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Speech by H.E. Sheikh Hashina, Prime Minister The People’s Republic of Bangladesh, on being awarded an honorary degree by Waseda University, Tokyo, 4 July 1997

I am deeply touched by the kind words addressed by you Mr.President to me and my country in conferring upon me the Honorary Doctorate of Laws from this great seat of learning in Japan. I accept this honor with humility. I consider this Degree bestowed upon me as an honor to my country and our people.

This honor has a special meaning for me and Bangladesh for Japan and its people have a place deep in our hearts. This sentiment was echoed in 1973 by the Father of Our Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Raman during his official visit to Japan as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh. Speaking to the Press,he had said:

Quote : They were among those who with sympathy and dedication projected before the people of Japan and of the world the sufferings and aspirations of our people during our liberation struggle. We have also not forgotten how you raised your voice to save the lives of our people, including my own. I would ,therefore, at the outset like to express my personal gratitude and that of my Government and my people for all that you did for us in those difficult days, unquote

Although Bangabandhu was referring to the members of the press, this sentiment applies to all the people of Japan.

Allow me this stage to pay tribute to the great statesmen of the Meiji era of your history whose vision to produce educated men and women to serve as the backbone of a new Japan led to the establishment of the Waseda University I remember this visionary Mr.Shigenobu Okuma with deep respect. His contribution to education in Japan is an imperishable treasure of your nation . It is therefore no wonder that in the days thereafter, Waseda University has produced so many eminent leaders who have guided the destiny of modern Japan. In this Hall Fame of Waseda University alumni stand such towering figures of modern Japan as His Excellency Mr. Noboru Takeshita, former Prime Minister, His Excellency Mr.Toshiki Kaifu, also a former Prime Minister, and His Excellency Mr. Hiroshi Mitzsuzuka, the current Finance Minister of Japan and by a lucky coincidence for Bangladesh, the President of Japan-Bangladesh Parliamentary League, to name a few.

In reading the history of the Waseda University ,I have also been attracted by its commitment to upholding the independence of learning. I have been equally moved by its dedication to creating good citizens for Japan. Above all, Waseda University’s commitment to upholding and promoting freedom has made in me the deepest impact. Your aims and objectives are indeed noble and praiseworthy and your achievements in creating good citizens is there for everyone to see. You can thus take pride for your contributions to the well-being of your great country.

Let me pick up from your objectives your commitment to freedom for this touches a chord in the psyche of our nation. Freedom for us is not an abstract term. Among the nations in modern history, few have made as much sacrifice for freedom as we have. Let me therefore touch base with history; not for the sake of those in the audience who were old enough during our Liberation in 1971 to know what I am trying to say, but for those among you who were too young or perhaps not even born when we made history through these sacrifices.

The history of Bangladesh is a history of a nation that neither death nor torture could compel to forsake their burning desire to achieve freedom. This sprit was ingrained in them as much as from their sad experience in living under systems where they had no rights as by a leader, whose vision and courage, showed them the way to fight and earn their freedom to live with dignity and honor. In heeding to the call of the Father of the Nation to stand up for their political and economic rights, the Bengali nation in 1971 embarked in a war of liberation against an enemy that was far superior in traditional weapons of warfare. This seemingly superior strength of the enemy was however no match for the inspiration that Bangabandhu kindled in his people. In the nine months of 1971, nine dark months, his call to liberate the motherland encouraged them to rise against the enemy, sacrifice 3 million valiant lives, but in the end, achieve that freedom and a permanent place in the comity of nations as a sovereign and independent nation.

Glorious as the history of our Liberation war is, unfortunately in its aftermath we became the victims of conspiracy of traitors within the country and outside. On August 15,1975, the Father of the Nation was brutally killed by these traitors. Thereafter, great ignominy was placed was placed on this once proud nation as the governments that followed once after the other, protected these killers and even used the Constitution to give them this protection. We were pushed into the abyss of despair and despondency for a second time in less than four years.

But a nation that values freedom so much was not one to be daunted. For 21 years, we have struggled for freedom a second time in our history. In going through this struggle, we were convinced that we must begin by giving back to the people their right to elect the Government of their choice through elections. Thus we fought for institutionalizing in our Constitution the concept of holding elections under a Neutral Caretaker Government so that the people could elect, without fear or favor, the government of their choice. We were successful and this concept of elections under a Neutral Caretaker Government is now a part of our Constitution. The people now know that there can be no usurper of power to take their freedom away. Thus their yearning to take to the streets to change undemocratic governments by agitation, no longer exists. Political peace and stability has returned in our polity. It is through assuring this stability and giving the people constitutional guarantee that my party the Awami League has returned to power. Indeed, the concept of a Caretaker Government as a guarantee for keeping usurpers from capturing political power is now being seen as a positive contribution to institutionalizing democracy in the Third World where failure to let people to choose their government under a free and fair electoral system vitiates the very basis of democracy.

The achievement of the concept of the neutral caretaker Government was for us not the end but the means to that end that is institutionalizing the basis of the democracy . This is crucial for us because we fought for our independence, for political democracy. We have in the last one year in office, taken the steps necessary to make the Parliament sovereign, made changes in the system of committees in parliament to let the people’s representatives ensure the accountability of the civil administration ; separated the executive from legislature; and introduced a style of consensus politics on national issues. Indeed for consensus politics intended to infuse bi-partisanship in our political culture, we have helped to elect a neutral and eminent person as the President of Bangladesh where we could easily have given this post to someone in our Party since Parliament elects the President where we have a very comfortable majority.

We have placed on political reforms great attention because we are convinced that our future depends on this. We are nevertheless aware that our people cannot be kept deprived of their economic rights nor can they wait for a better quality of life much longer. We knew that we must help them break from the vicious poverty cycle into which they had fallen. We have thus focused on poverty alleviation with a great sense of urgency. To help in this, we have given to education; agriculture, that employs the majority of our people, and rapid industrialization, top-priority in the activities of the Government.

Our philosophy of economic growth is development with equality. We know that the Government cannot alone bring these changes. We have thus given to the non-government organizations greater role in helping to achieve these changes, particularly in the rural areas where the majority of our people live. Institutions such as the Grameen Bank are working in changing the face of rural Bangladesh with active support and encouragement of the Government. We have taken measures to empower the women in recognition of which I was invited by the IPU Conference on Women in New Delhi as a key-note speaker. It further recognition of our role in poverty alleviation, I was invited to the first ever Micro Summit held in Washington in February 1997 as a Co-Chairperson with such luminaries such a the Queen of Spain and US First Lady Hillary Clinton. This summit, among many decisions for changing the lives of the poorer section of humanity, has decided to provide 100 million families by the year 2005 with credit and an opportunity for self-employment. Another emphasis of my government has been to let the private sector to let it come up and play a greater role in economic development. We have thus taken many steps towards privatization of the economy.

Our philosophy of economic growth has been reflected in the budget we have passed last week in Parliament. We have placed on education the maximum emphasis, with significant allocation for agriculture, and industrialization.

We are conscious of the importance of the external environment for sustained growth. We are also aware that peace in our neighborhood is not only necessary ; that it holds the key to our future. We have thus gone ahead and resolved with India our long-standing dispute on the sharing of the Ganges Water by concluding the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty. We are going ahead with other problems that were left un-resolved for us for our leaders in the past had not shown the political will to resolve them. I am happy to say that that the political will that we have shown to achieve the Treaty, has now create an environment where other nations of South Asia, riddled with legacies of inherited conflicts, now feel encouraged to try and resolve their problems with the political will to do so. The recent initiatives between Pakistan and India may be cited as an example. Indeed in the SAARC Summit in the Maldives in May this year, the member countries showed a sense of political will to settle their problems that has never been witnessed in the past. In the Maldives, we won sanction for sub-regional cooperation under SAARC that has opened up a whole vista of opportunities for South Asia. Let me give you an example of this new opportunity that is now on our door steps. If Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Bhutan can cooperate in water management alone in this sub-region, then together they could generate enough electricity that would make this sub-region the second richest hydro-electricity generation regions in the entire world. Energy is the key to industrialization and indeed to economic development. Thus, we now have the visions of turning our part of the world from one of the poorest as it is at present, to one of the richest, in not the far away future. Encouraged by this spirit and the prospects that regional and sub-regional co-operation can bring, we have also entered into another such arrangement with Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand. This is BISTEC, an acronym for Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand Economic Co-operation that has vast economic potentials for our peoples.

Thus all around us, there is hope now of a better future in Bangladesh and South Asia. For the first time, we are speaking of the changes and working for it through the creation of the institutional framework necessary to make changes sustainable. We are confident that this time ,we will achieve the changes and let the people of Bangladesh enjoy a better life that their Father of the Nation had promised them but did not live to ensure for them as he fell cruelly to the assassin’s bullet.

Our policies are simple and objectives , modest. We don’t want to make pour people rich overnight. We just want to ensure them a life where their basic requirements of primary health, employment and housing can be taken for granted. The international climate too is congenial for us to achieve these changes. Most importantly, we have the people on board who have elected us of their free will and to whom we have given back their sovereign right of franchise. We have made our actions and policies transparent so that the people know exactly what we are doing or intending to do. There is integration all around for a single purpose; a better future for all so that our next generation may not be called again to make the sacrifices that our generation and the generation of the Father of the Nation have made.

Our vision for a better future requires support of countries that have been friendly to us during our independence and in the years thereafter as we struggled to achieve development. Japan is in this sense our most important friend and development partner. We are grateful to Japan and its people for their love and understanding for our country and our people. Japan and Bangladesh are tied by deep roots of history. A major religion of your country, Buddhism, came from our part of the world. Today, we share many values in common such as:

• �EA vision for peaceful, nuclear free and equitable world order. We are a signatory to the NPT
• �EA belief that money spent on armament should be diverted to social sector such as primary health; education; and basis needs of the people.
• �EA shared perception of a peaceful order through participation in UN Peace Keeping Missions.

There are many more examples. But I need to end. I hope I have succeeded in giving you an idea of the direction in which we are going and the philosophy guiding us in our journey to the future. Before I conclude, let me once again thank you humbly for this rare honor that you have showered upon me; an honor that I will now share with the likes of one of the greatest statesmen of modern world South Africa’s Nelson Mandela upon Waseda University has bestowed a Honorary Doctorate in the past

Thank you
Joi Bangla
Joi Bangabandhu
Long Live Bangladesh-Japan Friendship