Two ex-ministers hindered most in organising ‘Bay of Bengal Conversation’: Zillur Rahman

Centre for Governance Studies (CGS) executive director Zillur Rahman has said two ministers of the previous Bangladesh Awami League government erected different types of hindrances on organising the Bay of Bengal Conversation.

The two ministers, Hasan Mahmud and Shahriar Alam, would hinder organising the conference, including dissuading the guests from participating here.

Zillur Rahman was speaking at a media conference, organised by the CGS at Sonargaon Hotel in the capital on Friday.

Bay of Bengal Conversation-2024, the third edition of the conference, is set to begin in Dhaka Saturday under the theme “A Fractured World”.

Interim government’s chief adviser Dr Muhammad Yunus will inaugurate the conference this time.

Recalling the hindrances, Zillur Rahman said the conference’s local sponsors and businesspersons were taken to the headquarters of an intelligence agency.

Zillur further said the then information minister Hasan Mahmud and state minister for foreign affairs Shahriar Alam behaved with the sponsors in such a way over the phone that the businesspersons, who were long time acquaintances of Zillur Rahman, started avoiding him. He did not even get any partner in the second edition of the Bay of Bengal Conversation.

Many did not want to give him money using bank cheques due to the obstructions of the two ministers, while some gave him cash support while travelling on the road out of fear.

He informed the media conference that many of his colleagues were also harassed in different ways.

Zillur said various Bangladesh missions abroad would make phone calls to dissuade the guests from attending the conference.

Terming the CGS an anti-government platform, intelligence agencies would call the guests from South Asian countries and ask them not to join the Bay of Bengal Conversation.

Speaking about his experiences of organising the conference for the first time in 2022, Zillur Rahman said different media were asked not to publish any news regarding the Bay of Bengal Conversation. “Former chief of detective branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police and his teams used to take positions near the conversation venue.”

The CGS executive director further recalled that they booked a hotel six months before the conference in 2022 but the hotel authorities cancelled the booking just 15 days before the conversation as the then government was against the event. That year former minister Abdur Razzaque left the programme just 30 minutes after joining as Hasan Mahmud phoned him. He did not even address the event. Another former minister Tazul Islam left from the entrance. In the second edition of the Bay of Bengal Conversation, only former planning minister MA Mannan attended the event.

Stating that the governments of all the countries support such programmes, Zillur said they do not seek any kind of help from the government. They just hope that the government would not create obstacles in organising the event.

This time the home and foreign ministries helped him in organising the Bay of Bengal Conversation, he added.

The CGS executive director also said that CGS wants to work without taking any support, including financial help, from the government as the experience of working with any government in the political context of Bangladesh was not pleasant.

The media conference was informed that writers, researchers, politicians, diplomats, bureaucrats, educationists and representatives of civil societies from 80 countries around the world will take part in the three-day Bay of Bengal Conversation this year.

There will be discussion on five issues including freedom of press and disinformation, climate change, commerce, geopolitics, and human rights.

There will be 200 speakers, 300 representatives and 800 guests in 77 sessions at the conference this year. Only the registered persons can take part in the event that will continue from 9:30 am to 8:00 pm.

CGS chairman Munira Khan, chief of staff Dipanjali Roy and programme director Subir Das were present at the media conference.