Japan: Bangladesh’s tested friend

"Japan’s friendship with Bangladesh is thus time-tested. The foreign affairs ministry should know it better. Bangladesh defeated Japan for the 1979–80 non-permanent seat at the UN Security Council when Japan was providing massive assistance to Bangladesh’s economic development.

Japan did not allow the defeat to affect its relations with Bangladesh in any way. The ministry failed to put Japan’s friendship and goodwill for Bangladesh in perspective by insensitively bracketing the Japanese ambassadors with the powerful Western ambassadors and their current interest in Bangladesh’s politics."

THE Japanese ambassador Iwama Kiminori presented an excellent and highly professional paper on Japan-Bangladesh relations in a recent event organised by Cosmos, a well-known think tank in Dhaka. The ambassador captured the attention of his audience with his sincere goodwill for the well-being of Bangladesh and its people and his country’s keen desire to assist Bangladesh’s economic development.

Many eyebrows were, therefore, raised when newspapers reported that the foreign affairs ministry had warned the foreign ambassadors not to ‘cross the line’ and ‘meddle’ in Bangladesh’s internal affairs which is forbidden under the Vienna Convention of Diplomatic Relations. The foreign ministry’s warning came after Kiminori had met the chief election commissioner and BNP leaders in their respective offices. Mostnewspapers did not connect the ministry’s warning with the ambassador’s visits. The allusion to a connection was, nevertheless, in the news.

Ambassador Ito Naoki, ambassador Kiminori’s predecessor, was the subject of controversy not too long ago over his remark about the role of the police in Bangladesh’s controversial 2018 elections. It created a tempest. Two police associations held separate meetings. They demanded that the ambassador should withdraw his remark. The incident cast a dark shadow on Japan-Bangladesh bilateral relations.

Japan is Bangladesh’s time-tested friend. In 1971, schoolchildren of Japan gave up their money for refreshment and sent it to the Mujibnagar government for the millions of Bangladeshi refugees who were languishing in the refugee camps in India and in dire need of humanitarian assistance to remain alive. That gesture of the Japanese schoolchildren bonded the peoples of Japan and Bangladesh in deep friendship in Bangladesh’s post-independence era.

Bangladesh’s valiant liberation struggle also had a deep impact on the people of Japan. Thus, when Bangladesh was liberated, Japan did not wait long to establish diplomatic relations with the newly liberated country. The Japanese government did its part. It began an economic relationship with Bangladesh that aimed at rebuilding a war-torn and war-ravaged country from scratch.

Takashi Hayakawa, a senior politician of the ruling LDP in 1971 and a former minister, embraced Bangladesh as his adopted country after Bangladesh had become independent. He led a Japanese parliamentary delegation to Bangladesh soon after diplomatic ties were established on February 11, 1972. Takashi Hayakawa and his colleagues were a lobby for Bangladesh in Tokyo that money could not buy. He loved Bangladesh so much that a part of his ashes was interned in Dhaka as his death wish.

The Japanese bureaucrats in Tokyo, particularly those in Japan International Cooperation Agency, Japan External Trade Association and Japan Bank of International Cooperation and diplomats in Dhaka, were equally helpful towards Bangladesh’s economic well-being. The Japanese ambassador Takeo Iguchi who was the ambassador to Bangladesh in 1988–91 would be upset with Bangladeshi officials for not placing aid/assistance requests carefully to meet Japan’s strict requirements. He would often show the correct way to do so.

Bangladesh, however, failed to use Japan’s goodwill to attract the huge amount of idle capital waiting in Japan for investment in the country. Malaysia succeeded because its visionary prime minister Mahathir Mohammad created a Japan-friendly investment climate in his country during his tenure as prime minister from 1981 to 2003. The rest is history. Japan’s investment transformed Malaysia from a developing economy to the door steps of a developed country.

Bangladesh had better possibilities to transform its economy with Japanese investment than Malaysia. The reasons were, first, its size and, second, its strategic location as the bridge between two hugely populated regions of the world, South Asia and Southeast Asia. Bangladesh failed to change its investment laws and environment to attract Japanese investors like Malaysia. Bangladesh, thus, missed the historic opportunity that Malaysia successfully grabbed.

Japan has a good number of small and medium-sized enterprises or SMEs in permanent shortage of workers because of its declining population and lack of interest of its people to work in SMEs. Japan does not import manpower. Thus it created 1991 the Japan Industrial Trainee and Skilled Worker Cooperation Organisation for workers from developing countries to work in its SMEs as a trainee for one year and as an apprentice for two years. The JITCO programme, thus, allowed Japan to meet its labour shortage in SMEs.

The JITCO programme was established also as part of Japan’s vision to transfer technology to developing countries. The Japanese SMEs directly recruit the trainees and not through the manpower agents who are persona non grata for the programme. The JITCO trainees do not also pay anything to enter the programme. JITCO trainees must leave Japan for their respective countries after 3 years without exception.

Bangladesh signed the JICO agreement in 2005 that allowed it to send an unlimited number of SME workers to Japan who would have brought home with their training, Tk 25 lakh on an average by the 2005 calculation. Bangladesh failed to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities JITCO provided due to a lack of interest in the relevant ministries and agencies. The agreement is currently dormant. It is nevertheless another example of Japan’s goodwill for Bangladesh’s economic development.

Japan was the largest contributor to the Bangladesh Aid Group, a consortium of 26 countries and international financial institutions that was established in 1974 under the aegis of the World Bank to build Bangladesh’s war-ravaged economy. Japan converted most of its aid to Bangladesh to grant. During this writer’s tenure as ambassador to Japan in 2002–2006, Japan converted $1.86 billion in aid to grant without even a request from Bangladesh. The Group does not exist any more.

It was, therefore, unfortunate that two police associations asked ambassador Ito Naoki, ambassador Kiminori’s immediate predecessor, to withdraw his comment about the police’s role in the controversial 2018 election that was not his but one that he had heard that is also the widely held view in Bangladesh. The foreign affairs ministry which has the responsibility of dealing with the diplomats under the Vienna Convention did not intervene. It allowed the two police associations to embarrass Bangladesh’s most trusted friend and development partner.

The ministry should, therefore, have been careful in warning ambassadors of ‘meddling’ in Bangladesh’s internal affairs after ambassador Kiminori met had the chief election commissioner and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. The right to speak on democracy and free and fair elections is universal. The Vienna Convention does not prohibit ambassadors and other diplomats from speaking on these issues in a host country. Ambassador Kiminori politely declined to respond at the Cosmos event when asked whether he would follow the US ambassador in the latter’s current interest in Bangladesh’s politics. He underlined Japan’s commitment to the Vienna Convention.

Japan’s interest in Bangladesh’s economic development continues notwithstanding Dhaka’s insensitivity. It is now funding two mega projects, one in electricity and the other in connectivity, both in Matarbari near Cox’s Bazar worth billions of US dollars. The electricity plant will add 1,200MW of critically needed electricity to the national grid. The Matarbari deep sea port has the potential to transform Bangladesh into a regional connectivity hub by serving the region, particularly India’s landlocked Seven Sisters.

Japan’s friendship with Bangladesh is thus time-tested. The foreign affairs ministry should know it better. Bangladesh defeated Japan for the 1979–80 non-permanent seat at the UN Security Council when Japan was providing massive assistance to Bangladesh’s economic development. Japan did not allow the defeat to affect its relations with Bangladesh in any way. The ministry failed to put Japan’s friendship and goodwill for Bangladesh in perspective by insensitively bracketing the Japanese ambassadors with the powerful Western ambassadors and their current interest in Bangladesh’s politics.

Postscript: Bangladesh’s politics is polarised both internally and externally. Japan is spot on in charting the neutral course on Bangladesh’s internal politics. It should do the same in matters of Bangladesh’s foreign relations and not speak for other powers.

 (This article was originally published in New Age)