There’s need for participatory elections: Commonwealth SG

Commonwealth secretary general Patricia Scotland during a recent interview with Prothom Alo in Dhaka. Photo: Prothom Alo
Commonwealth secretary general Patricia Scotland during a recent interview with Prothom Alo in Dhaka. Photo: Prothom Alo

Commonwealth secretary general Patricia Scotland has underlined the need for participatory government and elections in Bangladesh.

“We are hoping all parties will participate peacefully in the democratic process for if there is to be a democratic election, it does need all to participate so that the process can be maintained,” she said in an exclusive interview with Prothom Alo during her tour of Bangladesh on 8-10 August.

Sixth secretary general of the Commonwealth and the first woman to hold the post, Patricia Scotland assumed office on 1 April 2016. As an English politician and barrister she earlier served in ministerial positions within the UK government, most notably as attorney general for England and Wales and advocate general for Northern Ireland.

During her recent visit, Baroness Patricia Scotland met the prime minister, other senior ministers and officials, and discussed various issues including commitments made at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (CHOGM) held in London earlier this year.

In the interview with Prothom, she spoke on the Commonwealth’s stance regarding various issues pertaining to governance, human rights, trade, climate change, the Rohingya refugees and more.

Prothom Alo: This is your first visit to Bangladesh. What brings you here? Could you tell us something about the agenda of your visit?

Patricia Scotland: This is my first official visit to Bangladesh. There are 53 countries of the Commonwealth and we cover 2.4 billion people, 60per cent who are under the age of 30. We have just completed the most recent Commonwealth heads of government (CHOGM) so we’ve come to speak to all of our counterparts about how they propose to implement the communiqué we committed ourselves to.

The communiqué has four areas. The theme was towards a common future, how to make that future fairer, more sustainable, more prosperous, and more secure. So those four themes were very important to all the 53 heads. It was the time where most of the world was having difficulty in agreeing on a couple of things. It was quite remarkable that our 53 countries were able to have a very comprehensive, challenging agenda and yet we agreed on absolutely everything.

The things we agreed upon were not just important to our Commonwealth. They are of global importance. We were talking about how to improve connectivity. That very much is about our prosperity. In Bangladesh there have been a really good economic growth, as much as 7.65 per cent and it’s looking as if it’s going up to 8 per cent growth which is very good in terms of current global growth rate. When we looked at the growth rate globally which has moved from a flat line last year of 2 per cent to a 3.7 per cent global growth, and when we disaggregated that, we saw that it was the countries which have invested in their human capital that were doing best. That very much underscored our Commonwealth approach because it was the question of values, human rights, opportunities, and making sure all of our people have a chance to explore the talents that are within them which certainly means our women. The improvement and the empowerment of our women and girls is a critical part of it.

Then we looked at moving to an e-assisted future that brings with it huge benefits. But it also brings with it some dangers because all of our 53 countries are now showing appropriate concern about the dangers presented by cyber crime. And if we are to interdict cyber crime, the question is, how do we do it fairly but effectively?

I was able to talk to the law minister here about those issues and about how we intensify our collaborative work with the 53 ministers of justice. We had a law ministers’ meeting in Bahamas to which the honourable law minister of Bangladesh attended and played a very effective part. We were discussing amongst the 53 law ministers how we take advantage of the fact that we were all of common law countries. We have a 19 per cent advantage in trade terms because we have the same language, we have the same legal structures, and we have similar government approaches in terms of the parliamentary structure that is in many of our countries and institutions.

Out of that ministerial meeting, we were confident enough to launch the office of civil and criminal justice reforms in the secretariat. We have settled the guidelines on anti-corruption, on fairness, on trade, on all the laws. All 53 of us have quite a battle finding enough parliamentary draftsmen and women to do all the work we need in order to modernise and so we have decided to come together. If we are to have a fair system, it has to be inter-operable because what we have seen is that the crooks are joining together and are taking advantage of the differences in our systems to duck and dive. So we, the 53 countries, have a determination to combat that illicit behaviour and all the law ministers have committed to work together on those areas.

It is not just criminal justice areas. It is also civil justice areas. How do you make our system easy, because we have 42 of the 49 countries who are part of the WTO? They have signed up to the trade facilitation agreement which will help our traders to trade more easily, quickly and more cheaply. So since 42 of us have agreed that we want to do this, we think it is sensible to try and do it in the same way. My aspiration is to move the 19 per cent advantage we have and perhaps make it 30. That means 30 per cent easier, cheaper.

That comes back to the prosperity agenda. The fairness agenda and the prosperity agenda are actually linked. In order to get the prosperity we need, we have to invest in our human capital, make sure our systems are robust, transparent and fair and inter-operable.

We were also talking about climate change which is a big issue. It poses an existential threat to all of our countries, but particularly our small and vulnerable countries. Of the 53 in the Commonwealth, we have 31 small countries. We know from Bangladesh itself how damaging climate change can be. Last year was a terrible year. This year doesn’t look like it’s going to be any better. Last year we have mudslides in Sierra Leone where over 220 died, drought and desertification in Africa, floods in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan and India, hurricanes throughout the Commonwealth Caribbean, hurricanes in Vanuatu and the Pacific, earthquakes, volcanoes. It was a terrible year. We have to work even hard to try and speed things up because if we don’t, we are going to be in more trouble.

We went as the Commonwealth to the Ocean’s conference in July with the idea that we in the Commonwealth would create a Blue Charter. Bangladesh was with us, representing the Asia group. The conference was hosted by our Commonwealth member Fiji. Every region of our Commonwealth was represented and with Bangladesh’s support, we launched this idea of the Blue Charter. Then we went away and wrote it and by the time we got to CHOGM, not only did we have a Blue Charter, but we had the agreement of 53 countries. They had never seen a climate change instrument agreed upon so fast. Other people thought it would take 10 years and we did it in less than 10 months. We know that Bangladesh is interested and determined to have a blue economy and green economy. So there is all the work that has been done on solar, on issues related to the mangroves and we were talking on areas which Bangladesh wishes to champion in our Blue Charter.

In this visit we have talked about trade, fairness, human rights, good governance, how we implement those things, and we talked about youth and the importance of investing in youth. About 70 per cent of the population in Bangladesh is the youth segment and so this was very important.

Prothom Alo: Many commitments and declarations were made at the CHOGM in April this year, all of which address the prevailing global challenges and are very relevant to Bangladesh too. One of these issues is strengthening democratic institutions. In Bangladesh’s context, while economic development has been highlighted, there has been a perceived deterioration of democratic process institutions. As an institution, will the Commonwealth have any role to play in this connection, given that Bangladesh is a member state?

Patricia Scotland: We have been working with Bangladesh in relation to technical assistance. We have given technical assistance and are continue giving technical assistance to the human rights commission. We met them and talked about these issues, how we can assist them to go from the B accreditation status they have now to the A accreditation status that they would like. We are working with the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, we are working with the 89 organisations in the accreditation organisations in the Commonwealth, and some of them are here. Through the work I just mentioned in relation to the Commonwealth law ministers’ conference, we are creating Commonwealth best practice, encouraging our members to be able to implement that Commonwealth best practice.

We are also raising issues as they come forward and asking questions as to how these things are responding. I understand this is a journey, but I also understand the issues which are of importance. There is need for participatory government and elections. We are hoping all parties will participate peacefully in the democratic process for if there is to be a democratic election, it does need all to participate so that the process can be maintained. That is not for anyone to compel others to participate, but I think it is very important that everyone should participate in order to give all citizens a choice as who they would like to vote for.

Prothom Alo: At CHOGM, Bangladesh was duly praised for sheltering the Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, but it was also said that the agreement between Bangladesh and Myanmar was facilitating a sustainable return of the Rohingyas and reintegration in Myanmar. Is there any tangible evidence of such a return taking any time soon, let alone their reintegration? Can the Commonwealth play a more proactive role here, given that Myanmar is not a member? Is the international community’s focus here waning?

Patricia Scotland: I don’t think there is a waning in the international community’s interest in the Myanmar situation. The 53 leaders made a very strong statement a CHOGM which was in April, only a couple of months ago. The statement made by those 53 leaders is very important because that is one third of the world’s population represented by those 53 leaders and it is important that they come from six different regions.

I have had discussions with the deputy secretary general of the UN. We are going to the UN in September. I am confident that Bangladesh is going to be raising the issue. I am confident that member countries will be more than willing to add to their weight to Bangladesh’s plea.

We have to work within what is diplomatically possible and take every measure to encourage this to happen. International solidarity therefore is very powerful. When we go to the Commonwealth foreign ministers’ meeting in the margins of the UN General Assembly, I am relatively sure that the Bangladesh foreign minister will be bound to raise the Rohingya issue. I would be remarkably surprised if there didn’t come another statement on the issue from that meeting of the 53 Commonwealth foreign ministers.

Prothom Alo: Can the Commonwealth not put pressure in any way on Myanmar in this regard?

Patricia Scotland: The Commonwealth member states are doing everything they possibly can to support the process. They have been very clear about what they expect Myanmar to do. Myanmar, as has been rightly pointed out, is not part of our Commonwealth and is not bound by the values and content of our charter.

The pressure comes from the 53 countries together. I know of a number of countries of the 53 who are individually using their pressure to do it. We can only stand together. We are unable to do more than put pressure. I don’t think anyone is suggesting that this is a case for other interventions, but that is something that the UN has to decide. What the global community decides is best to deal with Myanmar as a result of that global pressure, we will see when the UN meets. But the Commonwealth is forcefully doing its part to support Bangladesh, to say to the rest of the world, we stand firmly with this member of our Commonwealth family. We are 2.4 billion of us supporting Bangladesh’s claim. So I think from the Commonwealth point of view, these countries are doing everything they can to be supportive.

Prothom Alo: Thank you

Patricia Scotland: Thank you