Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited England last week to attend a conference on issue of child marriage convened by British Prime Minister David Cameron. It was a courtesy call on the British Prime Minister and not for discussing serious state to state matters.She asked the expatriates in London to invest. But that to happen political certainty and stability will be needed. No number of foreign visit will enable that.She must have felt strongly about the issue about child marriage and attended the conference despite her government is being run in a state of stagnation.It was not even an official visit for doing as usual government to government business.But the self-seekers who created the embarrassing position for the Prime Minister of being elected in a voter less election try to explain in various talk shows what a victory it was that the British Prime Minister received and assured her business as usual with Bangladesh government.Britain was not her first visit abroad. She had earlier visited Japan and China. In these visits also business interests of China and Japan received prominence. China got without any tender contract for the largest bridge over the river Padma. It is no wonder that some independent observers in Bangladesh demanded disclosure of the terms of the deals reached with Japan and China for the sake of transparency. No question will be raised in parliament as because the opposition is also part of the government. In fact the foreign countries find it more helpful to do business with weak governments.It is not the government’s own stated position that they were duly elected by popular vote. They blamed BNP for boycotting the election and not allowing the voters to come and vote. So their justification is that the election though voter less but nevertheless constitutional. It is a farcical argument to defend a farcical election.It is only for us and the government to feel ashamed or not for having a government not elected by the people. The people who fought the liberation war for their democratic right have been denied their right to vote to power a government of their own choice. Libya’s Muamer Gaddafi was hated by most Western countries yet he had no difficulty in bribing governments of other countries. The previous president of France Sarkozy is facing allegations that he received money from Gaddafi for his election campaign. Other governments were also happy to do business with Gaddafi till he was overthrown and brutally killed in a popular uprising. In Bangladesh also the unelected military governments faced no problem in their international relationship with others. The Western were keen to do business with late Idi Amin of Uganda, a dictator himself and who showed his dislike of the whites openly.It is natural and nothing to brag about that the governments of other countries will be doing business with Bangladesh. It is also a good business for them if other side’s government has the weakness of being vulnerable. The worst and most condemnable governments run by hated dictators are also surviving doing business with other countries. These foreign trips cannot change the internal politics of a country. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was also not seeking recognition for her government as elected government. Such visits should not be seen as anything but continuing formal relationship among countries. Our internal politics has to be our affairs.We cannot be a free nation incapable of saving our voting right to elect our government.Those who are great beneficiaries of the government are ready to claim victory for anything and everything. The supporters of the government seem no more enthusiastic in calling the government democratic. They are now not claiming electoral success. Their government is now the government of development.
