By Mizan Rahman/Dhaka
The US ambassador to Bangladesh, Dan W Mozena, yesterday described opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s (BNP) demand for fresh polls and political dialogue as ‘internal issue’ indicating a sharp shift from what he used to say on Bangladesh’s political issues before and after January 5 election.
“I think that’s (fresh election) an internal issue which the political parties of Bangladesh and the people of Bangladesh will need to resolve … they’ll resolve that at some point,” he told the diplomatic correspondents yesterday.
The US diplomat came up with the remarks when a reporter drew his attention to the BNP’s demand for fresh election and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s latest stance on dialogue with BNP as she ruled out the possibility of any dialogue and fresh election.
The United States, soon after the January 5 election in Bangladesh, described the polls as ‘deeply flawed’ and called for fresh polls.
Mozena, however, said Bangladesh’s foreign friends will be there to help Bangladesh once the political parties resolve the issue. “When they do it, friends of Bangladesh will stand by it to help in whatever way it can be.”
The US diplomat, who seemed extremely happy to have completed visit to the 64 districts, said that during his conversation with people across the country, he focused on Bangladesh’s development, economic growth and how people can contribute to the growth.
“Our conversations were focused on development, economic growth and contribution towards building Bangladesh Asian tiger. We talked about healthcare situation,” Mozena said, adding that Bangladeshis are very political people.
Responding to question on three components - democracy, development and denial to space for terrorism, the US envoy said America promotes a Bangladesh that is peaceful, secured, prosperous, healthy and democratic.
“We do that because it’s good, especially good for the people of Bangladesh. We do that because it’s good for South Asia,” he said expressing his satisfaction over the progress in Bangladesh-US partnership, terming it broader, deeper and stronger than ever.
The US envoy, who sees enormous potential in Bangladesh, said corruption, red-tape, infrastructure, energy supply and political instability are the major challenges ahead of Bangladesh which need to be resolved to help Bangladesh grow further.
“All these challenges have solutions. There’re so many options for solving problems,” he said.
On eradicating corruption and ensuring good governance, Mozena said these are issues of ‘commitment’ and ‘will’.
Asked about the issue of generalised system of preferences (GSP), he said it really is not an issue of GSP but transformation of Bangladesh’s apparel sector to bring it to international standard.
“Bangladesh, in my view, has made significant progress and additional progress is needed,” the diplomat said, adding that Bangladesh will decide whether it wants to become number one or not by setting the global standard.
