Shahid Islam
Every aspect of a sound foreign policy is an essential extension of the composite domestic perceptions about where a nation stands. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s decision not to attend the 13th OIC summit in Istanbul emits an assured message of antipathy against the second largest inter-governmental organization of the world.
It also completes the cycle of a full diplomatic isolationism of the nation in the global arena. Had the Istanbul OIC summit been an insignificant affair, heavy-weight leaders like the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Saudi King Salman Abdulaziz, and the Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif wouldn’t have joined the summit with huge delegations. These countries claim some sort of leadership of the Muslim world and preferred to act accordingly.
OIC and Bangladesh
Another major aspect of the OIC is its genetic, historic linkage with Bangladesh. A young Bangladesh President, Ziaur Rahman, felt the necessity of enhanced OIC roles in the late 1970s during a bloody, protracted, internecine war between Iran and Iraq. The dynamic and visionary role Zia had played within the OIC had accrued a lofty dividend for Bangladesh at that time.
Besides a multitude of bilateral and multilateral collaborations within and among the OIC member states, the Islamic University of Technology (IUT) in Gazipur is an OIC gift which got its approval during the 9th OIC foreign minister conference in 1978, held in Dakar, Senegal.
Ever since, the petro-dollar clout of many of the 57 member countries of the OIC—coupled with Pakistan’s nuclear fire power and the voting strength of the member nations in the UN and other multinational forums—had turned the organization into a reckonable global heavyweight, earning for it the seats of permanent delegations at the UN and the EU secretariats.
Simply put: whenever a Muslim-predominant nation is in dire crisis, the OIC is the first respondent to extend a helping hand, in cash and kind.
Reasons for PM’s abstention
Why then the PM is so cavalier about appropriately using this second largest international forum to the benefit of the nation of Bangladesh? The underlying reasons seem to be lack of apprehension and spurious spur of egoism.
But that’s not all, and, even if they’re, a suitable pretext must justify such publicly inexplicable chauvinistic streaks. The Holiday had learnt from a reliable source that the Bangladesh PM had decided not to attend the Istanbul OIC summit at the last moment, having been tipped off about a security hazard to be posed by the Islamic State (IS) fighters.
Then again, the threat is as vague as the fear of a nuclear holocaust hitting home, or, a thunder striking someone unnoticed. The IS fighters are at large everywhere in the region and anyone can be a victim any time.
Leadership is not about getting deterred by fluid threats, it’s about braving the hazards and moving ahead. Besides, Turkey is not more hazardous for Sheikh Hasina than Pakistan was for her father, Sheikh Mujib, who’d attended the OIC summit in Pakistan in 1974 with bold strides and gracious gaits.
Meanwhile, many gossip-columnists have begun to hint at the broader Turkey-Bangladesh relations which had been in a descending slope since a Turkish delegation visited Bangladesh few years ago and, recommended fair trials of the war crime defendants, many of whom had already been executed ever since.
It’s not a secret that Turkey does have a component of foreign policy pursuance in the Muslim world that often highlights the necessity of upholding democracy and human rights. Yet, that’s hardly the reason for any genuine statesman to gripe, groan and hoist a generic issue to the platform of personal antagonism.
Diplomatic isolationism
Be that whatever, we’re not much bothered about the inner details of what had caused Sheikh Hasina to abstain from the summit. But, we’re concerned about the diabolic diplomatic isolation of the nation of Bangladesh, everywhere.
Turkey is the only Muslim-predominant NATO country, and a close ally of the West. Dhaka’s current regime is not in good terms with any of the major Western nations either. This diplomatic isolationism is a major problem for a country that gets its economic wheels greased mostly by earnings and remittances of expatriate workers toiling in the Mid-East and in the Western countries. Almost the entirety of the $30 billion export earnings also stem from the West.
As well, as the EU member states have begun pushing back a sea of migrants entering Europe through Turkey, many Bangladeshis face the whack of that expulsion and end up getting dumped in Turkey. That aspect alone should have convinced the PM to have a face to face meeting on the sideline with the Turkish President, Tayyip Erdogan, to build the inter-personal rapport, which she willy-nilly forfeited.
Conflict resolution
According to the Foreign Policy magazine, the Bangladesh PM is known to be the 13th thinking ‘statesman’ of the world (she’s averse to being addressed as madam). If that’s really true, she’ll have missed the splutter of a global statesmanship bout that the Istanbul OIC summit has on offer.
For instance, the routine agenda like the Palestine crisis and the thorny issue of international terrorism aside, the Istanbul summit is significant for a healthy discussion slated for heads of states to resolve the Yemen and Syrian conflicts. Besides, by abstaining, the PM will have missed the chance of grasping firsthand how the OIC Secretary General, Saudi Arabia’s Iyad Ameen Madani, handles the Yemen issue at a time when the OIC blindly blames the Hauthis of Yemen for the ongoing conflict and Saudi Arabia exerts its military might against them to resolve the crisis; bombing the Hauthis almost daily.
Also observable is the fact that, Bangladesh had earlier thrown its support to Saudi Arabia which, in Syria, seeks the removal of the Assad regime, which is backed by Iran and Russia in particular. Could it be this contradictory, irreconcilable aspect of Bangladesh’s foreign policy that’d prompted the PM not to attend the summit? It may or may not. But it does reveal a new clue with respect to the PM’s negation to attending the Istanbul summit.
Many analysts are prone to believing that some background prodding from the Indo-Russian axis might have stopped her from flying to Turkey. And, this particular theory contains more verbs due to the bitter antagonism and bickering between Ankara and Moscow relating to the Syrian crisis, and, makes such plausibility more realistic.
Pakistan stealing the show
Although Pakistan faces similar quandary, Islamabad is playing its cards quite well. Sources say Islamabad had agreed to support the Saudis militarily in any broader Arab conflict and Pakistan’s defence minister, Khwaja Asif, had already discussed such issues with the Saudi authorities during his ongoing trip to Riyadh along with representatives of the three services, while King Salman himself went to Egypt on an official visit before heading for Turkey to attend the OIC summit.
Amidst so much being on the play, Bangladesh’s presence at the Istanbul OIC gathering shouldn’t have been relegated and delegated to foreign minister Mahmud Ali alone. It’s a poor diplomatic judgment and pretty obviously diminutive to the stature of Bangladesh as the second largest Muslim nation in the world.
According to the Foreign Policy magazine, the Bangladesh PM is known to be the 13th thinking ‘statesman’ of the world (she’s averse to being addressed as madam). If that’s really true, she’ll have missed the splutter of a global statesmanship bout that the Istanbul OIC summit has on offer.
For instance, the routine agenda like the Palestine crisis and the thorny issue of international terrorism aside, the Istanbul summit is significant for a healthy discussion slated for heads of states to resolve the Yemen and Syrian conflicts. Besides, by abstaining, the PM will have missed the chance of grasping firsthand how the OIC Secretary General, Saudi Arabia’s Iyad Ameen Madani, handles the Yemen issue at a time when the OIC blindly blames the Hauthis of Yemen for the ongoing conflict and Saudi Arabia exerts its military might against them to resolve the crisis; bombing the Hauthis almost daily.
Also observable is the fact that, Bangladesh had earlier thrown its support to Saudi Arabia which, in Syria, seeks the removal of the Assad regime, which is backed by Iran and Russia in particular. Could it be this contradictory, irreconcilable aspect of Bangladesh’s foreign policy that’d prompted the PM not to attend the summit? It may or may not. But it does reveal a new clue with respect to the PM’s negation to attending the Istanbul summit.
Many analysts are prone to believing that some background prodding from the Indo-Russian axis might have stopped her from flying to Turkey. And, this particular theory contains more verbs due to the bitter antagonism and bickering between Ankara and Moscow relating to the Syrian crisis, and, makes such plausibility more realistic.
Pakistan stealing the show
Although Pakistan faces similar quandary, Islamabad is playing its cards quite well. Sources say Islamabad had agreed to support the Saudis militarily in any broader Arab conflict and Pakistan’s defence minister, Khwaja Asif, had already discussed such issues with the Saudi authorities during his ongoing trip to Riyadh along with representatives of the three services, while King Salman himself went to Egypt on an official visit before heading for Turkey to attend the OIC summit.
Amidst so much being on the play, Bangladesh’s presence at the Istanbul OIC gathering shouldn’t have been relegated and delegated to foreign minister Mahmud Ali alone. It’s a poor diplomatic judgment and pretty obviously diminutive to the stature of Bangladesh as the second largest Muslim nation in the world.
Source: weeklyholiday
