Interview with the Ambassador of Bangladesh
Interview with the Ambassador of Bangladesh
Bangladeshi Ambassador to Indonesia Dr. M. Afsarul Qader sat down with The Jakarta Post to discuss his country's bilateral relations with Indonesia as Bangladesh marks the 28th anniversary of its National and Independence Day.
JP: Please trace the history of relations between Bangladesh and Indonesia.
Ambassador Qader: The Indonesian people and government have always shown great sensitivity and deep understanding to the aspirations and suffering of the people of Bangladesh, right from the beginning of our liberation struggle. A concrete example was the prompt recognition of Bangladesh as a distinct country on December 20, 1971, four days after our country was physically liberated on December 16, 1971. While celebrating our 28th anniversary of National and Independence Day on the friendly soil of Indonesia, we recall that event with special appreciation and a sense of gratitude. That was the beginning of the formal relationship between our nations.
JP: Much has changed in Indonesia in the past year. In what ways has this affected Bangladesh's relationship with the Indonesian government and people?
Ambassador Qader: Our histories as South Asian and Southeast Asian nations go back deep into the past. Separately, we almost followed and went through similar phases of political and religiocultural experience. Like Indonesians, Bangladeshis have past connections first to Hinduism, then Buddhism and followed by Islamic civilizations. In this century, like Indonesians, we fought hard for our freedom and liberty to overcome centuries of colonial rule.
Today, Bangladesh is the third largest Muslim country with a very strong sense of interreligious culture. Bangladesh and Indonesia enjoy a cordial and flourishing relationship based on historical bonds and shared views on international issues. As active members of the Non-Aligned Movement, G-77, OIC, D-8 and the United Nations, together we look forward to a future of rapid socioeconomic development in a world which acknowledges common but differentiated responsibilities for its members to deal with attendant problems.
JP: Are there concrete ways Bangladesh and Indonesia are working together in overcoming the economic crisis?
Ambassador Qader: Based on these historic commonalities and shared experiences of anticolonial struggle and suffering, Bangladesh and Indonesia, within the limits of their respective capacities, are collaborating and cooperating whenever possible in the fields of exchange of ideas, skills and know-how in our quest for modernization and economic development with a human face.
Our leaders are maintaining close personal contacts and our field workers, officials and leaders are learning from Indonesia through its successful experiences in areas such as population control. We, in turn, share our innovativeness on poverty alleviation through the microcredit program pioneered by the Grameen Bank of Prof. Yunus.
This has also helped us to empower women and remove gender discrimination and backwardness. Being primarily an agrarian country, we are taking concrete steps in putting the integrated rural development concept into practical schemes.
The recent economic and financial difficulties faced by Indonesians recently convinced Bangladeshis to assist the friendly people and country of Indonesia in any manner possible to us and also to learn from the Indonesian experience. Although there is a huge gap in favor of Indonesia in trade with Bangladesh, we are even buying more and selling less to Indonesia. We would like to see Indonesia recover from the financial trauma speedily. And after the respective chambers of the two countries signed a cooperation agreement in September 1997, we hope we can all sit down and put the entire commercial relationship on a broader and more sustainable basis for mutual benefit.
Aside from cooperation in economic, social and trade sectors, the two countries need to cooperate in cultural and educational fields as this will help foster genuine people-to-people cooperation. So far, resource constraints and different linguistic backgrounds have not allowed us to develop a satisfactory pace and level of cooperation, but we are optimistic that these road bumps can be smoothened out sooner rather than later.
And Bangladesh's transition only a decade ago from an authoritarian form of government to a democratic system with a completely free press and strong independent judiciary may come handy as a recent case history for other countries in a similar situation. As Bangladesh's Ambassador to Indonesia, I feel privileged to witness the historic transition of this largest Muslim nation into a genuine democracy. I wish it all success.
The 120 million people of Bangladesh have an abiding sense of hope and faith in the ability and capacity of 200 million Indonesians for speedy renewal of their country, and in overcoming all adversity they may encounter in their legitimate quest for a due role under the sun. May God help us all!