Interview with the Bangladeshi Ambassador
Bangladesh, the third-largest Moslem nation in the world, has expressed great optimism that the economic crisis befalling its trading partner Indonesia will be "very temporary".
Ambassador of Bangladesh in Jakarta Zia-us-Shams Chowdhury pointed to the similarities between the two populous nations, including its citizens' resilience and fighting spirit.
"Both Bangladesh and Indonesia faced, and overcame, huge obstacles in their journey for progress and in their quest for sociopolitical stability."
He said Indonesians would rise to the crisis' challenges and the country would emerge stronger, with lessons learned and the "weaknesses that caused the problem" corrected.
It is this same spirit and determination that Bangladesh's 120 million people honor today, their National and Independence Day, which marks the nation's declaration of freedom from Pakistan in 1971.
It also signifies the beginning of a nine-month war for freedom which resulted in the deaths of three million Bangladeshis.
"This is the date, the 26th of March, on which our leadership declared independence, when the occupying army unleased their massacre, their brutality on Bangladesh," the Ambassador told The Jakarta Post.
"Bangladesh freedom fighters declared Bangladesh to be independent and then we carried on our struggle until the action of physically freeing the country on Dec. 16."
Four days later, the People's Republic of Bangladesh extended its diplomatic arm to Indonesia -- which immediately recognized the nation's independence -- by establishing an embassy in Jakarta.
Bilateral ties were further strengthened in September last year, in the early stages of the monetary crisis, when the nations' chambers of commerce signed a landmark cooperation agreement.
The Ambassador said the agreement heralded a new era for both countries but the monetary crisis has since "overshadowed" the occasion.
"We hope that as soon as Indonesia's financial crisis has been resolved, our two private sectors can pick up the threads and create more vibrancy."
The Ambassador also praised Indonesia's family planning scheme which Bangladesh used, and built on, to stem its population growth from 3.7 percent to 1.8 percent since 1971.
Bangladesh is also targeting poverty alleviation, and has come up with a microcredit financing scheme which has received international recognition.
The scheme -- which offers collateral-free credit to groups wanting to set up home industries -- has allowed women to become a "force for transformation", he said. Women now represent 75 percent of the garment industry's workforce, which is the nation's major foreign exchange earner.
"If we are to really play our part and economically adjust to globalization, we must be able to remove poverty."
The Ambassador said Bangladesh had come a long way in the last 27 years -- considering it started with a ruined economy -- and has achieved healthy economic vitals and a stable infrastructure.
The Ambassador also added: "During our freedom struggle, which was led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the father of our nation, his dream was to create a golden Bangladesh ... so we hope that we are now, on the world view, achieving his dream."