Influential Bangladeshi-Americans don’t want US foreign policy failures in Bangladesh

UNB :
Bangladeshi-American elected officials, and members of human rights as well as professional organisations have urged United States president Joe Biden to change the current course of action and ensure a violence-free, secular, democratic future for Bangladesh.

In a statement addressed to Biden, the Bangladeshi-Americans said that they were concerned about the repeated failure of the US foreign policy in its attempt to ‘establish democracy’ without considering the historical and socio-political context in Muslim countries and regions.

‘The vivid examples of American foreign policy failure are Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Libya.

We don’t want that to happen in Bangladesh,’ the statement reads.

The recent US policies and rhetoric are only ‘motivating terrorists and confounding liberal forces,’ said the signatories of the statement.

The Bangladeshi-American elected officials, rights activists, and professionals also said they firmly support Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s strategies in combating terrorism in Bangladesh and South Asia.

‘While we appreciate the concern of your administration about the upcoming election in Bangladesh, the US policy must also consider the widespread terrorism incidents in Bangladesh perpetrated directly by the BNP-Jamaat alliance and terrorist groups under the patronage of the alliance,’ they said in the statement.

Bangladesh held four widely praised and well-participated elections in 1991, 1996, 2001, and 2008, the statement noted.

‘But it appears from the current political stalemate that holding only free elections does not guarantee liberal democratic outcomes,’ the signatories said. ‘Especially, the terrorism incidents under government patronage between two free elections in 2001 and 2008 indicate just having a free and ‘so-called fair’ election in 2024 indeed will not change the current political deadlock unless stakeholders find a sustainable solution guaranteeing the security, safety and post-election political participation of the minorities and political dissidents,’ the statement reads.

For example, the signatories said, in October 2001, the BNP-Jamaat-led coalition won the election under a caretaker government. Right after their victory, the coalition unleashed an unprecedented attack against the Hindus and Awami League supporters across 11 districts in Bangladesh, they said.