Hillary Clinton To Visit Bangladesh in 2012

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has agreed to visit Bangladesh in 2012. The schedule of the visit is yet to be finalized. Hillary Clinton will visit Bangladesh at a time convenient to her. Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni has disclosed this information. She made the disclosure at a press conference at Bangladesh Mission at the UN Headquarters. She was addressing the press conference after presentation of Bangladesh's proposal to a UN committee on the country's maritime disputes with Burma.
Dr Dipu Moni said she had personal talks with Hillary Clinton. She had given a commitment to visit Bangladesh in the next year. The foreign minister said the matter will be made public after fixation of the schedule of the visit.
On a question whether Bangladesh prime minister has a chance to visit Washington, Dr Dipu Moni said: "Not at this moment, but talks are being held on the issue."
About Bangladesh's maritime disputes with Burma, the foreign minister at the conference said, "We have various technical points in support of our claims. Bangladesh has been demanding 850 nautical miles of the continental shelf." She expressed the hope that the issue will be resolve in the next year with mediation of the United Nations.
Country's Maritime Disputes
About the raising of country's maritime disputes with India at the UN committee, Dr Dipu Moni said, "The issue is likely to be raised by 2014." She expressed the hope that the disputes with Burma will be solved before that.
The foreign minister alleged that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-Jamaat-e-Islami alliance government during their tenure did not take any step to solve this problem. But she said this was a big issue of Bangladesh's national interest and security. Dr Dipu Moni said such big initiatives are often taken when Awami League is in power. And this is the history.
National Interest
He said Bangladesh will be owner of a big area in the sea if Dhaka's proposal is accepted at the UN committee. She said the country could get an area almost equal to its territory in the sea. In addition, she said that Bangladesh would get the chance of extracting invaluable mineral resources.
About the Tipaimukh Dam, the foreign minister said, "India has assured of us that they will not do anything detrimental to Bangladesh's interest.
Former Navy Chief Khurshed Alam and Bangladesh Permanent Representative to the UN Abdul Momen were present at the news conference.

Myanmar's National Interest: Peace, Stability, Unity, Equality

Working for the national interest must be a top priority in the nation of Myanmar. The national interest has never been defined clearly within Myanmar's political context in the last half century. A new language of politics in Myanmar terms was born this week after President Thein Sein and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi held a meeting recently.
True Democracy
What is the national interest of the people of Myanmar? Peace for all, stability for the country, security for citizens, and equality for all people within the country. True democracy with a sense of hope, aspiration to claim dignity and human rights as our own rights, and accepting that no one is above the law are, in fact, also greater aspects of the national interest in politics.
Myanmar's national interest goes beyond its own wellbeing, as it is related to its relationships with neighboring countries and Western nations, and overall, as a good global citizen in the 21st century. This is a most important time to determine whether Myanmar's 'national interest' will only remain political terms, or will be translated into action by our leaders. Actions speak louder than words in politics, but the tasks are limitless for achieving the common aspirations of our national interest.
Turning Point
Myanmar has come to its own turning point on the road to peace within in the country after too many decades of misery and suffering from internal armed conflict, displacement, poverty, and severely under-developed areas. A nation with pride in its history has come to realize that peace for all citizens is an important agenda item for the new government.
The new government released a public statement expressing its willingness to resume peace talks with armed insurgent ethnic organizations across the country. Politically, the ethnic armed groups have won the game, but lost on strategic terms because the military elites have already formed a new government in January of this year with a sense of hope to remain in power beyond the current term.
International Pressure
The ruling elites are seeking to be reelected in the next election in 2015 after its power structures are in place, its economy is strengthened, and its legal status is secured in the country. The call for peace talks with armed insurgents is a tactic of the new government to contain international pressure on its human rights record, have sanctions by the US and EU governments lifted, and finally give some space to the party led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi for win-win gains. This is the new question for all ethnic leaders: where to go from here.
The failure of the Burmese Way to Socialism from 1962-1988 proved that the previous ruling military elites had lost touch with realistic political instincts. The collapse of the one-party system further damaged the credibility of the ruling military elites. After 20 years of domination of power in the country, the elected (by a shameful election) ruling military elites and appointed military candidate seek a new way of building a "Burmese way to democracy" as the status quo in the country. The cunning politics of the president and his cabinet urgently need to contain pressure both internally and externally. Historically, peace deals with armed insurgent ethnic organizations occurred in the country for many rounds of talks from the 1950s to 1995. No rounds of talks resulted in political settlements that satisfied anti-government forces. A new peace talk process is again on the agenda of all political factions, including the president and prominent opposition leaders.
The ethnic national alliance, newly formed to work for the political aims of Myanmar's ethnic people, the United Nationalities Federal Council, sent an official letter to the president on 15 August calling for national peace dialogue as an urgent priority in the country. The letter expressed the grief of ethnic people following centuries' long oppression by the government's troops and policies of assimilation. The president met Daw Aung San Suu Kyi at the end of the same week that the letter was sent, a coincidence of events that encourages some people to have hope for positive change.
Concerted and timely actions on the part of the international community could help persuade the new government that its best interests lie in demonstrating progressive credentials, and distancing itself from previous military regimes. The government should be encouraged to preserve the peace in relation to ceasefire groups, said Ashley South, an expert on Myanmar's ethnic politics, on 18 June 2011.
Myanmar's own policy thinker and academic of modern times, Dr Maung Zarni, asserted in his recent piece that, "Ultimately, politics is about power -- power to reform politically repressive institutions and economically dysfunctional structures, as well as, and above all, the military which created them. The foregone conclusion is that there is absolutely no plan among the generals, the outgoing seniors or incoming generation of juniors, to share power with other popular stakeholders of Myanmar such as Aung San Suu Kyi and ethnic minority leaders." Dr Zarni has urged peace and stability in Myanmar for a decade, but political settlement is the core of the business of the current trend.
Ethnic leaders and representatives held a seven-day Federal Conference on 8 June 1961 for delegates to discuss, amend, and propose a plan for a United National Federation of Myanmar (a Multi Nation States). A member of the Mon delegation, Nai Tun Thein (aged 94 this year), the current President of the Mon National Democratic Front, published his political memoirs in 2001.
New Era of Politics
According to Nai Tun Thein's account, the Union of Myanmar (the Federation of Myanmar) was to be created under the re-adopted constitution of 1947, which would strive for peace, stability, and unity for all of Myanmar's races. In fact, searching for peace, unity, and political dialogue is neither new nor strange for Myanmar's leaders.
Overall, it is a new era of politics. There is a vision for a new Myanmar where, regardless of race and religion, all of Myanmar's citizens under the Federation will enjoy constitutional rights to seek public duty as members of parliament under the rule of law, justice, and prosperity for all.
President Thein Sein and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi have a moral duty to act with sincerity. The world is watching them for signs to see whether peace can come from within Myanmar. Myanmar's national interest includes peace, stability, unity, and equality for all ethnic people in order to build a stronger nation that can resist the economic and military might of China or India. Democracy is within us, but honesty must be one of our core principles.

Repeated Terror Attacks: Reminder of Political System Failure

After a second blast within four months at Delhi High Court's gate in the national capital, the efficiency, alertness, and vigil of the Delhi police have come under question. The earlier blast had taken place near gate number seven. Nobody was killed or injured in it. But this time, the high intensity blast near gate number five where entry passes are issued, proved to be fatal for dozens of people. The fact is that there can neither be an actual estimation of the loss caused by this kind of blast due to security lapse, nor could it be compensated. Still, we cannot avoid questions that blast raises.
Self-Destructive for Entire Country
The link to this incident may also be established with some kind of domestic or international terrorism in the coming days, but is it a mere coincidence that when it is time to take the culprits of terrorist acts which directly challenged the sovereignty and power of the country to their logical end, politics is being played on the issue that is self-destructive for the entire country? Is the weak political leadership of the country responsible for these conditions? The country's domestic policy is already a victim of delusion, but who are they trying to harm by bringing the foreign policy also under its influence, knowingly or unknowingly? With which country among our neighbors -- Pakistan, China, Nepal, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, are our policies in normal condition? Is all this not becoming the reason for deteriorating situations that are giving a challenge to the domestic front?
The present home minister and external affairs minister could agree that in Bangladesh's context, the consent or discord of any of our states does not have any impact on the foreign policy, but could we ignore Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, and Gujarat in Pakistan's context, or Tamil Nadu with regard to Sri Lanka? These double standards and insistence is not allowing our national political leadership to become strong.
Lesson From Past Experiences
The regret is also that we do not seem to be learning a lesson from our past experiences. Then, why do we expect this kind of lesson from Delhi police, which is nurtured on the game of politics at the center? But there is no hesitation in saying that the blast that took place at the gate of High Court situated within the circle of Delhi's political heart could have perhaps been prevented, had the police learned any lesson from the "big rehearsal of bomb blast" carried out by terrorists in the parking lot of gate number seven of High Court on 25 May. It is unfortunate that the incident was forgotten saying that the bomb was planted to target a particular person.
Police have their limitations in any political system. Our police force is not like London or Scotland Yard police, neither in skills, nor from the viewpoint of resources. Parliament is in session. The entire Delhi remains on "high alert" during this period. Then, how could this blast take place just a few kilometers from the Parliament House? But it would not be right to call it mere carelessness of police or security agencies. In fact, it is a failure of our politically-administered system.