Paris attack underlines the stark reality that no country is safe

The terrorist attack in Paris underlines the hard reality that no country of the world can consider itself as a serene abode for human existence. Specially, it should expose the nihilism of the Western campaign that Bangladesh is especially vulnerable against terrorism

If nothing else, the terrorist attack in Paris should expose the illogic of the view that Bangladesh needs to be singled out for likely terrorist attacks and, therefore, shunned by external visitors to it who need to come here for different reasons. In fact, we have noted with great concern and pent up unease that our beloved country has to suffer such ‘terror branding’ of itself from exaggerated fears and hyper adverse publicity.
Needless to say this irresponsible and what also appears like most unreasonable putting of the stamp on Bangladesh as an unsafe country, already has had much injurious effects on our economy and way of life. Bangladesh’s principal economic sector, the export oriented apparel industry, is continuing to suffer badly from non arrival of garments buyers in this country in this peak of the procurement season. The pivotal garments sector is headed for a nosedive after it had battled several major negative externalities sometime ago and still managed to overcome them. Thus, it is so regrettable that it is being seriously burdened with yet another concocted problem which in no way is its own making.
Like the garments sector, the tourism industry in Bangladesh is also undergoing a great deal of stress as likely visitors to it were scared away by wrong signals of the situation in this country. The signals to be fair and objective should have been that spurts of terrorist activities are seen in Bangladesh but these are nothing so serious to justify raising of travel alerts against visiting Bangladesh.
The building up of an image of Bangladesh as a hotbed of terrorist outfits, is also threatening to undermine its otherwise good prospects for attracting foreign investments that it needs on a large scale to give a spur to its economic growth aspirations.
Our government and authorities spared no effort to drive home the facts to the alert mongers that organizational strengths of different terrorist groups in Bangladesh --both home grown and  external-- are relatively much weaker in contrast to the long standing or particularly terrorism afflicted countries. But such pleadings were in vain. Rather the USA which has been at the forefront of a group of Western countries that have raised and sustained the travel alerts against Bangladesh, only seemed to harden its otherwise untenable position over the issue.
From an appreciation of the  successful activities of our law enforcement bodies in keeping terrorism related incidents at  a very low level, the Western countries should have  regained confidence leading to easing of their travel alerts if not withdrawing them all together. But only the opposite is noted. Shifting from the earlier short term alerts of about a fortnight duration, the USA State Department at one go recently extended their alert up to February 2. And the other Western countries are yet to show any sign that they will ease or withdraw their alerts any time soon.
In what ways such undeserved treatment of Bangladesh is justified ? The answer should be obvious from the above. People in Bangladesh are only likely to interpret the conduct of these Western countries as unfriendly or even hostile towards them. Bilateral and multilateral relations between Bangladesh and these Western countries would not be aided or promoted as a notion will grow here that Bangladesh is being unfairly ‘quarantined’ by the latter without any rhyme or reason. In what way then such a development will be of any use for longer term Western interests in relation to this country ?
Our leaders, including Prime Minister (PM) Sheikh Hasina, have time and again sought to convey the altruism to all who have a stake in maintaining a well functioning world order that it is a futile to look at terrorism narrowly through a keyhole. As it is and as our PM reiterated on many occasions recently, terrorism is a worldwide phenomenon and no corner of the world can claim it is free from it. Therefore, the only rational behaviour involves accepting this universal threat of terrorism instead of adopting a queer policy of regarding some countries as safe and not others or some countries are safer than others.
Last Friday’s barbaric display of terrorism in Paris should now shatter the myth of safe and unsafe countries or more safe and less safe countries. All countries in the world are in the same boat in respect of terrorism and we must all join ranks against this worst scourge that faces humanity in the twenty-first century instead of short-sightedly trying to brand a country as especially vulnerable to terrorism.
Bangladesh, it was pointed out, would be relatively at a disadvantage compared to developed countries, in warding off terrorism given its relatively weaker preparedness against terrorism. If we are to accept this, then how it was possible for the terrorists to so nonchalantly kill and injure so many innocent people in Paris notwithstanding the presence of formidable terrorism fighting capabilities possessed by the French. Indeed, we in Bangladesh have done far better in comparison.
Talking about potential attacks by terrorists, the US administration is now saying that they are anticipating a wave of terror attacks on mainland USA. All European countries remain specially apprehensive about attacks like the repeat of Paris ; they have specially hiked up their vigilance against such attacks. Indian authorities are also sensing such attacks on India. The Indian Home Minister, Rajnath Singh, has particularly warned  12 state governments about the probability of such attacks.
Going back to the issue of Bangladesh as a safe country or otherwise, it should be notable that the Washington based opinion pollster Gallup recently ranked Bangladesh as one of the safest countries on Earth. Even USA, Australia and France ranked below Bangladesh in the rating. Regionally, Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam all trailed Bangladesh as did Brazil and Mexico in South America.
It is indeed ironically bemusing how fast the tables are turning. Only weeks ago the Australians were snobbishly seen postponing the travel plans of their cricketing team to Bangladesh. But now their position is judged to be even worse than Bangladesh by Gallup in the international safety league.
A few foreigners with ministerial status decided not to go through with their scheduled official visits to Bangladesh in September and October. Now, our PM has decided to opt out of visiting France on the same security grounds for which Bangladesh was being avoided earlier by some foreign high- ups.

The writer is Associate Editor of The Independent. E-mail:
[email protected]/ [email protected]

 

 

Paris attack underlines the stark reality that no country is safe

The terrorist attack in Paris underlines the hard reality that no country of the world can consider itself as a serene abode for human existence. Specially, it should expose the nihilism of the Western campaign that Bangladesh is especially vulnerable against terrorism

If nothing else, the terrorist attack in Paris should expose the illogic of the view that Bangladesh needs to be singled out for likely terrorist attacks and, therefore, shunned by external visitors to it who need to come here for different reasons. In fact, we have noted with great concern and pent up unease that our beloved country has to suffer such terror branding of itself from exaggerated fears and hyper adverse publicity. Needless to say this irresponsible and what also appears like most unreasonable putting of the stamp on Bangladesh as an unsafe country, already has had much injurious effects on our economy and way of life. Bangladeshs principal economic sector, the export oriented apparel industry, is continuing to suffer badly from non arrival of garments buyers in this country in this peak of the procurement season. The pivotal garments sector is headed for a nosedive after it had battled several major negative externalities sometime ago and still managed to overcome them. Thus, it is so regrettable that it is being seriously burdened with yet another concocted problem which in no way is its own making. Like the garments sector, the tourism industry in Bangladesh is also undergoing a great deal of stress as likely visitors to it were scared away by wrong signals of the situation in this country. The signals to be fair and objective should have been that spurts of terrorist activities are seen in Bangladesh but these are nothing so serious to justify raising of travel alerts against visiting Bangladesh. The building up of an image of Bangladesh as a hotbed of terrorist outfits, is also threatening to undermine its otherwise good prospects for attracting foreign investments that it needs on a large scale to give a spur to its economic growth aspirations. Our government and authorities spared no effort to drive home the facts to the alert mongers that organizational strengths of different terrorist groups in Bangladesh --both home grown and external-- are relatively much weaker in contrast to the long standing or particularly terrorism afflicted countries. But such pleadings were in vain. Rather the USA which has been at the forefront of a group of Western countries that have raised and sustained the travel alerts against Bangladesh, only seemed to harden its otherwise untenable position over the issue. From an appreciation of the successful activities of our law enforcement bodies in keeping terrorism related incidents at a very low level, the Western countries should have regained confidence leading to easing of their travel alerts if not withdrawing them all together. But only the opposite is noted. Shifting from the earlier short term alerts of about a fortnight duration, the USA State Department at one go recently extended their alert up to February 2. And the other Western countries are yet to show any sign that they will ease or withdraw their alerts any time soon. In what ways such undeserved treatment of Bangladesh is justified ? The answer should be obvious from the above. People in Bangladesh are only likely to interpret the conduct of these Western countries as unfriendly or even hostile towards them. Bilateral and multilateral relations between Bangladesh and these Western countries would not be aided or promoted as a notion will grow here that Bangladesh is being unfairly quarantined by the latter without any rhyme or reason. In what way then such a development will be of any use for longer term Western interests in relation to this country ? Our leaders, including Prime Minister (PM) Sheikh Hasina, have time and again sought to convey the altruism to all who have a stake in maintaining a well functioning world order that it is a futile to look at terrorism narrowly through a keyhole. As it is and as our PM reiterated on many occasions recently, terrorism is a worldwide phenomenon and no corner of the world can claim it is free from it. Therefore, the only rational behaviour involves accepting this universal threat of terrorism instead of adopting a queer policy of regarding some countries as safe and not others or some countries are safer than others. Last Fridays barbaric display of terrorism in Paris should now shatter the myth of safe and unsafe countries or more safe and less safe countries. All countries in the world are in the same boat in respect of terrorism and we must all join ranks against this worst scourge that faces humanity in the twenty-first century instead of short-sightedly trying to brand a country as especially vulnerable to terrorism. Bangladesh, it was pointed out, would be relatively at a disadvantage compared to developed countries, in warding off terrorism given its relatively weaker preparedness against terrorism. If we are to accept this, then how it was possible for the terrorists to so nonchalantly kill and injure so many innocent people in Paris notwithstanding the presence of formidable terrorism fighting capabilities possessed by the French. Indeed, we in Bangladesh have done far better in comparison. Talking about potential attacks by terrorists, the US administration is now saying that they are anticipating a wave of terror attacks on mainland USA. All European countries remain specially apprehensive about attacks like the repeat of Paris ; they have specially hiked up their vigilance against such attacks. Indian authorities are also sensing such attacks on India. The Indian Home Minister, Rajnath Singh, has particularly warned 12 state governments about the probability of such attacks. Going back to the issue of Bangladesh as a safe country or otherwise, it should be notable that the Washington based opinion pollster Gallup recently ranked Bangladesh as one of the safest countries on Earth. Even USA, Australia and France ranked below Bangladesh in the rating. Regionally, Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam all trailed Bangladesh as did Brazil and Mexico in South America. It is indeed ironically bemusing how fast the tables are turning. Only weeks ago the Australians were snobbishly seen postponing the travel plans of their cricketing team to Bangladesh. But now their position is judged to be even worse than Bangladesh by Gallup in the international safety league. A few foreigners with ministerial status decided not to go through with their scheduled official visits to Bangladesh in September and October. Now, our PM has decided to opt out of visiting France on the same security grounds for which Bangladesh was being avoided earlier by some foreign high- ups. The writer is Associate Editor of The Independent. E-mail: [email protected]/ [email protected]