Editorial
Idea of SAARC police mooted
Why was our home minister absent at the meet?
The home ministers' meeting of SAARC, held recently in Islamabad, has agreed to set up a regional police force modeled on the INTERPOL, to tackle transnational crimes in the region. It is a good idea that has not emerged a day too soon.
That said, we cannot withhold our dismay, and indeed our frustration, at the fact that our homer minister did not attend the meeting, which was attended by all the other home ministers of SAARC. We wonder why? We feel that the government and indeed the minister herself, owes it to the people to explain the reason for her preferring to stay home.
Given that the meeting agenda included many topical issues, particularly many which related to the region's security, it was essential that Bangladesh's position on these matters were expressed by the minister herself, the highest functionary of the government dealing with the issues. That would have given the weightage that the matters deserve. Can we be faulted for thinking that the government did not consider the conference important enough to be attended by the minister not even the state minister could be spared for this very important regional meeting?
It may be said that there were parallel two other meetings addressing the same issues at the levels of home secretary and the chief of police, which were appropriately represented.
Several other issues, which were mooted at the meeting, merit recognition. The growing threat of maritime piracy has come into reckoning as well as narco and human trafficking. Some of them fall within the realms of non-traditional security that calls for the application of non-traditional approach to address the challenges. We also commend the meeting for resuscitating the moribund anti-terrorism protocols by putting the existing mechanisms into operation. The countries can also benefit from each other's experiences regarding the battle against extremism, and it is just as well that they have decided to do so.
The proposal of a SAARC police force is certainly an acknowledgement of a very important reality on the part of the SAARC members; which is that the trans-border problems, and those relating to terrorism and crimes associated with it, are not for any one country to deal all by itself. The imperatives of a cooperative arrangement and the willingness to devise such an arrangement are clearly manifest in the proposal of a regional police force. Such an approach will help SAARC play the role it was intended to by the founding fathers. We would hope that the member countries would work to speedily bring the idea to fruition.
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