'Bangladesh has to work on the political front'

Professor Imtiaz Ahmed of the Department of International Relations, Dhaka University, talks to A.B.M. Shamsud Doza of The Daily Star on the recent three high-profile visits.

The Daily Star (TDS): What is your assessment of the successive visits of Mrs. Hilary Clinton, Pranab Mukherjee and the depurty prime minister of Japan?
Prof. Imtiaz Ahmed (IA): All three are high profile visits. One of them merits international focus particularly the visit of US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton. Both the US and Hilary Clinton are global brand names. Two things should be focused on regarding Hilary Clinton's visit.
One is the strategic partnership between the US and Bangladesh that I think is a very important step forward to improving relations between the two countries. And since the US has strategic partnership with other states, and some of these have progressed pretty well in the light of strategic partnership, particularly by the annual meeting, we hope that this particular agreement will also help bridge these countries together in a much more mutually beneficial kind of structure.
Second thing, one can easily see make out from her feature that the focus was on the political situation. She made it very clear that having unilateral election is not something that the US will accept. They would welcome a participatory election. I think it is a kind of message to the ruling party and to the opposition that they need to work together so that the next election could be held in a peaceful manner with the participation of all.
Now , Pranab Mujkherje's visit is different , I think, this had nothing to do with Hilary Clinton's visit but happened at the same time, so there are discussions why these two important persons were in Bangladesh. Clinton touched on some of the important issues including the political crisis. Pranab Mukherjee to some extent went in the same way and spoke about Bangladesh's political crisis as well. He also made very clear like Hilary Clinton, that India would want something like a dialogue so that they resolve the issue properly. So I believe both Hilary Clinton and Pranab Mukherjee gave the message that the government has to work on governance, particularly the coming election.
And third , the visit of Japanese vice premiere, the focus again was quite similar and so much on the issue of governance, highlighting corruption particularly on the Padma bridge issues.
So from all three , I think what we get is not a serious concern on the economic front, rather the issue of governance particularly current political crisis . So the idea from the visit of all these three is clear that Bangladesh has to work on the political side. If we can work well, I believe all this three countries will be in a position to enhance their cooperation with Bangladesh.

TDS: Please elaborate on the significance of the US-Bangladesh partnership dialogue.
IA: Strategic partnership was something that was in the air for quite some time. Hilary Clinton took the opportunity this time. Any strategic partnership needs several years to deliver the benefit on whatever the two parties would be working. From our side, I think we should seriously enhance our efficiency because working on yearly basis with the US definitely requires a lot of homework, like what we want, what are the fields that could help us to deal with the US and what are our concerns. I believe there is tremendous potential. It would be important to even bring other stakeholders including NGOs not to mention business communities. Any strategic partnership for example if we particularly refer to China , Mexico, India , Georgia and even Vietnam, we will see that they have taken their contentious issues out, and have benefited in fact from time to time by raising their concern on some issues and in return the US also tried to at least address some of those.

TDS: Pranab Mukherjee came up with some offers specially in the economic field but other issues like land boundary deal, enclave exchange, Teesta water sharing remain unimplemented. How do you evaluate this gesture?
IA: That is the only thing but I think this is pretty late. I doubt they can materialize. The problem was the $I billion got struck in the nitty-gritty but this was something that our economists raised that the loan is not going to help given the condition attached with it. I do not think, the timeframe this government has, they can work out within this few months that is left. Probably one has to wait for the new regime. But still one has to see even with this grant component whether it will benefit us or not.
I would have preferred they made the entire $1b into grant. That would work better and create confidence between these two countries. But still it is a step forward. Pranab Mukherjee is not in a position to resolve some of these issues because the Congress is now very weak at the centre and the only factor which is very important in terms of Bangladesh India relations is Mamata Banerjee. We need to wait and see which way Mamata Banerjee would go and also to which way the next central election in India would go.

TDS: Do you think the Congress is pandering to Mamata at the expense of Bangladesh-India relations?
IA: I think Mamata Banerjee is raising with Delhi some of her own concerns. One important thing is the loan that West Bengal took from the Central government and unless this monetary concern is resolved she is not going to sit with other issues. So on the Teesta she wants a guaranty from the Central government that how much water Sikkim would give to West Bengal. These are her valid concerns and unless these cases are resolved I do not think Mamata Banerjee would be in a position to support whatever Manmohan Singh is doing with Bangladesh. I believe unless and until the next election comes we will see serious change on the Indo- Bangladesh front.

TDS: How much will you rate Hilary Clinton and Pranab visit out of 10?
IA: I think, Hilary Clinton's visit had to do more with the political crisis and she said it was not acceptable. While Pranab Mukherjee was literally forced into speaking about some of the issues, and as Hilary Clinton was in town, not to speak on these issues would look bad. He was here to attend the conclusion of Tagore's 150th birthday celebrations. He had no other options but to reflect on them. His position was just like Hilary Clinton's. I think he is not in a position to give anything. But I really believe that Hilary Clinton's concerns at least would bring the two main political parties together to resolve the present political crisis.

TDS: Thank you.
IA: Thank you too.