The country's geopolitical quandary in the midst of great power rivalry, implications of India's posture in the neighbourhood, tariff and non-tariff barriers to Dhaka's international trade, enhanced debt servicing liabilities from this year, challenges to earning remittances and capturing freelancing jobs for Bangladeshi youth, and constraints in capacity to benefit from globalization -- these are some of the critical issues that are relevant to the contenders for power.
Ahead of the impending general elections, however, we've not come across talks or debates on their solutions to be made at home, in favour of an independent, sovereign country.
It seems, the Bangla poetic line “Paachhe loke kichhu bole” (Lest the people say something) by Kamini Roy, still haunts many of the ruling elites, one and a half years after the end of fascist rule of the previous one and a half decades.
Who/what are the invisible forces that whisper in the ears of a less exposed powerful few technocrats and opinion leaders to rule the latter's collective mind?
Your community may well know you as an inhabitant even if you don't introduce or name yourself while living in, say, a village or small town. Others will dictate the terms unless you assert your position. A nation, too, has to work hard or at least interact regularly with others in the comity of nations to earn a certain reputation and cement its position.
Now more than five decades after achieving the country's independence, the political, semi-political, and apolitical elements still quarrel over the manner in which Bangladesh should present itself at the world stage and the friends it must choose to exist peacefully.
This fact of life conspicuously suggests that in our state system, the people have little idea of who makes policy or how and why it is made to deal with the actors beyond the boundary, although policy outcomes are eventually visible to all citizens.
“Branding Bangladesh” is occasionally prescribed to be the most important, but unattained task that alone could have provided Bangladeshis advantages all over the world. It is as if the country, if branded well, would be known to the outside world based on the features narrated on paper, not necessarily the actual ones it has.
Clever people, especially the ones with a corporate mindset, put the act of branding before the elements of national power and public policy that together help a nation deal with the known and unknown issues of foreign affairs.
Unfortunately for foreign policy practitioners, be it Russia's Sergey Lavrov, Iran's Javad Zarif, America's Condoleezza Rice or India's S Jaishankar, there is no magic solution to the issues of inter-state or international relations.
Thus Bangladesh's foreign affairs policy is not what the country just wishes to pursue maintaining isolation, in order to serve self-interests worldwide, nor is it a matter of adjusting with the external powers, often undermining national priorities.
As the 2024 revolution has opened the room for democratic leadership to refix the country's global positioning, among other reforms, the people as a whole deserve the right and scope to have their say or at least know how Bangladesh's foreign policy is determined.
This policy can in no way be defined by foreigners. Neither threats nor excessive tilt towards a single foreign player should overwhelm the policymakers, including the future foreign affairs minister, in taking decisions.
It is high time Bangladesh made a clear shift from the policy of appeasing the foreign masters. In this context, who would deny that Dhaka needs to reassess the external environment and complexities of the current global politics for preparing a national policy on global affairs before its proper execution?
After all, unlike domestic policy, foreign policy cannot be controlled by the rulers; its success depends also on functioning of the international system and reaction of the recipient or adversary to the policy move of the other country.
Prudent statesmen always keep their mind and eyes open to fresh developments and new ideas since everyday happenings, apart from paradigm shift, show how dynamic the world is. For example, conventional wisdom failed when we saw Donald Trump's America capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, rupturing sovereignty of the South American country. Similar was Russian leader Vladimir Putin's move to wage war against Ukraine in 2020, following annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Conscientious minds also fail to capture why the world broadly remains silent while witnessing Israel's genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza.
It is not easy for an optimist to accept how a century after colonial powers had finished one of two world wars, use of raw military power is still the norm.
Another harsh reality is India, being an aspiring global power, does not hesitate in flexing its influence, depriving neighbouring Bangladesh of the opportunity to safely play T20 World Cup matches.
This is the world where the United States of America targets China as the rival power, the next door neighbour and nemesis of India which maintains warm relations with Russia, a major threat to America's historic ally Europe. Despite New Delhi's flirting with Washington's adversaries, the US seeks India's partnership in containing China in the Indo-Pacific region.
Bangladesh has fallen in the ambit of superpowers' rivalries concentrated in this increasingly, strategically-important region when deeper alignment with any of them may affect national interests.
This includes, for instance, the possibility of Rohingya people's safe return to their homeland of Myanmar, a hotspot of proxy insurgencies. Dhaka's closer ties with countries like Pakistan and Turkey will not go unnoticed either.
So, the next elected government will have to not only face an effectively hostile world but also undertake domestic preparedness redefining its foreign policy in the light of democratic aspirations of the old and new generations of people.
It is Bangladeshis who shall have to decide what kind of a country they want to build for themselves. The parliament, political parties, academia, and the media need to discuss the issues of foreign policy to help the authorities make the right decisions which uphold the best national interests. Foreign policy is not the business of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs alone.
The hush-hush policymaking approach needs to be changed while professional diplomats must understand which file or decision should be kept confidential and which one disclosed. A qualified and patriotic team of foreign policy practitioners can maximize national interests in keeping with the demands of the democratic polity.
Khawaza Main Uddin is a journalist and OpEd writer. He can be contacted at [email protected]. Views expressed are the writer’s own.
