President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s visit to Bangladesh :

Opens new door for SAARC

Swadesh ROY

The visit of President Mahinda Rajapaksa to Bangladesh has created a new impression in Bangladesh. The outstanding speech of the Sri Lankan President impressed the people of Bangladesh

The Sri Lankan President gave an outstanding speech at the state banquet of the Bangladeshi President. In his speech he expressed, that the friendship of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka is based on ancient history and civilization. He added that, ‘Sri Lanka and Bangladesh share a long-standing friendship based on history and ancient civilizations, with cultural links and commonalities. The origins of our ties go back many centuries.’

President Mahinda Rajapaksa with Bangladesh President Zillur Rahman. Picture by Sudath Silva

According to our great chronicle, the Mahavamsa, Prince Vijaya and his 700 followers, who are our forefathers, had come to Sri Lanka from ancient Bengal, which is now part of Bangladesh. History and culture bind us together. In his speech, President Mahinda Rajapaksa also added that, we want to cultivate people-to-people relations between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa is also a leader of SAARC. As a leader of SAARC he correctly identified what the main bondage of the people of South Asia is. Every intellectual of this region will admit that, the old civilization of this region is the main component of connectivity to the people of SAARC.

Origins of people

With his greatness President Rajapaksa admits that, their forefathers went there from Bengal which is now Bangladesh. So according to history, the peoples of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have flourished from the same civilization. If we go back to anthropology, we will know that the origins of the people of these two countries have a common starting place. They are in the same ethnic group. They have the same blood and same civilization.

We know that the modern state is a creation of politics. Through a state organization, politics is now ruling society but society and its civilization is more and more older than politics. That is why, if any political leader wants to establish good politics with his people and the peoples of his neighbouring countries, he must have to depend on his society’s civilization and the civilization of his neighbours. However, most of the political leaders do not do this. They fail to understand this. Only some politicians can understand this. The President of Sri Lanka is such a politician who has understood this truth. He believed in the civilization of society and its people. That is why; we could say that, at the banquet accorded by the Bangladeshi President, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has opened a new avenue for the people of SAARC. We know that, for the strengthening of relations of South Asian countries and its people; SAARC was founded; but it has not been functioning well from the beginning.

SAARC leaders

Most of the SAARC leaders had tried to have good relations through a political settlement of regional issues. Nobody thought that, we can have relations with one country and another through a political settlement. Permanent regional cooperation never depends on any political negotiation. It always depends on permanent relations through people to people contacts. The Leader of Sri Lanka has indicated this. He said, we have to create people-to-people relations and it is possible, because we are the people of a common civilization.

The leaders of this region found SAARC to create good relations between South Asian countries. Their vision was very good but it did not have any success over the last three decades.

Therefore, it is high time to think about this; why are we failing to have good relations with each other? Why are we failing to have all types of communications? Why is politics not sufficient to establish it? It is proven now that, only politics is not sufficient to build relationships. Therefore, SAARC leaders have to realize that we have to build people-to-people relations. If they want to build this relationship they have to think like President Rajapaksa.

On his Bangladesh visit, President Rajapaksa said the civilizations of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are the same. Now is the time that all SAARC leaders to realize that the civilizations of Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives are the same. If we could realize this and we could believe it deep down in our hearts like President Rajapaksa, that we could make the people-to-people connection in SAARC.

The people-to-people connection between Bangladesh-Sri Lanka also depends on this. For example; hundreds of thousands of people in Bangladesh know Sri Lanka through cricket and the manner in which Sri Lankans are known to play the game. I think the Sri Lankan High Commission in Bangladesh can give correct information on how many Bangladeshis supported the Sri Lankan cricket team at the last World Cup cricket final.

We know that, half of the total number of cricket lovers of Bangladesh supported the Sri Lankan team on April 2. It is really an example of people-to-people relations. It is possible only through cultural communication. It is called people-to-people communications. It is the power of culture.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has emphasized on this communication. During his three-day visit, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka signed five Memoranda of Understanding. These five areas are agriculture, fisheries, vocational education, science and culture. Besides the five MoUs the leaders of the two countries emphasized on better communication. It is more vital for the two countries with similar civilizations to build and strengthen the levels of communication if we are to improve trade, cultural relations between the two countries.

Therefore, the two countries' leaders must try to introduce low-priced air communication for their citizens.

The two countries can remove all types of travel taxes. Easy air communications will help not only to build cultural relations but also become more helpful for extended trade cooperation.

The visit of the Sri Lankan President has opened a new avenue for Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. On the other hand, the speech of President Rajapaksa has opened a new door for SAARC.