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The government is launching 'Immigrant Diplomacy' to counter the negative publicity of immigrants
Riyadul KarimDhaka
Published: 13 September 2022, 10:09
National Parliament Buildingfile image
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is going to create a new branch called 'Immigrant Diplomacy' to deal with the 'negative propaganda' of expatriate and immigrant Bangladeshis living in different countries against the government and to highlight the positive aspects of the country to the world. This division is being created in the Public Diplomacy Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. An initiative has been taken to post two assistant secretary level officials along with a director here.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has started the work of sending necessary proposals to the Ministry of Public Administration, Finance Department and other stakeholders for the creation of 'Immigrant Diplomacy' department.
These things have been said in a report of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The report was given in the meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs held at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhawan today.
According to related sources, the parliamentary committee recommended the formation of a separate cell in the ministry in addition to playing a strong role of the missions to counter the negative propaganda against Bangladesh by various diasporas. Apart from this, the parliamentary committee also recommended that the positive aspects of Bangladesh should be widely presented to the people of the world through this cell. In today's meeting, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the progress in this regard.
After the meeting of the committee, it was informed in a press release of the parliament secretariat that the committee recommends to publish constructive and positive articles and paragraphs in order to keep the image of Bangladesh intact in the country and outside the world.
It is difficult to take action due to legal obligations
According to the report of the ministry given to the committee, besides making positive contributions, many of the expatriate and immigrant Bangladeshis engage in negative propaganda against the Bangladesh government. The image of Bangladesh is being destroyed as a result of their frequent presence and dissemination of anti-national offensive comments and statements in various media including social media. Due to various legal obligations of the countries where the migrants are living and doing this work, it is difficult to take action against them in many cases. The report also highlights the various steps taken by the ministry to deal with the matter.It said that a list of those who are staying outside the country conducting anti-government activities, giving provocative speeches and listed terrorists has already been sent to the respective Bangladesh missions. Bangladesh embassies will appeal to the governments of those countries to bring them under the law of the respective countries and face justice.
Bangladesh missions have been instructed to do this. Instructions have been given to the concerned Heads of Mission to continue this activity. Bangladeshi Ambassadors, High Commissioners appointed in the respective countries have been directed to identify the laws and regulations applicable to those countries for conducting anti-government activities, making provocative statements and punishing listed terrorists abroad.
The report also says that the ambassadors have been instructed to regularly monitor the activities of these anti-state and anti-government individuals and their posts on social media and identify them and report them to the authorities of the respective countries.
Ministry of External Affairs is looking for good columnists
Related sources said that the matter was discussed in the parliamentary committee meeting held last August. According to the minutes of the meeting, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momin said in the meeting that since the Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not have skilled manpower to write articles with various information, arrangements have been made to write positive articles about Bangladesh by outsourcing columnists with remuneration. But the number of good columnists who write good articles is also very few. In the next one and a half years, the opposition forces against the current government may be vocal in their criticism. So if there is any good columnist, he requested to inform the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.In that meeting, committee member Nahim Razzak said that recently, various diasporas outside the country have been carrying out negative propaganda against Bangladesh. Missions should play a strong role in countering this.
Former ambassador M Humayun Kabir told Prothom Alo, if the reality is correct, then no matter how much negative publicity is done, it will not work. Again, if the reality is not correct, it cannot be made credible by propaganda.
Government should not go for such work. Rather, if the government's actions and actual situation are presented objectively, it will gain credibility.