Politics played out abroad
A report says that hundreds of ruling Awami League (AL) members and the opposition BNP staged demonstrations and counter demonstrations in front of the United Nations headquarters in New York on September 26, in a display of their usual domestic political rivalry. This event has been a cause of concern for every conscious citizen of the country.
The activists of AL and its associate organisations, led by the president and vice-president of the US unit of AL, had gathered there to welcome Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's speech at the UN General Assembly.
BNP's demonstration was led by the president and general secretary of the US unit of BNP and its allies, who chanted slogans against the government of Sheikh Hasina for considering giving transit facility to India, allowing the construction of Tipaimukh dam on the common river Barak and agreeing to gas exploration against national interest.
The supporters of the two rival parties staged demonstrations for more than two hours, creating a chaotic situation in front of the UN headquarters while some 100 heads of states and governments were inside.
Foreign Minister Dipu Moni called upon Bangladeshi expatriates not to get involved in political conflicts that damaged the country's image abroad. She made this call recently while inaugurating a website of Scholars Bangladesh, an organisation dealing with various aspects of expatriate Bangladeshis.
The foreign minister said that there were many talented Bangladeshis working with prestige abroad, and they could join the politics of those countries to contribute to the development of both, their country of residence and of origin.
Politics played out abroad by the Bangladeshi expatriates often tarnishes the country's image. The squabbles between the supporters of AL and BNP on foreign soil create a very bad impression about the people and politics of Bangladesh as a whole.
Such squabbles are not confined only to Jackson Heights in New York and Brick Lane in London, where huge numbers of Bangladeshis are settled, but also in other countries where there are chapters of AL and BNP. Canada, Australia and Japan are a few examples where the general perception of Bangladeshis being a unified entity takes quite a battering through the activities of some expatriate supporters of AL and BNP.
The expatriate Bangladeshis involved in partisan politics abroad have made it a business to create undue pressure on our diplomatic missions in the countries of their residence, whenever their party happens to be in power. Such an affair serves as a damper on the professionalism of Bangladesh's diplomats, who are often compelled to satisfy the demands of these political elements for the sake of their jobs.
The years-old belief that Bangladeshis are the most likable when they are abroad or in distress exists no more. Narrow partisan political interest has greatly destroyed the tradition that the Bangladeshis settled abroad would get closer to one another through a sense of national identity.
There are so many instances where expatriate Bangladeshis were found involved in partisan conflicts on foreign soil, damaging country's image. The parliamentary standing committee on expatriates welfare and overseas employment during the regime of BNP-led four-party alliance government took a serious note of it and asked the government to stop it.
The caretaker government of Fakhruddin Ahmed promulgated the Representation of the People Order (Amendment) Ordinance 2008 with a number of amendments, and the amended version of the RPO 1972 was put into force on August 21, 2008 with immediate effect. The amended RPO made registration of political parties compulsory and also banned their front organisations and chapters abroad, which was welcomed by the people from all strata of life.
The three major political parties -- AL, BNP and Jatiya Party -- needed to sever relations with at least 17 of their front organisations and also to do away with their chapters abroad to fulfill the criteria for registration.
But the AL-led grand alliance government, while passing the bill in parliament on February 24 to ratify RPO (amendment) ordinance, restricted the Election Commission's (EC) authority to take action against political parties breaching registration provisions.
All major political parties including AL accepted the electoral reforms before the ninth parliamentary election, and brought provisional changes in their constitutions to be in conformity with the amended RPO provisions.
It is really very shameful for the whole nation that when a visiting political leader from home is welcomed by his party men abroad, the supporters of another party try to disgrace their rival by staging demonstrations and raising slogans against him.
The government now needs to ponder seriously whether it is at all necessary to have foreign chapters of the political parties, while the EC suggests stopping of expatriate Bangladeshis from doing partisan politics abroad.
One really fails to understand as to why the political parties in Bangladesh are so interested in having such outfits outside their political horizon, while these outfits do not make any contributions to the national politics, but rather damage the country's image abroad.
A. N. M. Nurul Haque is a columnist of The Daily Star.
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