Build socio-political system prioritising people's needs
Prof Muzaffer Ahmad yesterday stressed the need to create a socio-political system that would prioritise the people's needs.
"It would be a system that would take people in, not push them out," he said at the concluding session of a conference titled 'International Convention on human Security Approach to Counter Extremism in South Asia: Relevance of Japanese Culture'.
Prof Muzaffer also said, "The Tipaimukh dam issue is an example of how actors outside the state are depriving us of human rights in our own country."
Describing the issue as an effect of intra-state relations, he said: "What is luxury for one country may be a life-and-death question for another."
Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) in association with the Japan Foundation organised the two-day conference at the BIISS auditorium in the city.
"Security should be seen with a holistic approach -- as a multidimensional concept that is difficult to put into any specific matrix," said Prof Muzaffer, who is also a member of the BIISS Board of Governors.
"We need to develop a concept of a just society and build on that concept. Because only a just society and a just state can ensure human security," he said.
At the conference, noted scholars and delegates from Japan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh explored the concept of human security from Japan's viewpoint and how it is relevant in the context of South Asia.
The discussants also tried to identify the factors responsible for the declining social and human security and strengthening of extremism in the region, and to propose guidelines for formulation of strategies that could influence action at national and regional levels.
They termed the human element the biggest resources for Asia, and called on the states to utilise it to promote human safety and counter extremism in the region.
Emphasising a human security approach to meeting the challenges of extremism, they concluded that political leadership has a vital role to play in this regard and cooperation between the states is a must to fight extremism in South Asia, which the governments in the region have not done so far.
BIISS Chairman Maj Gen Muhammad Firdaus Mian chaired the third working session while BIISS Director General Maj Gen Sheikh Md Monirul Islam chaired the concluding session.
Prof Dr Bishnu Hari Nepal, former ambassador of Nepal to Japan, Dr Shaheen Akhter, research fellow of Regional Studies at Islamabad, Osamu Miyata, associate professor at the University of Shizuoka, Japan, Katsuhisa Furukawa, fellow of Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society (RISTEX), Japan, and Dr Shaheen Afroze, research director of BIISS, presented papers at the conference.
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