Diplomatic candour

It is argued that diplomatic agents who are sent to observe, negotiate on behalf of their respective governments, and report to the sending states should not interfere in the internal affairs of the receiving state.

Most countries have more or less followed this model of diplomatic conduct since the Treaty of Westphalia (1648) and the Treaty of Utrecht that laid down limits of aberration hitherto practiced by many European monarchs and other global leaders till the end of the twentieth century. Aggressive behaviour resulting in two Great Wars were checked at great cost and the victors in both tried to lay down code of international conduct through establishment of short lived League of Nations and the United Nations which still survives despite its decimation on several occasions during the Cold War by then super powers and now by the Bush doctrine of preemption.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

These aberrant behaviours have considerably changed the concept of sovereignty so nobly pontificated by the UN Charter because the Walzerian concept was successfully disregarded by the mightier powers in total disregard of global disapproval. The world needs to be reminded of President Bush's announcement that "America has and intends to keep military strength beyond challenge thereby making the destabilizing arms race of other eras pointless, and limiting rivalries to trade and other pursuits."

One may wonder about the causal relationship between the critical comments made by some resident diplomats in Bangladesh and visiting delegations and pronouncements relating to the war on terror. The two events are not so far apart as one may wish these to believe. The Western countries strongly believe that democracy deficit they had allowed to exist in the past in many developing countries ultimately went against their interest because despotism nursed seeds of terrorism that affected both the nursery and the international community.

Harvard historian Niall Ferguson's drawing of a frightening scene of islands of prosperity living amidst vast multitude of poverty and desolation unless the US listened to the call of history to relieve the world threatened with terror cannot constitute a defense against incipient terrorism against the West in the present day globalized world.

Bangladesh, as a populous Muslim country and a recent victim of Islamic extremism allegedly fomented by the erstwhile people in power but still regarded as a moderate Muslim country and hence able to contribute to inter-faith peaceful co-existence, cannot be left to a fate of turmoil that could directly affect the neighbourhood, and, by extension, the prosperous part of the world.

The critical comments of Ambassador Patricia Butenis on December 17 about the caretaker government not always having conducted itself neutrally, and warning that imposition of any extra-constitutional arrangement such as military intervention "would not address the basic weakness afflicting the current political process," should not be regarded as interference in our sovereignty, which is being dissipated every day anyway through commercial, economic and other international contracts that the country gets into, but as an envoy of the US looking out for the security of her own country, which is an integral part of any ambassadorial assignment.

Besides, if one were to look at the European Union and its recent expansion with former East European countries as members, one cannot but wonder at the anxious willingness of the newly-inducted member states to give up their sovereignty that they had so zealously guarded against Western encroachment for more than fifty years. Sovereignty, therefore, is not chipped away if people like Tom Daschle, former Majority and Minority Leader in the US Senate and Mike Moore, former Prime Minister of New Zealand as members of NDI delegation visiting Bangladesh refuse to choose "that point of reference does not assume that either the domestic or international communities should be complacent about the future of genuine democracy in Bangladesh."

This concern tallies with Francis Fukuyama's observation that "even if you have an election or a democratic transition, whether that will be sustainable in a society that is close to subsistence, that dose not have any kind of resource, where you have low levels of education, very severe ethnic and other kind of cleavages."

In addition, the NDI delegation stressed the need to remove the barriers to women and minorities to full participation in the electoral and political process, felt that the then government should have been more sensitive to political reaction at the time of raising the retirement age of High Court judges, about disproportionate violent reaction of the police to public demonstrations, about the "incredible difference" between the size of the new voter list of about 90 million voters and the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics' report that based on 2001 census the voting age population was approximately 80 million; and identified "a perception of incompetence and bias" on the part of the CEC.

Ambassador Butenis's opinion that the forthcoming elections to be held after enabling conditions have been created "will be the most observed election in Bangladesh's history, with tens of thousands of Bangladeshi monitors and hundreds of foreign monitors blanketing the country" is not oracular but is a distinct and welcome possibility.

The holding of a fair and free election will present Bangladesh the peace that is sorely needed to attain further socio-economic development. Machinations put in place to deny the people the chance to select their representatives is war against the people of Bangladesh. Liberty is indivisible. It cannot be compartmentalized into a command economy and denial of freedom.

Debate abounds whether countries like South Korea and Taiwan, who had achieved impressive economic growth under command economies, would not have fared better if market forces had not been distorted and an egalitarian distribution of resources would not have brought about better social cohesion.

After all, it has now been proved beyond doubt that disparate income distribution does not lead to a more efficient economic management. Corrupt as we have been proved to be time and again, foreign concern should not have been regarded as beyond the call of duty of those individuals but as a wake up call to us to mend our ways.

In these days of abridged sovereignty and intense international cooperation it would be prudent to listen to the wise without being overly sensitive about interference in internal affairs. On the domestic front the CTG, his advisors, and the Election Commission would be well advised to realize that they have been caught with their hands in the till and that the people of Bangladesh have vowed not to go back home without participation in a truly free and fair election on the basis of a flawless vote.

Kazi Anwarul Masud is a former Secretary and Ambassador.