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Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies (BIPSS) is a non-party, non-profit organization and independent think tank devoted to studying peace and security issues related South and Southeast Asia. The institute seeks to bridge the gap between academic research and policy analysis within the context of Bangladesh and other countries of South and Southeast Asia. The leading strategic thinkers, academicians, former members of the Civil Services, Foreign Services, Armed Forces and media persons are associated with the Institute in its endeavour to chalk out a comprehensive framework for peace and security studies. |
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Faizah Munir,
Research Intern
Thursday, October 8, 2009
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YOUTH ANGLE FOR BANGLADESH
The acknowledgement of youth perspectives for policy making in Bangladesh is an important need in order to achieve a large scaled success.
This is the high time to engage the voice of youth in country’s development in various sectors.The effective participation of the youth body ,regardless of their religious or cultural identity can introduce a new era of progression.
Today’s youth is tomorrow’s leaders.For possessing a strong leadership quality in the future,they have to be endowed with a platform in the present,where they can voice their opinion and ideas regarding the betterment of the society and to an extent of the country.The young generation can be the correspondents of the social needs for the policy makers.
ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION
The High Level Threat Panel of the United Nations has officially marked environmental degradation as one of the ten threats in the earth.The environmental degradation can be defined as mass level extinction of wild life,deterioration of the ecosystem along with depletion of limited natural resources.
This environmental damage is resulting in premature deaths worldwide.The worst effected are the developing nations like Bangladesh.The health care system in Bangladesh is not up to the mark to tackle the diseases created as a consequence of environmental degradation.Air pollution is causing severe respiratory infections,while diarrhoeal diseases are occurring because of polluted water.The death toll of the adolescents and many young people are rising due to this.
The youth wants the concerned authorities to show them the way to adopt precautionary measures for ecologically sustainable developments.They need the guidelines to protect the environment accurately.They hope for the conservation of the natural resources as well as objects for their own survival in the world in future.The present condition of the health care sector should be upgraded to ensure a healthy generation,who can take the lead to cater a pollution free nature to the citizens.
POLITICAL CLIMATE OF BANGLADESH
It has been 38 years since Bangladesh has taken it’s place as an Independent nation on the world map. Today This democratic country is going through a state of political unrest and mass violence all over it.The criminalized and corrupted political scenario has put negative impacts on the lives of the youth.It has driven them to a path of wrong ideology and has poisoned their moral standards. The current youth body’s frame of mind towards the progression of the country is far away from the spirited patriotism of the then youth group of pre-liberation period.This generation couldn’t grow that spontaneity for the country for the lack of scopes and opportunities to flourish themselves in the working fields and the development sectors.
The students in the academic institutions are very often indulging in clashes and violence ,instead of enlightening themselves in the arena of learning.The governments have failed to create enough job opportunities for the educated youth of the country.As a consequence they are involving in criminal and illegal activities.Moreover,the anomalies in the politics has also fostered the social crimes done by the young people of the society.All these things are pushing the destiny of the young generation in the realm of uncertainty.
The time has come to mark an end to this disturbed format of politics in Bangladesh.The youth is gradually becoming motivated for breaking this deadlock for the individual and national development.They are ready to face the challenge of the day.This transformation of youth has translated into the grave need to start a secular and honest political system.They are awaiting for a stabilized governance.
Extremism
One of the most burning issues of the recent times is the increasing spread of Islamic extremism in the country.All the development efforts of this moderate country is falling behind for the emergence of fundamentalistic vision. The islamist fringe has been benefited due to the political unrest and violence in the country.
The threat of radical elements is damaging the youth of Bangladesh.This group of society can be marked as the most vulnerable in terms of being swept with radicalization.Various youth groups have made the young generation their center target.They are always up to transform the college and university students from being an active force of the society to a militant.These extremists motivate the minds of young people in such a way that without any hesitation they involve in crimes against humanity.Present day scenario shows that a huge number of youth is getting involved with the use of explosives,bombings and mass killing of public.
The majority of the youth body is not in the support of extremism in the country.They want the dictatorship from the leaders for saving the nation from being a flash point of terrorism.They want the policy makers to take steps to solve the social discontents.This generation needs a deradicalized society,where there is no space for terrorism.The Government has to take all the initiatives for dismantling the terrorist network and containing Islamic militancy to provide a peaceful and conflict free environment to the youth.
Conclusion:
A wide-ranged comprehensive development of the whole country can be accomplished only if the youth body is given the stage to demonstrate their views and perspectives.They need to translate their ideas through giving opinions to the policy makers.The future force has to be made concerned and active nationals,rather being mere spectators in country’s development.The present situation calls for the voice of youth to escalate the progression of Bangladesh.
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Ayreen Khan,
Research Associate
Monday, May 4, 2009
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A League without prospect
The State Heads of the Arab countries met on the 21st session of the Arab League of Nation's Summit on March 30, 2009 at Doha, Qatar. The summit ended with the adoption of a joint rejection of the arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, Inter-Arab reconciliation and the Middle East peace process. Out of the 22 members of this League 5 members (Egypt, Iraq, Algeria, Morocco and Oman) stayed away from the summit. Middle East holds a very vital position in the world politics as they have the world's largest oil reservoir and is also reach in natural gas. Thus The Arab League of Nations was supposed to have significant role. But there was not much mention about the summit in the international media as this league is almost a dead one or in other words can be said it's a name only.
In the 21st summit the Arab leaders agreed to establish a legal committee for the sake of the persecute people who were affected in Gaza Strip for bombing by Israel. In this 22 day bombardment by Israel in December 2008 killed more than 1,300 Palestinians.
The Arab leaders also seek for international community to help prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and make the Middle East region a "weapons-free zone".
Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, in his opening remarks addressed a few of the challenges that the Arab world is facing ranging from financial affairs to peace and development. This includes the financial crisis that the Arab world is facing along with the whole world, the political change in USA and the new Israeli election.
In intension of not facing any more tension in the region, Sheikh Hamad stressed the need for the Arab world to deal correctly with the developments of the neighboring states of the region.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad called on Arab states to suspend the Arab Peace Initiative, proposed in 2002. He said that the Peace Initiative offered Israeli withdrawal from Arab land seized in 1967 in exchange of normal ties with Israel and Israel has never been serious about it.
Besides being the Government of Palestine Hamas was not invited in the 21st Summit of the League. The Arab world is divided amongst themselves on various issues. In cases they are against each other on their own interest, which holds back the Arab League of Nations act pro-actively.
The Arab Nations are one of the largest weapon consumers of the world and the Arab League till now could not do anything to stop this weapon consumption. In case of Israel the region has no success in uniting the region, instead Egypt, who was one of the significant countries of the League, signed a separate treaty with Israel. The League also failed to lessen the tension, mistrust and the instability of the region.
Of the two feuding Palestinian factions of Fatah and Haman, Syria supports Hamas, while Egypt and Saudi Arabia have firm support for Fatah led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Syria and Israel has long shared bitterness over the fate of Golan Heights, a strategic plateau captured by Israel from Syria in 1967.
The league also failed to take any possible step to stop the Lebanese crisis that went on for 15 long years.
The Arab League of Nations is a national and regional organization that seeks to promote closer ties among member states and coordinate their policies and their economic, cultural and security plans with a view to developing collective cooperation, protecting national security and maintaining the independence and sovereignty of member states. It was formed on March 22, 1945 in Cairo, Egypt.
After World War II, two issues were most important for the Arab nations. They are: the notion of Arab Unity, the sense of Pan-Arabism and the Palestine Question. Since the birth of the League, mentioning the activities, a few can be marked as the achievements.
In 1947 the UN Partition Plan divided Palestine. That time the Arab League decided to send Arab armies to Palestine in order to defend its territory and people. This led to the first Arab-Jewish War of 1948, as a result Palestine got divided; a major part became Israel, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, was under Jordanian control, while the Gaza Strip was ruled by Egypt.
Another issue that can be considered as an achievement of the League was the deterioration of Iraqi-Kuwaiti relations due to the formers territorial claims. The Arab League defended Kuwait and succeeded in forcing Iraq to stop all plans of annexing or invading Kuwait.
But the league failed achieving a settlement in the border dispute between Yemen and Saudi-Arabia. In 1970s Arab League succeeded in putting an end to the military confrontation between the PLO and the Jordanians, and at a later stage, helped achieving a series of agreements between the PLO and Lebanon.
First summit of the League was held in 1964 in Egypt stressing on the issues on Israeli plan to divert waters of the Jordan River and to set up the headquarters of the Arab League and to create a Palestinian entity. The League met on various issues like funding and ratifying the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). In 1979 when Egypt signed a separate peace treaty with Israel in Camp David the League suspended Egypt and transferred the headquarter of the League from Cairo to Tunisia. Re-joining Egypt in 1987 was definitely an achievement of the League.
The Arab League has largely been ineffective in addressing or solving any of the problems that is plaguing the region. Since it's birth the Arab League met in irregular summits. During the 80s and 90s the League almost collapsed. This was a major crisis period in the history of the Middle East when the two nations, an Arab (Iraq) and a Non-Arab (Iran) state fought for 8long years. The Arab League literally could not succeed in creating its foot-print to stop the war. Again in the time of Gulf Crisis in 90s the League acted ineffectively. Since 2001 the League became a bit viable as it meets every year for annual summit. But it did not raise voice during the Iraq invasion and now when the US strategy has changed and talking about re-establishing Iraq again the League remained silent in question of solving the ethnic problems. It did not raise voice on Israel's bombing for 22days in Palestine, killing thousands of innocent civilians especially the kids. Palestine issue is one of the core issues behind the formation of the Arab League, are still stumbling. Syria and Saudi Arabia are at loggerheads over the years old Lebanese Presidential crisis, and the killing in Darfur remained unchecked. 21st summit even rejected the arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court, for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for alleged war crimes in Darfur. There are an abundance of pessimism in the region and the Arab League of Nations remained incapable in offering any potential solution, it could not succeed in uniting the fragmented region on a common interest rather fighting for their own sake.
With a fragile process of political negotiations between Israel, Palestinians and other regional countries, the Arab League turned to be a necessary tool to maintain the linguistic and cultural links, to preserve the common interests of its member states and cultural links, to preserve the common interests of its member states, to cope with the changes in the international arena and their repercussions on the Arab world. Though the region is rich in natural resources, all the states of the region share a common language, religion, culture, the League could not make a common currency for the region. Not being able to make a free trade market, visa free access in the region strengthening ties in development sectors, are the most mentioning fiascos of the Arab League of Nations. Today the Arab leaders are talking about the need to strengthen the Arab economy and develop a common market, as well as to reinforce inter-Arab peace, to safeguard Arab interest and to fight security and "terror" threats.
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Ayreen Khan,
Research Associate
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
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Getting to know a neighbor: My visit to India
India one of the fast growing developing states of the world. India is alleged to be one of the future superpowers of the world. Bangladesh being a very close neighbor of India, it's a life time opportunity to experience the rise of India. So in such manner to me visiting India is an honor. Moreover the rich culture, heritage, people and the colorful markets of this huge country are always a pleasure to me, for visiting India. Though I visited India quite a few times but I would cherish my trip to India from 19-25 January 2009 whole life as I went there as a delegate to attend the first "India-Bangladesh BIPSS-USI Dialogue" on track II initiative.
I went to India as a delegate from the think tank where I work named Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies (BIPSS) for the "India-Bangladesh BIPSS-USI Dialogue" that held from 19-20 January 2009 in New Delhi, India. For me this trip was even more significant as the team was the most eminent one, headed by Major General Muniruzzaman ndc, psc, (Retd), a man who has no boundary to his knowledge, Dr. Mahmud Ali, the most gracious person on earth and Mr. Shafqat Munir, an expert to his field.
The host of India was The United Services Institution of India (USI) where we got the utmost hospitality. This think tank is the oldest think tanks of India, founded in 1870 by a soldier scholar. The story, of its growth concedes with advancement of the Indian Armed Forces. It was founded for furtherance of interest and knowledge in the art, science and literature of the Defense Services. The great beauty of the USI, with it's great members gave me a worthwhile trip.
The Dialogue:
The BIPSS-USI dialogue had a total of four sessions. Each session covered different topics. Both sides made presentation on each of the topics which were mutually decided. The issues covered included South Asian Security, The Changing Strategic Landscape, Bilateral Relations and Terrorism and Militancy. The sessions were chaired by eminent person of Indian society. The topics of the dialogue were Security, Strategy, Bilateral Relations and Diplomacy, Militancy and Terrorism. All the topics had very interesting presentations from both Bangladesh-India side and to me it was more honorable as the session where I presented my paper, Bilateral Relations and Diplomacy, was chaired by Ambassador Beena Sikri, who was a former ambassador to Bangladesh.
Interactions with other Think Tanks and institution:
During our trip we went to visit a numbers of other think tanks and institutions. Those are: Jamia Milia Islamia, National Maritime Foundation (NMF), Center for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS), Institute of Peace and Security Studies (IPCS):
Our dialogue was followed by sight seeing which took us to Agra. I did not want to waste the opportunity to visit a few other great places of India. During our visit we met very eminent personalities holding strong positions in the policy making of India.
Places I visited in India:
Agra:
Agra is a city on the banks of the Yamuna the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Agra is famous as being home to one of the seven wonders of the world-the Taj Mahal. Completed in 1653 CE., the Taj Mahal was built by the Mughal king Shah Jahan as the final resting place for his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Finished in marble, it is perhaps India's most fascinating and beautiful monument. This perfectly symmetrical monument took 22 years (1630-1652) of hard labor and 20,000 workers, masons and jewelers to build and is set amidst landscaped gardens. Built by the Persian architect, Ustad 'Isa, the Taj Mahal is on the bank of the Yamuna River. It can be observed from Agra Fort from where Emperor Shah Jahan gazed at it, for the last eight years of his life, a prisoner of his son Aurangzeb. It is an acknowledged masterpiece of symmetry. Verses of the Koran are inscribed on it and at the top of the gate are twenty-two small domes, signifying the number of years the monument took to build. The Taj Mahal was built on a marble platform that stands above a sandstone one. The most elegant dome of the Taj Mahal has a diameter of 60 feet (18 m), and rises to a height of 80 feet (24 m); directly under this dome is the tomb of Mumtaz Mahal. Shah Jahan's tomb was erected next to hers by his son Aurangzeb. The interiors are decorated by fine inlay work, incorporating semi-precious stones.
Agra Fort was built by the great Emperor Akbar in 1565 A.D. the fort is a masterpiece of design and construction. Within the fort are a number of exquisite building, including the Moti Masjid, Diwane-I-Aam, Diwani-I-Khas and musanman Burj, where the Emperor Shah Jahan died in imprisonment beside Jahangirs place, Khaas Mahal and the Sheesh Mahal.
Jaipur:
Jaipur popularly known as the Pink City, is the capital of Rajasthan state, India. The city is remarkable among pre-modern Indian cities for the width and regularity of its streets which are laid out into six sectors separated by broad streets 111 ft (34 m) wide. Main tourist places that we visited are: Hawa Mahal, Amber Fort, City Palace, Jal Mahal. The colorful market places of Jaipur, especially the variety of jems are a worthwhile experience to enjoy and to enrich one's closet.
Azmer:
We went to Azmer to visit the Dargha Sharif/ Azmer Shareef, the final resting place for 'Gharib-Nawaz', Moinuddin Chishti is located in Ajmer. People of all religions visit the Dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti. The Khwaja left for heavenly abode in 1256 AD after a six day prayer in seclusion. These six days are celebrated every year as the annual Urs, which is attended by innumerable pilgrims irrespective of their faith. The shrine is considered to be a place of wish fulfillment for those who pray with devout and pure hearts. It is said that Emperor Akbar sought blessings for his son at the Dargah.
My Analysis and Assessment about India:
India and Bangladesh are very closely linked both geographically and culturally. Bangladesh is surrounded by India from three sides and share 54 trans-boundary rivers. India is one of the most important importing states for Bangladesh. Bangladesh has opened her market to Indian goods but India is yet to reciprocate. There are gestures of India that made it difficult to have sound trade relations with Bangladesh. Talking about closing Bangladesh's trade gap with India, it is understood that they are more interested in getting transit and then to talk about strengthening the trade relation. From their point of view it is the lack of transit and the time consuming trans-shipment that is holding back the trade opportunity between India-Bangladesh. Mentioning the transit from Nepal and Bhutan, it is understood that the process would be more delayed.
One of the issues that India is deeply disappointed about is illegal migrants that India is constantly complaining about and Bangladesh government not putting much attention to it. India is constantly denying the fact of civilians being killed in border areas by the BSF. They demonstrate strong, disheartened feelings about the BDR-BSF clash on Padua that occurred back in January 2001. They are also very unhappy about their claim of Bangladesh giving sanctuary to the insurgent groups of India, especially ULFA.
Talking about the border fencing, they insist building the fence is totally justified although it hurts Bangladesh's sentiment. Demarking the as yet un-demarcated 6.4km land area it seems that they would like to leave that to be solved in the indefinite future. On the demarcation of the maritime boundary with Bangladesh, they appeared to insist they would stick to their argument and decline Bangladesh's claim of solving the sea boundary on the basis of equity. According to their argument there is no definition of equity in UNCLOS. But the article 76 and 82 of the 1982 UNCLOS laid down the methods of delimiting the sea boundary between adjacent states. First the states should settle the boundary following negotiations. If negotiations fail, the principle of equity will be applied implying that justice and fairness must be the hallmark of settlement.
Talking about sharing water resources and Bangladesh's concerns over India's inter-river-linking project and building of the Tipaimukh Dam, India argues that India never has or never would do anything that would harm Bangladesh, especially on water issues. India insists that the Tipaimukh dam is only designed to generate hydroelectricity and not for withdrawing water for irrigating Indian agricultural land, which would deny water to Bangladesh.
Terrorism is one of the important factors of Bangladesh that India is very concerned about. The growing trends of terrorism and their strong foot-print in the country are major factors of concern for India. They claim there are ISI camps in Bangladesh that provides training to these extremist groups.
For the geo-strategic location, Bangladesh holds importance in global political arena. It is a great opportunity for Bangladesh to experience the rise of two emerging global power that are China and India. Bangladesh has good relation with both the states, especially with India as we are culturally and geographically more linked. Most of the problems between India and Bangladesh that is holding back the relation is based on mistrust. Both the countries are intimately linked with a good number of issues, where de-stabilization of one country would hamper the other. So it is better for Bangladesh to act as a smart power, both with India and China. As the two giant nations have adverse relation with each other, Bangladesh has a good part to play in this global power game. India played a very significant role in the liberation war of Bangladesh and since then the relation has gone through a rough terrain. All we expect is India-Bangladesh relation to have a tranquil relation solving all the causes that is holding it back to have a sound relation.
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Sonia Taleb,
Research Associate
Saturday, April 4, 2009
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A Tale of Three Cities
As a part of Bangladesh Media Delegation Team invited and hosted by Institute of Regional Studies (IRS), Islamabad, Pakistan, we stayed in Pakistan during 2nd to 12th March. In the 10 days we visited three cities-Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi of Pakistan.
Islamabad
In Islamabad we had meetings and discussions with various institutes like IRS, National Institute of Modern Languages (NUML), Associated Press of Pakistan (APP), Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) etc and also had meetings at Ministry of Information and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the meetings both of the parties discussed about the bilateral relations of the two countries, how this relation can be improved and thus sustained in the future and also about the regional politics and international politics, the role of these two countries and how to achieve maximum benefit through having a good relationship. ISPR specially briefed on Pakistan Army's and ISI role on fighting the global War on Terror.
For sightseeing we went to Pakistan Monument where four triangle pillars represent the culture and history of the four provinces of Pakistan. The monument is a symbol of unity of different place and different types of people of Pakistan. We also visited Saidpur Heritage village which is well preserved as a model village of Pakistan where there is a small museum showing how Islamabad was planned and established. Later we went to Heritage museum showing culture of different tribes and places and Pakistan and also the neighboring countries like Iran, Afghanistan and also Bangladesh. It's a nice place to have an idea of Pakistan and this region's culture and civilization at a glance. We visited Muree, a hill station near Islamabad which is very beautiful and charming; we went upto Burbon to see the view of Muree from there. And view of the Islamabad city at night from the Monal restaurant and Margalla hills is quite stunning.
Lahore
In Lahore we went to Wagha border to see the parade of Pakistani soldiers and flag lowering ceremony where both India and Pakistan do parades and lower their flag in such a way that the flag crossed which symbolizes the friendship between these two countries. As a lot of people gather and cheer up for their own country, and this a nice demonstration of nationalism too. We had meetings at Institute of Mass Communication at Punjab University, National Art Institute, Newspaper office and TV channel etc. We had meeting with Governor of Punjab too. We went to Salimar garden and Badshahi mosque which are the symbol of Mughal period. We also visited Lahore museum. The night view of Badshahi mosque from Cocoo's restaurant is very charming.
Karachi
In Karachi we had meetings at newspaper office and TV channels including Dawn and we also met former Chief Justice Javid Iqbal who is the youngest son of National poet of Pakistan Allamah Iqbal. We had discussion of Karachi Press club. We went to the Cliffton beach of Arabian sea in Karachi where I rode on Camel for the first time and it was quite exciting. We also visited the Mausoleum of Jinnah and the museum there. The way Pakistan shows respect to their Father of the Nation, it's a lesson for the others.
I am amazed at the hospitality of the people in Pakistan and also have to say something about Pakistani food, which is quite enjoyable and the rich bookstores of Pakistan also attracted me. Since it was my first visit to Pakistan, I came to know a lot of thing about the history, culture, politics and people of the country. For me, this visit is something I'll always remember.
The visit was initiated to develop people to people contact and improve bilateral relations of these two countries. As being in the same South Asian region and facing sort of common problems, hope the relation between these two countries and other countries of the region will improve which is quite necessary for the prosperity and stability of the region.
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