CHT Treaty, National Integrity and Sovereignty


The Daily Star
27 December, 1997


Finally achieved what appeared to be unachievable: A Peace Treaty between representatives of the tribal people and the Bangladesh government has been signed, paving the way to solve one of the gargantuan problems facing the country. This is indeed another landmark achievement of the AL government.

Reactions from BNP and its allies are neither unanticipated nor unexpected. Their major objections are the following: The CHT Treaty (i) threatens National Integrity, (ii) undermines Sovereignty and (iii) sacrifices National Interests.

BNP's objections are clearly motivated by their narrow power politics, meaning that there is little point in arguing on them. However, I intend to examine these objections, not for refuting them, but for clearly understanding them. And I will do so in the light of their own political philosophy: BANGLADESHI JATIOTABAD.

Does CHT Treaty Threaten our National Integrity? To examine this question, we need to understand three concepts: Nationalism, Nation and State.

Nationalism, as an intellectual and cultural concept, developed in the 18th century Europe and grew into a conscious political force during the French Revolution. It is the political belief that some group of people represent a natural community which should live under one political system and be independent of others.

This political belief has fortified in the concept, Nation. As John Stuart Mill, a 19th century English philosopher, defines, "A proportion of mankind may be said to constitute a Nationality (Nation), if they are united among themselves by common sympathies, which do not exist between them and others - which make them to cooperate with each other more willingly than with other people, desire to be under the same government, and desire that it should be government by themselves, or a portion of them exclusively."

Many societal factors contribute to the development of a Nation, but following are the most important: culture, history, language, religion and ethnic character.

Two points should be noted. First, Nation represents a natural community, formed by common sympathies among its members which develop, over centuries perhaps, through sharing such societal factors as mentioned above. Second, the natural community desires to be governed by its own members.

Today's world political order is organized around a network of independent States, whose founding ideas are Nation and Nationalism. The State has four integral physical attributes: (i) identified people, (ii) defined territory (iii) a government and (iv) sovereignty.

There are however fundamental differences between the Nation and the State. First, the Nation is a desired sovereign political society while the State is an actual sovereign body politic representing a single, often unique, political system. Second, a Nation is a naturally developed community; it cannot be created by force. But the State is a political society created by humans, by consent or by force. Finally, a State can contain more than one Nations, but not vice versa. Many Nations, to achieve their socio-economic goals, can join to form a State but many States cannot be forced or persuaded to form a Nation. A State representing many Nations definitely disintegrates if it fails to serve equitably the interests of all its constituent nations.

I shall now look into Bangladeshi Jatiotabad. My source is: Bangladeshi Jatiotabad Smarak Grantha, edited by Ahmed Musa. Mr. Musa describes the perspective and development of Bangladeshi Jatiotabad in the following way:

Muslims in British India created Pakistan - based on Two-Nation Theory - to prevent Hindu domination while Bengalis in Pakistan created Bangladesh - based on Two-Economy Theory - to prevent Punjabi domination. But, people's Jatiotabadi consciousness did not change, what changed was their Jatiotabadi identity; Jatiotabad only changed its target. Jinnah named the desire of Muslims as Pakistani Jatiotabad or more properly Muslim Jatiotabad and Sheikh Mujib named the desire of the people of East Pakistan as Bengali Jatiotabad. When Bangladesh was created, Jatiotabad changed its target again. Ziaur Rahman named the desire of Bangladeshi people to resist the domination of foreign and neighbouring States as Bangladeshi Jatiotabad.

The above is the history and background of development of BNP's political philosophy, Bangladeshi Jatiotabad. This political slogan was concocted under the leadership of General Ziaur Rahman when he seized power after President Sheikh Mujib was killed in 1975. Ziaur Rahman specifies seven integral elements of Bangladeshi Jatiotabad: (i) race or people (ii) war of independence (iii) Bengali language (iv) religion (v) territory (vi) culture and (vii) economy.

It should be noted that Ziaur Rahman's conception of Nationalism is substantially different from its theoretical concept. He has either confused the concepts, State and Nation or combined them.

The ideas of Nation and Nationalism have been conceived and developed into conscious political movements to protect two fundamental demands of humanity: human freedom and human rights. These demands are best achieved by allowing natural communities to rule themselves. Thus, the cardinal intellectual objective of the concepts, Nation and Nationalism, is to identify and isolate natural communities, which are candidates for independent States. BNP's political philosophy has the same objective.

Who are the People Included in the Natural Community which BNP Calls Race? They are first and foremost Muslims (religion), speaking Bengali (language), living in the area called Bangladesh (territory). All these combine to define their culture - Bengali Muslim. They fought the war of liberation against Pakistan to create their homeland.

Do the Tribal People of CHT Belong to BNP's Race? Their language, religion and culture are fundamentally different from BNP's Race. They did not participate in Pakistan movement. On the contrary, they protested when their territory was annexed to Pakistan. Their participation in the war of liberation was less than enthusiastic.

By the criterion set by BNP, the people of CHT then do not belong to its conception of Nation and do not subscribe its idea of Nationalism. The people of CHT have the right of self-rule as we have ours. The nature of self-rule shall be determined through political negotiations between representatives of the two sides, exactly done and concluded recently. The integrity of the State of Bangladesh means holding its entire territory together. This is only possible and desirable if the people of CHT voluntarily and willingly cooperate. We must understand this reality clearly and absolutely if we are truly interested to preserve the integrity of the State of Bangladesh. We ourselves present the best and living example. If Pakistani rulers did not deprive us from our just rights, we would perhaps have remained as part of Pakistan, at least for some more time.

The Treaty that meets the demand of self-rule of the people of CHT is unquestionably and undeniably a bold step towards consolidating the integrity of the State of Bangladesh.

Does the CHT Treaty Undermine our Sovereignty ? Sovereignty, which means the absolute power and authority to formulate and execute laws, is the most important attribute of the State; most important because it is the key to maintain political order without which the society cannot exist. It has two aspects; external and internal. The State exercises its absolute power and authority upon members of the natural communities who have created it - the internal sovereignty. External sovereignty means the quality of independence from the control or interference of any other State in the conduct of international relations.

What is the Source of Sovereignty? We must know to understand BNP's allegations. The people forming the State are the original and ultimate source of sovereignty. They appoint the government to exercise it on their behalf and the government can do so, so long the people trust it. In other words, if people refuse to obey the government, it has no moral authority over them, meaning it loses its internal sovereign authority. The measure of external sovereignty is the internal sovereignty. The external sovereign authority of the government is substantially weakened if it lacks internal sovereignty.

The CHT Treaty has consolidated our national integrity by convincing the people of CHT to give up their armed struggle. Both our internal sovereignty and external sovereignty are thus strengthened. We are now more capable to destroy the evil designs of India, if she has one, as BNP is continually telling us, to undermine our sovereignty. BNP's accusations and apprehensions are conceptually unfounded and they have never substantiated with evidence that they actually exist.

Has CHT Treaty Sacrificed Our National Interests? This Treaty will impact upon three of our very important national interests - two political and one socio-economic. The two political interests are: integrity and sovereignty of the country, expected to be strengthened instead of being undermined. As to our socioeconomic interests, it requires just commonsense to understand that the political environment created by the CHT Treaty constitutes a boost in our efforts to improve our socio-economic conditions. Political stability resulting from the CHT Treaty is the fundamental requirement for socio-economic development. Then more economic resources will become available, internally and externally, as the military expenditures shrink and foreign governments become more generous. I overwhelmingly agree with French Ambassador Ms. Renee Veyret, who, commenting on the Treaty, recently said, "What is good for CHT is also good for Bangladesh".




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