Bad news at the border

Situations that can be seen from all quarters suggest that we have lost our guts and morale in standing against the ills of the world.

With time, we have come down to our knees. Our vitality and strength to fight was drained by imperceptible forces. We stand as a weak nation by all counts.

Our politics and social fabric are in tatters. Instead of fighting the scourge, we continue slinging mud at each other in the same way we did some 40 years ago. We don’t feel a pinch of shame.

As a weak and jumbled nation, our neighbours take advantage of us, doing whatever they like. It is only natural. All these years it was India’s border guarding force BSF taking the lives of our people, and now we have the BGP from Myanmar trying to repeat the acts. We now have two fronts to tackle.

Tales of abductions and killings by the BSF was nothing new. Rather, it has become a regular feature in our bilateral exchanges. Our border forces (BGB) and the government have tacitly accepted the beating and humiliation.

For years, BSF has been killing our people in the name of self-defense, “encounters,” and so on. In the end, those killed were hapless cattle-traders or small cross-border vendors. We did not forget the bullet-ridden Felani hanging against the barbed wire along our border with India.

Along with BSF, we now have the BGP that started the wanton killing mission against our frontier guards.

Bangladesh shouldn’t be bullied around like this. The disconcerted situation created at the borders by separatists or insurgents of various shades from other sides should not be allowed to disturb our peace.

We are at a loss to think through as to why, in the first place, the BGP men (formerly Nasaka) would open fire and kill our man, when there were no reports of provocation or threat from our side?

Our BGB member was on duty and understandably in uniform. He was killed by BGP firing without any provocation. This has been admitted by the Myanmar authorities.

The subsequent statement by Myanmar is funny at best. They twisted the previous account and declared that BGP members mistook the BGB man to be a member of the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO). They also added that the BGB member was not wearing the proper BGB badge.

The obnoxiousness did not stop there. BGP forces again opened fire when the BGB men approached the border to collect the body of their colleague. Not a single shot was fired from our end. So why this trigger-happy adventure?

Let’s peep into the state of things inside Myanmar. The state has a long and tedious history of big-headed military generals. The wind of democracy did not blow across the country for years. People have been groomed under such conditions that defy all logic and definition.

There has been no economic development. The touch of modernity is still a far cry. The archetypal community system has been nurtured only to keep things under cover. It’s still a blocked society. The entire state apparatus has been brought under such steam-roller rule that it doesn’t fall under any bracket of characterisation.

We were surprised when Nobel laureate Suu Kyi, supposedly the champion of peace, did not have anything to say on the persecution of Muslims in that country. She turned away by commenting: “I cannot favour any particular group.”

Nothing much is expected from today’s leadership. This was explicitly said to me when I met a few Burmese nationals recently. Policies of atrocity and repression by the Myanmar authorities gave birth to rebellion. Bangladesh has nothing to do with this. The Rohingyas have genuine reasons to be frustrated. If minority persecution does not stop, the Myanmar authorities cannot expect the insurgency to go away.

So the long and rusted mindset will have to be revolutionised. Turning to our borders with Myanmar, we observe a hostile and offensive stance taken by Yangon. Myanmar authorities have fenced off almost the entire stretch of the land boundary on their side.

A more mindless act has been the planting of land mines along the border. This easily flouts the normal boundary agreement and doesn’t conform to international laws. Now the pertinent question is: How could our border guards enter Myanmar braving the mines and wires? Myanmar authorities will have no answers for this.

The maritime boundary cases have been resolved through international hearing. The Rohingya issue needs to be settled though mutual understanding, and now the border crisis has to be handled with due importance. Fencing and mining issues need to be taken up by Bangladesh with utmost urgency, including the killing of our countryman.

Meetings at all levels should be convened. Our foreign ministry ought to rise. We must show the world, especially the Myanmar government, that we are not a weak nation and that our border guards are able to protect us effectively.