The New Nation - Internet Edition

China rejected on Thursday US President George W Bush's criticism of its human rights record and restrictions on religion, diplomatically telling him to stay out of its affairs only hours before he arrived in Beijing from Thailand to attend the Olympics. But next day President Bush was given a warm reception in Beijing by the Chinese authorities. The Chinese government made its point and President Bush behaved in a restrained way when he was in China.

China showed its pride as a nation. It did not matter that President of the United States was coming to China as a guest to attend the Olympics. National honour is uppermost and must be upheld.

In contrast, our foreign friends feel free to comment on our internal matters unnecessarily, sometimes without caring what kind of forces they are encouraging within the country.

European member of parliament Nirj Deva said during a recent visit to Dhaka the other day that the EU supported a total lifting of the state of emergency ahead of national polls. After a meeting with the leader of a major political party Nirj Deva told reporters that the European Union observers did not observe any election held amid a state of emergency. The EU wanted the emergency to be lifted, he said.

The European Parliament member, who also met chief election commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda, said that the CEC had told him that the elections would be held in the third week of December.

Earlier in June, an election observation exploratory mission of the European Union led by Zsolt Bartfai told reporters that the EU Headquarters was considering sending a 150-member team to observe the parliamentary polls here. The EU mission was on a week-long visit in the third week of June to weigh whether to send its Election Observation Mission (EOM) to the country.

The British Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Hazel Blears, who visited Bangladesh recently, also said it was very difficult but not impossible to hold free and fair elections under the state of emergency.

An adviser of the caretaker government in response to comments made by guests from the EU urged the latter to change their election observation policy.

It has become fashionable for some foreign dignitaries visiting Bangladesh to call on our people at the helms of power and the leaders of all political parties and make observations about internal political problems without caring to understand how difficult the situation is or who are to be blamed. Many of them do so with an air of superiority as if politics of Bangladesh has to be shaped according to their wishes or designs. We want to be friendly as a nation with other nations whose friendly advice is welcome. But it is too much for our friends to dictate and expect that we must obey them without considering what is in our best interest.

These foreign dignitaries forget that Bangladesh is not a subservient country and it is not even an aid-dependent country.

Bangladesh has been receiving too much advice from foreign countries and yet politics became thoroughly corrupt uninterruptedly and democracy collapsed in the end. Whether elections would be held under emergency or not is something to be decided by the people of Bangladesh.

Some of the foreign dignitaries remain quite oblivious to the fact that emergency laws had been clamped for undemocratic and violent politics. The irresponsible political leaders may have been encouraged by some foreign advice to create a civil war situation making the holding of the general elections impossible.

They forgot that outsiders cannot solve our problems the easy way. We must have confidence in ourselves in deciding what is best for us. Then only we shall get right kind of foreign help and cooperation. Bangladesh does not want charity.

The foreign dignitaries have seen weak leadership and weak governments too anxious to please them. We must prove strong and hold high our national pride. We do not have to behave meekly for international help and cooperation. We are grateful for the help and the cooperation from foreign friends. But when they give advice they must know they are often wrong. And they must observe international norms when discussing internal matters.