics, political and human-centred figures, current and international affairs
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