'Democracy, enforced disappearance, human rights –all nonsense'

Foreign minister AK Abdul Momen on 20 December last year had said that Bangladesh’s relations with the US were good. It was because of these good relations that they advised Bangladesh. He had welcomed the advice and recommendations from the US.

Even after his talks on 15 January with David Lu, the US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, he said, “If we have any sort of questions between us, we will resolve those through talks. We certainly receptive to advice and we have examples of that. If we have any weaknesses, we will take that into cognizance and will try to rectify that.”

During that visit, David Lu had said that the US gave priority to democracy, human rights, freedom of speech and freedom of expression. Also, the country felt that the right for all to practice politics was important. Several ministers at the time had reiterated to Lu that the government was committed to upholding democracy and human rights.

In context of Donald Lu’s visit, the matter of the sanctions against the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) also came to the fore. The minister had even mentioned that these sanctions based on allegations of human rights violations was a matter of unease for the government.

With foreign minister AK Abdul Momen and foreign secretary Masud Bin Momen by his side during a press conference, Donald Lu said, “There have been positive discussions between both sides regarding the sanctions on RAB. If you notice the statement of Human Rights Watch, you will see it has been admitted about the extraordinary progress of RAB in decreasing extrajudicial killings. We also recognise this progress. It is extraordinary.”

The foreign minister may have been pleased at the time with the comments of the US assistant secretary of state, but now he is expressing his annoyance at these questions. At the DCAB Talk held on 8 July at the Foreign Service Academy , he said Bangladesh’s rapid development is the cause of envy of many. Human rights, democracy, enforced disappearance – all this is nonsense. People get lost in all countries and return. He said, “We have indications that there are some who are trying to obstruct the election.”

When asked who are trying to obstruct the election, the foreign minister told the journalists to find that out. In other words, it was not prudent of him to name names. But it is not like he didn’t name any country at all. In his address and in his answers to questions, he mentioned the United States several times.

Concerning dialogue between the government and the opposition, he said that such dialogue is not held in the US or any other country. There is no dialogue between the Republicans and the Democrats before the elections in the US. The US president doesn’t resign before the election.

It was our foreign minister who, during talks with the US secretary of state in Washington, asked for help in bringing BNP to the election. Now he says the opposite. The arguments, that he and the other Awami League ministers offer about democracy, the election and human rights, are exactly the same that the BNP leaders put forward when they were in power. Perhaps because he would live in the US, minister Momen may not know why Bangladesh’s presidents and prime ministers have to resign before the election even though the US president does not, but the people of Bangladesh understand this very well.

Awami League claims that they had set precedence of peaceful handover of power before the election. The foreign minister said, “We want all parties who are willing, to take part in the election. As long as no ‘terrorist party’ takes part in the election, there is no problem.” The people would benefit if the honourable minister had named the ‘terrorist party’. A ‘terrorist’ party shouldn't even have the right to do politics, so how can they take part in the election?

Abdul Momen said, “They said that extrajudicial killing takes place in our country. But they don’t see their own faces in the mirror.” He said that the people of Bangladesh had democracy and human rights in their pores, adding that nowhere in the world had so many people given their lives for democracy and human rights, and that the foreign quarters should know this.

That is exactly the point. What could be more unfortunate than the political leadership of a country where the people have shed so much blood for democracy and human rights, failing to hold a free and fair election? They usher in a caretaker government for fair election, next they abolish it. When out of power, then the caretaker government is so important to them. But when in power, then it is contraband.

Foreign minister Abdul Moment also commented about the new US visa policy. He said, “Certain government officials, businesspersons and leaders of the civil society are worried over the US visa policy. Their children go the US to study and they buy homes there. We have no headache over the US visa policy.”

Is that actually so? If they have no worry over the US visa policy, why do leaders of the government, from the top to mid-level express their anger over this? The party’s general secretary Obaidul Quader has said, we can declare a visa policy too. His words imply that Bangladesh, a country established 52 years ago, has no visa policy. After the US comes up with a visa policy, Bangladesh has to make one too. Every country has a visa policy from the very beginning. Based on that, visas are issued to foreigners. At one time Bangladesh’s passport would mention that it is not applicable for South Africa and Israel. That is no longer mentioned. It is to be seen whether Bangladesh’s new visa policy has any clause like that for foreigners.

If the foreign minister’s words are to be accepted, then that means if there is extrajudicial killing in other countries, then there can be such killings in our country too. If there are human rights violations in other countries, this can be justified in Bangladesh too. Will we compete with foreign countries over human rights violations and extrajudicial killings? Or will we pay attention to establishing the rule of law? Will we follow the bad examples of other countries or solve our own problems?

Forget about the foreigners, do the people of this country believe the honourable minister when he talks about holding transparent and free elections while remaining in power? A few days ago, state minister for foreign affairs Shahriar Alam said, “The elections of 2018 and 2014 cannot be examples.”

The foreign minister, while abroad, said, “Send as many observers as you want. We will welcome them.” Coming back to the country, he said, “It makes no difference to us if foreign observers come or not.” Which one is the truth? The problem with the foreign minister is that he says one thing in the morning and another in the evening. What will the people believe?

* Sohrab Hassan is joint editor of Prothom Alo and a poet. He may be contacted at [email protected]

* This column appeared in the print and online edition of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten for the English edition by Ayesha Kabir