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Promoting culture of peace for shared prosperity: A vision for South Asia

Published : Thursday, 23 March, 2023 at 12:00 AM  Count : 767

Promoting culture of peace for shared prosperity: A vision for South Asia

Promoting culture of peace for shared prosperity: A vision for South Asia

Bangladesh has been following a policy of shared prosperity as a vision for the friendly neighbours of South Asia. Guided by our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, we are advocating for inclusive development in the region through promotion of culture of peace along with other driving forces. We live in a globalized world, highly interconnected and interdependent. Our region has gone through similar experience and history. Bangladesh believes and promotes religious harmony. We have been promoting "Culture of Peace" across nations. The basic element of "Culture of Peace" is to inculcate a mindset of tolerance, a mindset of respect towards others, irrespective of religion, ethnicity, colour, background or race. If we can develop such mindset by stopping venom of hatred towards others, we can hope to have sustainable peace and stability across nations, leading to end of violence, wars, and terrorism in nations and regions. There will not be millions of refugees or persecuted Rohingyas.

Bangladesh takes special pride in it as even before Renaissance was started in Europe in the 17th century, even before America was discovered in 1492, in Bengal a campaign was started by Chandi Das as early as 1408 that says - "Humanity is above all" and we still try to promote it.

Our Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was an ardent campaigner of humanity, peace, security, democracy and social justice. All through his political journey from early 1940s, which started with the freedom movement of the motherland from colonialism and reached pinnacle by the establishment of a sovereign and independent state Bangladesh for his people through the historic War of Independence in 1971. Bangabandhu always maintained the dictum of peace, justice, human rights and dignity, and democratic values, which was very fairly captured in the constitution of Bangladesh. The same has been revealed in his autobiography titled "Unfinished Memoirs" and other writings published posthumously. Bangabandhu's visionary leadership not only established and consolidated the human rights and justice for the people of Bangladesh, but also set clear guidelines for peace, security, tolerance, equity, and justice for the other nations in the region and beyond.  

Our constitution which was introduced soon after independence of Bangladesh by the government of Bangabandhu is a clear reflection of his political vision and sagacity. We inherited principles from the document for Bangladesh's foreign policy with due importance on promotion of regional amity, international peace, security and solidarity, mutual respect for national sovereignty and equality, non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries, peaceful settlement of international disputes, and respect for international law, renunciation of the use of force in international relations, general and complete disarmament, upholding the right of every people to freely determine and build up its own social, economic and political system, and supporting oppressed peoples throughout the world waging a just struggle against imperialism, colonialism or racism. He was the proponent of our foreign policy dictum: 'Friendship to all, malice towards none'.

Thanks to our constitutional framework again, caste or religious identity could never divert our core value of secularism. We have been able to protect the rights of all religion and ethnic minorities. We believe-communal harmony is the prerequisite to a stable Bangladesh. For instance, you may see the result of our secular creed- one of the biggest festivals observed in Bangladesh is the 1st Day of Bengali New Year with the participation of people of all walks irrespective of their religion, caste or creed.

Our Prime Minister played an instrumental role in establishing peace and harmony in the three hill districts by signing a peace agreement with the regional parties back in 1997. Thus, rights of the ethnic minorities have been protected. Our ethos of tolerance for cultural diversity, political differences and religious diversity is one of the keys to our gradual economic development. We are not promoting culture of peace in national boundary only. We have resolved most of our critical issues with our neighbours peacefully through dialogues and discussions. For example, we have resolved our border demarcation problem with India, our maritime boundary with India and also with Myanmar peacefully through dialogues and discussions.

Bangladesh-India relationship is multifaceted and multidimensional. The bonhomie of Bangladesh-India is ever-growing and continues to expand. 2022 was a landmark year in our relations as our Prime Minister visited India in September 2022 after the visit of Indian President and the Prime Minister to Bangladesh in the same year in 2021. During our Prime Minister's visit to India, the two leaders concluded MoU for withdrawal of water from Kushiyara, inaugurated Unit-1 of Maitree Super Thermal Power plant in Rampal and Rupsha Railway Bridge. Prime Minister handed over scholarships to a few family members of Indian soldiers who paid ultimate sacrifice in our liberation war in 1971.

2022 was also marked by the visit of External Affairs Minister and State Minister of Ministry of External Affairs to Dhaka. I visited New Delhi to attend the 7th JCC and also twice Indian State of Assam. These visits contributed in promoting people to people contact between Bangladesh and bordering states of India. Joint River Commission (JRC) meeting was held after a gap of 12 long years. Petrapole land port has been made operational for 24x7. We completed 4 trial runs under ACMP (Agreement on the use of Chattogram and Mongla Port for Movement of Goods to and from India between Bangladesh and India). All these landmark achievements are only a few what we jointly achieved throughout the year. Last year, Bangladesh's relations with other friendly countries of South Asia were also very eventful which was marked by sectoral cooperation and exchange of high level visits.  

At the centre of our political philosophy is the spirit of world peace. Guided by the principles of our Father of Nation, we are committed to fight for justice against injustice whether in Asia, Africa, or Latin America. Standing by the side of the oppressed people of the world, we desperately appeal for an end to all wars. We would like to spread the aura of peace in the world, and the roots of imperialism, colonialism and apartheid must be eradicated. Our call for peace is relevant as we unfortunately witness war and armed conflict in Europe which has affected the entire world.

Apart from striving to realize the rights of the oppressed people, we express our firm conviction through the 'Non-Aligned Movement' to spread the light of equality and human rights in the world. We have not digressed from this basic approach and carefully maintaining delicate balancing act among regional and world powers. In this intricately interconnected world, it is undesirable to dissociate from any state but at the same time we need to consider regional and international political discourse.   

In his historic address to the UN General Assembly on 25 September 1974, Bangabandhu reminded of the essential role of the United Nations in stopping genocide and atrocities as well as the inevitable necessity of overcoming hunger, poverty, and economic backwardness from underdeveloped and developing countries for the ultimate freedom of human civilization. The Genocide Day we observe on 25 March is in protest against oppression, injustice and mass killing of people of Bangladesh in 1971. Our purpose is clear- we do not intend to single out any country for malignant purpose, rather we would like to advocate for protection of the dignity of human lives which was violently denied 50 years back. We also wish to propagate that genocide in any form is entirely unacceptable and should never recur anywhere in this world. In this connection, it would not be a digression if I mention here that our action is further aligned with our stance by offering refuge to the 1.2 million Rohingya nationals who were the target of brutal ethnic cleansing in their own country and persecuted in an incredible way unparalleled in the history of modern world. We are also mobilizing regional and international support for their repatriation to home country with safety and dignity. By legacy we have learned to value peace and by our recent experiences we have learned to continue the culture of peace.

In 1973, the World Peace Council awarded Bangabandhu the 'Julio Curie Peace Medal' and declared him a 'symbol of peace'. The Government of India conferred upon him prestigious Gandhi peace Prize for the year 2020 posthumously in recognition of his profound philosophy of peace.

Truly, the peace-centric overture of Bangabandhu ingrained a 'Culture of Peace' into the national psyche. Therefore, the concept 'Culture of Peace' has been endearingly promoted by our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the global level, which has been well accepted by the international community. The United Nations has been adopting the 'Culture of Peace' Resolution for the last 22 years. Bangladesh takes pride in its remarkable achievement in being one of the leading troops contributing countries in United Nations Peacekeeping Operations (UNPKO). Bangladesh also chaired the United Nations Peace Building Commission (PBC) for last many years.

During the 66th UN General Assembly in 2011, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gave the world a six-point multi-dimensional peace-centric development model for championing democracy and people's empowerment. The six multipliers of her proposed model include (i) eradication of poverty and hunger, (ii) reduction of inequality and gainful employment, (iii) mitigation of deprivation, (iv) inclusion of excluded people, (v) acceleration of human development and including imparting education and technology, (vi) elimination of terrorism.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh organized the 'World Peace Conference' in Dhaka on 4-5 December 2021 with participation of renowned political personalities, peace activists, poets, writers, academicians, scientists, artists, journalists, cultural personalities, intellectuals, human rights activists etc. from different parts of the world. The Conference unanimously adopted the 'Dhaka Peace Declaration', which acknowledged the theme "Advancing Peace through social Inclusion". It drew global attention to focus on pro-people, pro-planet, peace-centric, prosperous and sustainable world of peace through partnership and collaboration. All we need now is to work together in the region for our own benefit.

It is matter of great satisfaction for us that Bangladesh, under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, maintains a policy of zero tolerance against all forms and manifestations of terrorism and violent extremism. Bangladesh also does not allow any terrorist activities to be conducted against any third country from its soil. In fact, the various factors enabling, calling for and dictating cooperation between the two countries are - geographic proximity, common language, similar demographics and consumption pattern, common development needs and experience, and common inherited industrial infrastructure. For countries to exist in peace with themselves, with their constituent peoples and with their neighbours across borders, it is imperative that we ensure for each:

????     First, an equitable market access commensurate to the merit of comparative economic advantage in the other.

????     Second, a rapid expansion of the environmentally sustainable regional export basket in both goods and services - contributing to the reconstruction of the ancient value-chains.

????     Third, quick transfer and assimilation of critical technologies.

????     Fourth, broader employment of both professionals and workers in regional economies based purely on the principle of 'dead-weight burden' reduction.
????     Fifth, commencement of regional power, energy and communication grids.

????    And sixth, embedding the youth, the media, the civil society, and the social media, in the discourses related to policy formulation.

Peace at the international level does not inevitably assure peace at the national or social levels. Even when international relations are at peace, people can still be suffering from poverty or oppression. Therefore, Bangladesh is committed to building a decent state with no hunger and poverty to make sure that every citizen has access to education, healthcare, ICT and social safety nets without endangering environment.

Our Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in his speech at Kolkata on 6 February 1972 floated the concept of regional cooperation in South Asia. He said, "�as for us, we will be wanting to cooperate with all concerned for creating an area of peace in South Asia, where we could live side by side as good neighbours and pursue constructive policies for the benefit of our people�.". In that line, under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh continues to pursue regional cooperation as a means to effectively enhance collaboration among the neighbouring countries. Bangladesh is vocal and proactive on regional cooperation in all its aspects as a force to ensure long term peace, progress and stability.

This is exactly where our intersection point lies in the context of shared prosperity in the region. Bangladesh and other South Asian nations are facing similar developmental challenges. We face common threats of terrorism and poverty. We hope that Bangladesh and the countries in the region would be able to tap the potentials of each other's complementarities and our warm and friendly relations will further be consolidated. The region is thriving with possibilities and potentials. When we think of shared prosperity, we need to take our neighbours on board; when we think of turning our respective country into an economic hub, it is better to think of the region as a whole, not an individual country of South Asia. Collaboration among neighbours in South Asia through strategic partnership for development and security aspiration, we believe, would establish the region as a role model.

The writer is a member of Parliament and Foreign Minister of Bangladesh







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