BNP and Copenhagen

Shafiqul Islam, NY
To draw world attention to the effects of climate change, Maldives govt held an under-water cabinet meeting in the sea and Nepal held their cabinet meeting on top of the Himalayas. I believe, Bangladesh cabinet should have met on a 'tree-top' to draw the world attention because most of her ocean belt area will slowly go under water due to warming up our planet and will cause serious disastrous human sufferings. The Copenhagen Summit is the first ever meeting among the major polluters and the most affected nations to work out how to minimise future pollution and rescue the most affected ones. Apart from Bangladesh and other low-lying countries, the carbon emission will also affect the emitters themselves in future because global warming up will travel round the earth and not only over certain areas. So, they are also concerned if not equally with us. Mr. Shamsher M. Choudhury, BB, Former Foreign Secretary and newly elected vice Chairman of BNP while trying to defend his party's position on Copenhagen Summit, in his letter on 8 Jan'10, blamed the government for not sufficiently projecting the impact of climate change on Bangladesh and claimed that his party position was correct. I know Mr. Choudhury has limitations and naturally he has tried to convince the people citing other affects like Farraka, Tipaimukh and other bilateral issues including the border killings by the neighbouring border security men which were not raised by the government in the summit. We know the affects of these bilateral issues but Copenhagen Summit was not the right forum to raise those issues. Probably, the attendants would not have listened to those. Mr. Choudhury, being a former senior diploma, should have understood it. I therefore support both the DS editorial and State Minister's comments on BNP on Copenhagen. He spoke like his party Secretary General speaks to his followers for example, "If transit is given, India will bring in their soldiers in the containers and occupy our country" and earn clapping from his supporters. Mr. Choudhury himself admitted the overall insufficient outcome by citing the comments of President of USA and the Prime Minister of Britain . While the players themselves were unhappy with the outcome, what the Bangladesh delegation could have earned beyond that outcome is anybody's guess. It suggests that the BNP knew the outcome beforehand. If that was the case, whey then they did not forward their known strategies to earn favourable outcomes in the parliamentary committee meetings, if not in parliament which they are boycotting. Doing nothing and only blaming others is purely a "blame game" and not healthy politics.