New mindset needed for regional integration
DOUBTS can be expressed that Bangladesh has been freed from the scourge of religious extremism. The execution of Bangla Bhai and a few others, and the banning of Laskare-Toiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad etc. has not deterred the terrorists from using Bangladesh as a transit point for terrorists fleeing Indian authorities and, additionally, training recruits for al-Qaeda offshoots for terrorism in the country and beyond.
The government's attempt to bring the madrasas within the mainstream of our education system is unlikely to be successful. The new rules and laws that conflict with an age-old system, particularly when the system provides a kind of safety net for the poor coupled with the allurement of going to heaven after killing "wayward Muslims and kafirs," are bound to fail.
Unfortunately, the politicians, who can see only up to the next election and that the votes of madrasa students and teachers are no less important, cannot be expected to be Kemal Ataturk who destroyed mullahism in Turkey to create a modern country.
Since India has long been a victim of state sponsored terrorism and Pakistan is suffering at the hands of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, one would hope for an integrated South Asian approach to eliminate this curse. This will be difficult as the Indian home minister recently accused Pakistan of stifling the Mumbai massacre probe and the Indian prime minister does not see any possibility of immediate resumption of foreign secretary level talks.
Terrorism today has become a global phenomenon, compounded by 9/11 and the response by George W. Bush and his doctrine of preemption. Almost a year has passed by without a clear indication that change in Barak Obama's administration will be tectonic enough to bring global management to an even keel.
The British prime minister, while addressing the Institute of Strategic Studies on September 4, said: "As we removed the Taleban from power and drove Al Qaeda from Afghanistan, Al Qaeda relocated to the remote mountains of Pakistan. A new crucible of terrorism has emerged…. three quarters of the most serious plots against the UK have had links that reach back into these mountains. At present the threat comes mainly from the Pakistan side."
According to a Pentagon report India, Russia and China are key determinants of the international security environment in the 21st century. Of the three, Russia is considered a constructive partner while China "has the greatest potential to compete militarily with the US and field disruptive military technologies that could over time offset traditional US military advantage." Despite such a disquieting report, the Pentagon advised that the US policy should remain focused on encouraging China to play a constructive role in the Asia-Pacific region.
There is a school of thought which believes that the US's recognition of India as a civilian nuclear power has probably more to do with China's investment in asymmetric military power "beyond Taiwan" than for love of Indian democracy. According to New York Times, a former Indian air force chief views China and not Pakistan as India's biggest threat.
The Sino-Indian border conflict is reportedly heating up because of Chinese objection to an ADB loan to India for a water project in Arunachal Pradesh, which is claimed by China. But South Asian expert Elizabeth Mills (Harvard International Review-Changing energy relations between China and India) dismisses the simplistic view of Sino-Indian rivalry ignoring the hunger for energy that the two countries' phenomenal growth would require in the years to come.
Real politick has led India to look to China for energy equipment worth $ 7 billion because India wants to build power plants with a capacity of 78,000MW while domestically she can produce a maximum of 10,000 MW of power equipment annually. Besides, China and India, respectively, import 40% and 70% of their oil, and are mulling the possibility of cooperation in international bidding for energy to avoid the possibility of one outbidding the other. India is keener than China to have such an agreement.
Politically, Sino-Indian energy cooperation could possibly help US aspiration to move Pakistan from its implacable and axiomatic strategy to treat India as the number one enemy even when the Taliban threat is so palpable. The lessons are, in the words of former World Bank president and George W. Bush's deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, that foreign policy is about national interest and "realism means dealing with regimes you dislike."
Complementing his words, journalist Robert Kaplan says (The Revenge of Geography-May/June 2009): "Realist is now a mark of respect, neo-con a term of derision. Thomas Hobbes, who extolled the moral benefits of fear and saw anarchy as the chief threat to security to society, has elbowed out Isaiah Berlin or the appeasement of Hitler at Munich as the philosopher of the present cycle. Those who were sneered at as Fatalists or Determinists, now are applauded as Pragmatists."
Global meltdown, adverse effects of climate change, increasing poverty, both in the developed and the developing worlds, call for regional cohesion for the betterment of the people of the world. For Indo-Bangladesh relations, cooperation in all mutually beneficially areas must be explored and addressed with a fresh mindset. In the ultimate analysis, the present global construct cannot afford to ignore India as an emerging economy nor the abysmal depth of poverty in South Asia.
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