Colonial strategy hammers economy and our remedy

 
Bangladesh's history of deprivations, injustice, discrimination and torment that the nation had to go through at the hands of Pakistan is still glaringly inscribed in our minds. For this reason, fighting for independence was the only choice for Bangladesh. Under those crucial circumstances India proved its brotherly bonds with us by standing beside Bangladesh on diplomatic, military and humanitarian fronts. Over ten million refugees from Bangladesh took shelter on Indian soil. Most of the freedom fighters of Bangladesh were trained up in India who moved back into Bangladesh to fight for the country's liberation. In this way the relationship between Bangladesh and India is written in golden letters.

Bangladesh's Deputy High Commission in Kolkata during 1971 is treated as the first diplomatic mission of Bangladesh while the Liberation War was going on.

Geopolitical analysts have frequently stated that China instigated the Rohingya influx into Bangladesh. China is on Myanmar's side which is why the international powers including the United Nations are not being able to persuade Myanmar to repatriate Rohingyas back into Myanmar.

Colonial strategies which were in practice by powerful countries during 17th to 19th centuries have come back once again. In the present time strong countries do not occupy weak ones physically. Rather financial gambits are applied for imposing colonial shackles on weaker nations.

NATO and Warsaw confronted each other from 1970 to 1990. However, Bangladesh did not join either of these platforms. Rather Bangladesh preferred to join Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) like great leaders such as Jawaharlal Nehru of India and Marshal Tito of former Yugoslavia. Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman founded Bangladesh's diplomatic relationships with different countries. Bangabandhu introduced our foreign policy which states, "Friendship to all, malice to none."

The conflict between Russia and United States of America is quite an old one. It existed by the term Cold War while there was Soviet Union. In recent times Russia is having geopolitical trouble with Ukraine. Ukraine was part of Soviet Union. Some people of Ukraine are not happy with the Ukrainian government. On the other hand, Russia does not want NATO to further expand across East Europe. For this reason Russia has deployed its troops along the borders of Ukraine.

Bangladesh will now have to prepare for the post Covid economy. Remittances from abroad have meanwhile remarkably dropped. Bangladesh exports most of its readymade garment (RMG) products to the western countries including the United States and the countries belonging to the European Union.

Remittance from Saudi Arabia has dropped by 21% during last six months. Remittance from UAE has declined by 41%. Remittance from United Kingdom has decreased by more than 15%. Remittance from Qatar has gone down by around 10%. Remittance from Malaysia has nosedived by nearly 55%. World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) have predicted that Bangladesh's inflation may further worsen if effective economic measures are not implemented immediately.

Twelve international human rights organizations have sent letters to the United Nations requesting UN to bar Bangladeshi forces from joining UN peacekeeping missions on grounds of alleged human rights abuses by the law and order forces of Bangladesh.

The present United States government is going to closely observe the upcoming national election of Bangladesh from democratic and human rights viewpoints. The US authorities have meanwhile imposed embargoes on the Director General of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and Inspector General of Police (IGP). The United States even did not invite Bangladesh to the Summit for Democracy which was held in America in December 2021. Bangladesh will have to negotiate these issues with the United States very aptly to overcome any possible diplomatic impediments with the US government.The sanction on RAB officials and IGP is a strong signal from the US administration that Bangladesh will have to improve its status as far as democracy and human rights are concerned.

The United States is also going to judge Bangladesh's affiliations with China. In the ongoing local government elections in Bangladesh, a lot of violence has so far taken place and several people got killed. Opposition candidates rejected the union parishad elections and many candidates won without contest. There were also a lot of independent candidates. There was also a very less turnout of voters in the union parishad elections. Political analysts have over and over again said that all elections in Bangladesh should be all-inclusive and participatory.

Bangladesh has very much friendly ties with the Quad members. It is not yet fully vivid whether Bangladesh has been officially invited to join Quad. However, patriotic geopolitical analysts have stated that joining Quad would be beneficial for Bangladesh. For the last two years the entire world including Bangladesh has been dealing with the Covid 19 challenge. USA, Japan, India and Australia have been vital development partners of Bangladesh. Millions of expatriate Bangladeshis have been living in these countries and sending huge sums of remittances to their home country. Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves have meanwhile crossed 45 billion US dollars. These countries are also our export destinations.

Showing Bangladesh's eagerness to join China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was a wrong move.

Bangladesh should not fall in the pitfall of Chinese debt trap diplomacy. Chinese loans have endangered the economy of many countries including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Kenya, Sudan, Zimbabwe and so on. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is being spearheaded by China. It's part of China's One Belt, One Road (OBOR) program. China's affiliation with Karachi Stock Exchange has devastated the share market of Pakistan.

History shows that China opposed the independence of Bangladesh while the glorious Liberation War of 1971 was going on. China has always been the closest ally to Pakistan. Three million martyrs who got killed during 1971 were shot with Chinese bullets. Thus getting closer to China ideologically contradicts with the essence of 1971.

China even did not recognize Bangladesh while Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was alive. China acknowledged Bangladesh after Bangabandhu was assassinated. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman did not visit China after Bangladesh's independence.

China is being denigrated by human rights organizations for its repression on the Uyghur Muslims. Trade deficit of 9 billion dollars have jolted Bangladesh's economy as import costs have by far exceeded export earnings. Bangladesh is having highest trade deficit with China. Bangladesh imports Chinese goods of around 11 billion dollars every year while our export volume to China is less than 1 billion dollars.

Bangladesh's economy has been jolted by the highest ever trade deficit of 9.09 billion dollars. Financial experts have stated that money laundering is one of the major reasons behind the burgeoning trade deficit in Bangladesh.

China has instigated the Rohingya influx into Bangladesh. The Rohingya refugees have now become a security threat to Bangladesh as some of these refugees are getting involved in various criminal activities. Even the environmental sanctity and biodiversity of the concerned areas are being destroyed by the Rohingya refugees. Myanmar violated the airspace of Bangladesh a couple of times but Bangladesh military forces showed self-restraint. However, it is not yet clear how long we can restrain ourselves if Myanmar continues its animosity with Bangladesh.

Former President Ziaur Rahman initiated and augmented Bangladesh's diplomatic ties with China after the killing of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Ziaur Rahman's political views were to a great extent identical to the notions of Chinese Communist Party. A great number of politicians who believed in Chinese communism packed hands with Ziaur Rahman and joined Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) after 1975. Thus BNP and Chinese Communist Party are political buddies to each other.

We should also speak the truth against religious extremists, communal organizations and radical groups. Fanatical Islamic parties like Hefazat-E-Islam threaten communal harmony in Bangladesh. Communal gangs vandalized Hindu people's homes and temples during the Durga Puja festival of 2021. Hefazat-E-Islam activists smashed Bangabandhu's sculptures in some parts of Bangladesh in 2021.

Socio-economic justice and equity were the main watchwords with which the glorious Liberation War was fought. Keeping this in view we should keep away from generating discrimination in our country on religious or any other basis. We do not want any isolation to take place between the believers of different religions in our country. It opposes the ideals with which the Liberation War was fought and it contradicts with the ideology of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

The unrestrained rise of communal groups has facilitated the expansion of militants and religious bigots across the country who are clear threats to domestic peace. Bangladesh has already suffered several attacks by extremist terrorists who have killed ordinary, innocent people in some parts of Bangladesh including foreigners. So, if the government cannot resist the communal organizations, then the bid to terminate militancy may also hit hurdles. Those who kill common citizens in the name of religion are the most terrible enemies of mankind. There are 19 religion-based Islamic banks in Bangladesh whereas there is no bank or financial institution in the country for religious minorities.

If we look at the world we can see youths doing miraculous things. Mark Zuckerberg is only 38 years old who is the chief executive officer of Facebook. Sundar Pichai is only 50 years old who is chief executive officer (CEO) of Google. The same phenomenon prevails in all other giants in the technological arena. When I was Senior Vice President of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS), I appealed to the government to introduce an information and communication technology (ICT) cadre in Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) under Public Service Commission (PSC). All ministries have one or two system analysts. Please abolish this post and make it Assistant Secretary, ICT. So, it is important to have an ICT cadre in government service.

We are at present working on the instigation of 4th Industrial Revolution while 5th Industrial Revolution has come off in some parts of the world. The 4th Industrial Revolution stands for introduction of connected devices, data analytics and artificial intelligence technologies. Young generation will have to make themselves familiar with the core features of metaverse.

On the other hand, the 5th Industrial Revolution will be focused on the cooperation between men and machines, as human intelligence works in harmony with cognitive computing. By putting humans back into industrial production with collaborative robots, workers will upgrade their skills to provide value-added tasks in production, leading to mass customization and personalization.

We want to recite with joy and spontaneity "Sokol Desher Rani Shey Je Amar Janmabhumi" (My motherland is the queen of all countries).

The writer is a diplomat, entrepreneur, author, poet, sports organizer and Chairman, Editorial Board of The Asian Age.