#Title
BOOK REVIEW: NONFICTION
WHEN THE POSTMAN DOES NOT KNOCK TWICE
Lessons from the diplomatic roads not taken
IMTIAZ A. HUSSAIN
Neil Armstrong’s “giant leap for mankind” comes to mind while reading Hemayet Uddin’s Diplomacy in Obscurity: A Memoir (University Press Limited, 2021). His illustrious walk from a junior Foreign Ministry official to becoming this country’s Foreign Secretary and donning the Ambassador/High Commissioner’s hat reveals eight platforms in 20 chapters where Bangladesh’s contours could have been reconfigured. Did our own idiosyncrasies/fallibilities hijack our own “giant leap” as it flew by our window?
On one platform (India), chapters 3 and 4 narrate two misinterpreted moments—the 1975 Bangladesh-India Land Agreement, ratified only in 2015, and a bogus security ghost of the country as a security threat to India, given an Anup Chetia here or there; and two missed opportunities—the Myanmar-India gas-pipeline through Bangladesh, and Ratan Tata’s 3 billion USD foreign investment proposal. Their fruition would hasten our “developed country graduation”, given us more infrastructures to show, and made South Asia bustle more; while settling the 2017 Rohingya influxes (second platform) could tiptoe the 1979 and 1991 successes.
A third platform informs us Bangladesh was present at the creation of the MDG summit in 2000, while a fourth in chapters 6 and 7 reminds us how European sensitivities over the treatment of our ethnic minorities and floods from the 1970s will never go away. Yet the cream of his work, and arguable “heart” of his professional duties, was his Washington platform. We were taken seriously because we (a) sent troops to evict Saddam Hussein in 1990, and (b) dug out nuances to make any run-of-the-mill diplomat shine (diplomat aspirants, please take note): influence “host” country policy-makers, learn of the “lunch culture”, join Douglas Coe’s National Prayer Breakfast (an evangelical setting where even a military general, Hussein M. Ershad, became a hero), indulge in “Beltway politics”, and even pluck out Bangladesh postage stamps and first-day covers to create an “Unsinkable” mindset. Not written in any diplomat’s “guidebook”, they paid so handsomely that none other than House Representative Gary Ackerman wrote, in the December 14, 1995 Congressional Record , of Hemayet Uddin as “an outstanding diplomat . . . [representing] his country with dignity, pride and warmth.”
A short “hop” and “skip” in Thailand and Cambodia led to his proverbial “jump” in China and where the “mighty ‘K’ word” dominates, Kim’s North Korea. Just as our diplomats strive for free-trade deals with not just Thailand, but across Southeast Asia today (as is crucial to “graduating” to a “developed country”), luck, skill, and a disrupted vacation helped Former Ambassador Hemayet conclude deals with Dr Thaksin Shinawata, the celebrity millionaire-turned-prime minister, putting us right behind the steering wheel. His Beijing posting similarly helped us learn our Chinese name, Munjala , and how to host global-level summits. He almost brought the quadrennial summit of the world’s second largest international organisation, the Non-aligned Movement, to Dhaka, but fell too short of necessary infrastructures. One residue, the Bangabandhu International Convention Center, stands proudly.
﻿Low-key he might have been, but the Former Ambassador’s front-seat view at the crossroads of several post-Cold War global affairs shows how close the steering-wheel can be, yet remain so far. By all reckonings, our “obscure” diplomat was more distinguished by his deeds than his acclamations. The true testimony may be how much more rewarding his volume is to those who follow in his footsteps. They have been alerted to doing their homework and supplementing routine wisdom with wit. If the country is to “graduate” from a second-fiddle into a sought-after player, how the Foreign Ministry opens desks and think-tanks to cultivate our youth so no future opportunity is missed can assure us of a vibrant future. Since no postman will knock twice if the mail falls on deaf ears, this book is a must read.
Professor Imtiaz A. Hussain is Advisor, Global Studies & Governance Department and Executive Director, Center for Pedagogy, Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB).