Once again Bangladesh’s only coral island, Saint Martin’s, has turned into the centre of attention in politics with just six months to go before the 12th parliamentary election. The debate was stirred when ruling party leaders said staying in power would be smoother for them if they leased out Saint Martin’s island to a certain country. The island is located in the northeast of the Bay of Bengal.
Such a debate over any island is nothing new in the country, say political analysts. There have been instances of such statements and counter statements from the pre-independence to post-independence Bangladesh. Earlier, politicians used to draw Monpura island in Bhola into such debate. Recently, Saint Martin’s has come into focus, they said.
Ruling Awami League and its allies have been alleging for the last few days that the US wants to take over the Saint Martin’s island and the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) wants to come to power by “making a pledge to lease it out” . Such is the gravity of the debate that the issue was featured even in the regular press briefing of the US state department in Washington DC this week.
US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a press briefing on Monday that the US had no intentions to acquire Saint Martin’s Island of Bangladesh. “We have never engaged in any conversations about taking over Saint Martin’s Island,” he said.
The 8 sq km island is completely cut off from the mainland of Bangladesh. As per the website of Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation (BPC), Saint Martin’s is in the northeastern part of the Bay of Bengal, about 9 km south of the tip of the Cox’s Bazar-Teknaf peninsula, and forming the southernmost part of Bangladesh. It is about 8 km west of the northwest coast of Myanmar, at the mouth of the Naf River.
How did BNP come to power in 2001? They came to power by pledging to sell gas. Now do they want to sell the country or come to power by pledging to sell Saint Martin’s island?
An evidence of longstanding political debate over the island is found in a news report in December 1980. On 18 December, 1980, Dainik Bangla carried a report under the title “None will be allowed to establish naval base at Saint Martin’s” based on a statement of the foreign ministry. A spokesperson of the foreign ministry in the statement said the allegation of several political parties that a country has been allowed to set up its naval base at the Saint Martin’s island is completely baseless.
Speaking to Prothom Alo, writer and researcher Mohiuddin Ahmad said he heard first in February 1971 about the allegation of leasing Bhola’s Monpura island out to the US. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had a meeting with the US Ambassador to Pakistan, Josef S. Farland, on 28 February that year. Pro-China left leaning parties that time ran propaganda centering the meeting that Monpura island will be given to the US. In exchange the US would lend its support to Bangladesh.
Mohiuddin Ahmad further said Saint Martin’s was not so well known like Monpura island that time. Monpura gained much publicity due to a trail of huge destruction in the island in the devastating cyclone in 1970.
In 2023, Rashed Khan Menon, president of Bangladesh Workers’ Party, an alliance of ruling Bangladesh Awami League, brought the issue of Saint Martin’s island first into the debate. He raised it while addressing in the Jatiya Sangsad (national parliament) on 14 June.
Menon said the countries that have the US as friend do not need any enemies. A few months ago the US imposed sanctions to hold sway over Bangladesh. Now it has announced the new visa policy centering the (parliamentary) election. This is not only ill motivated, but a part of strategy to “change regime” as well. He further said the US seeks Saint Martin’s and Bangladesh’s participation in Quad, a US-led strategic alliance.
Trying to throw political opponents into a predicament alleging they are going to lease out Monpura or Saint Martin’s island to the US or going to provide benefit to India is an age old political strategy in this country, said political analysts
Six days later, Hasanul Haq Inu, president of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, another ally of Awami League, reitrated the matter at his speech in parliament. He said when the US shows enthusiasm for democracy of any country, that brings more sufferings for the people rather than the government or the opposition of that country. “The time has come for us to think about the reason of this overenthusiasm of the US. Is it democracy or the Saint Martin’s Island?” he added.
Time and again the US has been stressing that the forthcoming parliamentary election in Bangladesh be a free and fair one. At the end of May it announced a new visa policy for Bangladesh too. That said people who would be found to be involved in undermining democratic process in Bangladesh would not be given US visa. Earlier in December, 2021, the country imposed sanctions on law enforcement agency Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and its seven current and former officials on charges of violating human rights.
Following the announcement of the new visa policy, the Bangladesh government, the ruling party and its allies became vocal in slamming the US. Saint Martin’s island has been drawn into the debate at a stage of this slew of criticisms.
I will just say that it is not accurate. We respect Bangladesh’s sovereignty, and we have never engaged in any conversations about taking over Saint Martin’s Island
The issue of the island was also featured in a media conference Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina addressed at her official residence, Ganabhaban, on 21 June about her visits to Switzerland and Qatar.
Sheikh Hasina said there will be no problem for her to hold on to power if the Saint Martin’s island is leased out, but she won’t do that. She said, “I have no intention to go to power by selling the country’s assets.”
The prime minister, however, did not take name of any country. She said, “How did BNP come to power in 2001? They came to power by pledging to sell gas. Now do they want to sell the country or come to power by pledging to sell Saint Martin’s island?”
De facto opposition BNP, however, remarked that such statements of the ruling party leaders’ are nothing but “political strategy”. The party’s secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in a media conference on 22 June said, “The remark on Saint Martin’s island is part of her (prime minister’s) political strategy. They want to gain an advantage through such statements.”
Newspersons asked questions to US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller in a regular press briefing on Monday on this raging political debate in Bangladesh. The US state department published the questions and answers in its website.
Matthew Miller was asked, “During a recent press conference, Bangladesh Prime Minister Hasina alleged that the US wants to grab the small island of Saint Martin. And main opposition BNP wants to sell it to the US. That’s why she will be ousted from the power. Last 15 years she is in power without reflection of the will of the people of Bangladesh, though. The AL wants to purchase or grab this small island, or is all this a disinformation spreading by the top regime people? Why it is so important for no reason, the Saint Martin Island?”
To this question, Matthew Miller said, “I will just say that it is not accurate. We respect Bangladesh’s sovereignty, and we have never engaged in any conversations about taking over Saint Martin’s Island.” He further said, “We value our partnership with Bangladesh. We strive to bolster our relationship by working together to promote democracy, including by supporting free and fair elections.”
Saint Martin’s now
A British team of surveyors’ included Saint Martin’s island as part of British India in 1900 and named it after a Christian priest Saint Martin.
The Department of Environment of Bangladesh announced the island as an Ecologically Critical Area (ECA) in 1999. But hotels and resorts have been constructed at the island violating the laws for the uncontrolled number of tourists there.
A research conducted by professor Md Kawser Ahmed of Department of Oceanography at Dhaka University, lecturer Md Yusuf Gazi of Department of Geology and Tahrima Jannat, a former student of Department of Oceanography at Dhaka University shows the number of coral species has come down to 40 in 2018 from 141 in 1980. The research paper was published in 2020. It also revealed the foliage covered areas has decreased to 3 sqkm from 4.5 sqkm.
An article published in Ocean Science Journal in 2020 said the island could be totally coral free by 2045.
Though the government does not have taken any effective initiative to protect the biodiversity of the island, it has turned into a matter of intense political debate. Trying to throw political opponents into a predicament alleging they are going to lease out Monpura or Saint Martin’s island to the US or going to provide benefit to India is an age old political strategy in this country, said political analysts. Earlier, this practice was rampant among the left leaning political parties, they added.