Mishandling the Rab issue may hurt further Govt shouldn’t seek a backdoor exit out of the crisis

Staff Correspondent :    |    ০৭:৪৫ পিএম, ২০২২-০৪-২৮

The US sanctions on the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) have brought out a rather familiar scene to the fore: frictions among different ministries and stakeholders. We're used to seeing public offices trading metaphorical blows in attempts to ward off any blame for internal crises. But the US sanctions have internationalised Rab's image crisis, and thus needed to be handled with care, which did not happen. A report on how the home and foreign ministries were ripped off at a meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on foreign affairs for their failure to tackle the debacle was quite illuminating. At the meeting, the foreign ministry's top brass blamed the home office for their failure to help them respond to accusations of extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances, leading to the sanctions. The parliamentary watchdog, on the other hand, blasted the former for "being oblivious to the impending US sanctions on Rab."

In our view, the home ministry does share the blame for failing to undertake post-sanction reforms in how Rab operates, as does the foreign ministry for appearing clueless even to this day. But there can be no argument over who has the bigger pie of the blame. This is not even a discussion we're supposed to be having at the moment. Unfortunately, from the very start of this crisis, the government's policy has been reactive, rather than constructive, underpinned by a desire to come out of the crisis looking good. It has adopted a PR approach to it and lobbied, unsuccessfully, to lift the sanctions. The foreign minister's admission on Tuesday that he sought India's assistance in lifting the sanctions and even engaged representatives of the Indian diaspora in the US is extremely demeaning to our country, not to mention a diplomatic overreach inconsistent with our national interests. It makes us look weak and calls for unwarranted meddling. 

The US ambassador in Dhaka has already made it clear that without concrete actions and accountability on Bangladesh's part, the US will not lift its sanctions on Rab. Any illusion that the government may have had about whitewashing its elite force should be gone after that. The government should realise that, instead of seeking a backdoor exit out of the crisis or challenging the allegations on grounds of being unfounded, it should focus on reforming our errant law enforcement agencies, the demand for which is widespread, and acting on which will greatly improve the government's public standing as well. This will, no doubt, go a long way in removing doubts from the minds of the international community. In the end, the only outcome the public really cares about is how respectful our law enforcers are of our laws, and individual human rights and dignity.