By Uttam Sen
Professor Mohammad Yunus has been making waves ever since he assumed charge as the Chief Advisor of the Bangladesh Government. Sources have questioned the basic premise on which he arrived. Dr Yunus’ rationale that he moved in on a popular students’ revolution is itself contentious. There are colorful versions of “student” leaders going to Dubai and Riyadh for briefings on a regime change to be staged with the help of jongis ( a particularly appropriate Bengali word meaning militants/aggressive people).
The students protest against the quota system in civil service jobs favoring kin of 1971 freedom fighters was genuine but not the subsequent mayhem created mostly by the lumpen.
Dr. Yunus has to be credited with presence of mind. He was heard telling agitated youngsters that thousands of them could get jobs at home and abroad after just six months of technical training.
People breathed a sigh of relief when in the midst of bedlam an eminence grise materialized in the form of Dr.Yunus, apparently in sync with the military and the residuum. Some allowances can also be made for volte faces given the volatility of the situation. Dr. Yunus had hailed the 1971 liberation war but now considers it a bit of an aberration. Suffice it to say that he was the jewel of American Democrats and the Pakistani Deep State.
But that applecart was upset when Donald Trump won the Presidential election for the second time. Dr. Yunus was quick to explain that one election did not change a country’s foreign policy.
He has just returned from a visit to Beijing and is already in Bangkok for meetings of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC). He met Xi Jinping who seemed to have acknowledged his interim arrangement. He signed a slew of agreements with his hosts.
Apparently encouraged by the reception he received, on the heels of a snub from India (who failed to invite him!), Dr. Yunus reminded his audience that India’ s seven north-eastern states were landlocked and dependent on Bangladesh for access to the ocean. He invited China to supplement trade and connectivity and view the region as an extension of the Chinese manufacturing and production base.
Neighboring Nepal and Bhutan are rich in hydraulic resources and could supply power for industry. Commentators have pointed out that India and Myanmar shared guardianship of the ocean and India had agreements with Bangladesh on sharing port facilities at Chittagong and Mongla both for oceanic and riverine purposes.
Dr.Yunus’ observations appeared mindlessly combative, hopefully reflective of a passing euphoria. If they indeed were, India can create alternatives. As an upper riparian state India can put Bangladesh under the cosh for river water. Hydraulic power from Nepal and Bhutan will not reach Bangladesh without India’s goodwill. Additionally, a new high has just been registered in illegal migrations from Bangladesh to India.
Among the many conjectures in circulation, the most arresting is that Dr. Yunus’ principals at home and abroad are trying to make him pit China against India. The redeeming fact is that President Xi chose that very day, coincidentally the 75th anniversary of formal ties between India and China, to convey to his Indian counterpart statesmanlike compliments and the hope for a productive future in which the two would help each other and developing nations achieve an equitable distribution of resources.
India, incidentally, had made similar commendations to Dhaka on Eid and the country’s Independence Day.
Realpolitik will divest the professed good intentions of some substance but even the residue could usher in liberation and prosperity. Bangladesh will be taking over the chair of BIMSTEC which can be a stepping stone for new structures of global economics and politics sans conflict. What Dr. Yunus has pitched into is the gateway to the happening Asia-Pacific, more a place of hope and excitement than shifting alignments. The tariff regimes that are coming into existence will necessitate, among other things, greater self-sufficiency, for which cooperation is the watchword.
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