The picture from this event reminds me of the photo of Hillary at
Wellesley. She was wearing glasses and was in the same posture.
The emphasis here is mine. You might have read about these comments today.
Interview With Ms. Mooni Saha, and Mr. Ejaj Ahmed At a Townterview with Bangladeshi Youth
Interview
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
International School Dhaka
Dhaka, Bangladesh
May 6, 2012
MS. SAHA: Welcome and good morning. Please welcome our honorable guest here, Ms. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you.
MS. SAHA: Welcome. (Applause.) I’d like to start our show. We call it our Conversation with Bangladesh. Bangladesa sange Adda.
And I’d like to now introduce my friend here, Ejaj. He’s a young
leader. I call him leader of the leaders. (Laughter.) Well, shall we
start?
MR. AHMED: Sure. Madam Secretary, welcome
to Bangladesh. We are so pleased to have you with us in Dhaka. First
time you visited us 17 years ago in 1995 as the First Lady of the United
States, second time, here as the Secretary of State. How do you feel to
be in Bangladesh?
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, first
I want to thank you, Ejaj, and you, Mooni, and all of you for being
here at the International School for this conversation, because I am
very interested in Bangladesh and everything that you’re doing, and I’m
particularly interested in the young people of this country. So I’ve met
some of the young leaders who are here, and I see others out in the
audience, and I’m looking forward to hearing from you. I want this to be
a real conversation, and I thank you both for moderating it.
I
was here 17 years ago and had just the most wonderful experience with my
daughter meeting so many Bangladeshis at that time not only here in
Dhaka, but going out into the country, going to villages, visiting
Grameen Bank, Bowers, people working BRAC projects, really getting a
sense of the potential of the country. And coming back 17 years later,
it just confirms my confidence that there is a tremendously positive
path for this country. And it’s not easy; you know that better than I
do. But the changes, the economic growth, the continuation of democratic
sustainment – all of that is very encouraging. So I’d love to hear more
about what you think is needed for this country to realize its
potential. As I said last night in my press conference, I’m betting on
Bangladesh. I’m betting that you’ll be able to work through all the
problems that developing countries have everywhere.
MS. SAHA: Wow. Wow. (Applause.)
SECRETARY CLINTON:
And the United States wants to be your partner, because what we care
about is a successful – (applause) – prosperous, peaceful, democratic
country.
MS. SAHA: Well, Madam Secretary, you know the word adda? May I explain you? In Bengali, we call adda,
is that Bengali expression like (inaudible) or chitchat. So before I go
to the audience, I would like to ask you one question. We heard that
you had a meeting with Sir Abed and Dr. Yunus, of course.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Yes.
MS. SAHA: And how was that?
SECRETARY CLINTON:
Well, first of all, I was honored to meet with both Sir Abed and Yunus.
I’ve known them for many years. I’ve actually known Yunus longer, for
more than 25 years. I think they are two national treasures of your
country. They are two men who have – (applause) – they have created
organizations with the Grameen Bank and BRAC that are viewed
internationally as the two best development organizations in the world.
(Applause.)
And I will say that I am committed to every way that I
can and my government can to supporting their efforts, because we think
they are so valuable. And I have followed the dispute over Grameen Bank
from Washington, and I can only hope that nothing is done that in any
way undermines the success of what Grameen Bank has accomplished on
behalf of many millions of poor women and their families.
And I
know some of you – I met a young woman who is the daughter of a Grameen
borrower, who’s now at university. That is how change happens. You help
somebody get a better income that they then invest in their children and
their family. Then the next generation goes further. That’s the story
of America. I want it to be the story of Bangladesh. And the Grameen
Bank has played an instrumental role.
So I highly respect Muhammad
Yunus, and I highly respect the work that he has done, and I am hoping
to see it continue without being in any way undermined or affected by
any government action. That would be unfortunate, because I come from –
(applause) – I come from this perspective. If you look at societies that
are successful, there are three stools – there are three legs to a
stool, if you think about it. You have to have a responsible,
accountable government that delivers services to its people; you need a
private business sector that produces jobs and economic growth that is
broadly spread, which is beginning to happen here in this country; and
you need civil society, because neither government nor business can or
should do everything for people. What you are doing as a youth leader
and all of you who are involved is building that third leg of the stool
here in Bangladesh. That’s where so much of what makes life important
and – (applause) – meaningful happens.
So I had an excellent
meeting with both of those gentlemen this morning and just have the
highest regard. And every Bangladeshi should be so proud of what they’ve
accomplished for your country.
MS. SAHA: Madam
Secretary, we know what happened with Dr. Yunus. All of us, we know, and
we feel very sorry for that. But I’d like to know what does – U.S.
Administration’s stand on the matter of Grameen Bank.
SECRETARY CLINTON:
We do not want to see any action taken that would in any way undermine
or interfere with the operations of Grameen Bank or its unique
organizational structure where the poor women themselves are the owners.
That has never happened anywhere in the world. It is now being
duplicated. Other countries are looking to see what worked here in
Bangladesh. So other countries are saying, “What can we do to try to
create something like that?” So I don’t want anything that would in any
way undermine what has been this tremendous model that has stood the
test of time over the last decades as a very important tool for lifting
people out of poverty.
MS. SAHA: Well, you have
just visited China, and you will visit India in between – now, you are
here in Bangladesh. So how do you consider us, like, Bangladesh, as an
emerging soft power?
SECRETARY CLINTON: I think you have extraordinary soft power.
MS. SAHA: Thank you.
SECRETARY CLINTON:
And let me just – (applause) – explain why. First of all, you are
strategically located between east and west of Asia. You have the
opportunity to be a crossroads, as you historically have been; the Grand
Trunk Road, the old Silk Road, all came to Bangladesh. And now you have
an opportunity to serve the same role in the 21st century.
I
think the success that you’ve seen in lifting people out of poverty over
the last years, dropping the poverty rate, I was told, from 40 percent
to about 31 percent – it has to keep being driven down, but that’s a
very good sign. The fact that you’ve maintained democracy through a
really difficult set of challenges is important; the fact that civil
society is developing, as evidenced by all of you. The education system
is being more responsive; you’re getting, I think, close to 100 percent
primary school enrollment. I think that those are all very strong
signals to yourselves as well as the rest of the world.
You’re the
largest contributor to United Nations peacekeeping operations. You have
seen an increase in agricultural productivity. You’re now
self-sufficient in rice. The United States is working with you on that.
You’ve dropped child and maternal mortality so that it appears that you
will meet the Millennium Development Goal for maternal and child
mortality. I mean, you go through the list of what you have accomplished
in the last 17 years since I was last here, and it’s been a remarkable
commitment of the Bangladeshi people, and I think the people deserve
most of the credit. In a democracy, the people have to be given the
credit because the government, remember, as Abraham Lincoln said, is of,
by, and for the people. And so the people have demonstrated great
resilience and determination.
But you’ve got some challenges, and
you know you have some challenges. I mean, you still have too many
unemployed and underemployed young people who are not seeing a good
future for themselves. You are starting to see some worrisome labor
problems in the garment industry, which have to be solved, because you
don’t want to get a reputation as a place where labor leaders and
activists are murdered or where people are taken advantage of or abused
in poor working conditions, because in today’s world, that will cause
big manufacturers of clothing to be afraid to stay or come to
Bangladesh. So the government and the garment factory businesses and the
labor organizations have to work together so that you stay a very
important destination to bring and create more jobs and have more
exports. We talked with your government about how we can facilitate all
of that.
There needs to be total rule of law, no impunity. The
recent killing of the labor activist, Mr. Islam, has to be investigated,
and the perpetrators, if they can be found, need to be brought to
justice, because you have to constantly be demonstrating no one is above
the law no matter how powerful or positioned in society.
So you
have continuing challenges, but I think the glass is more than half
full. It’s just a question of how you tackle some of these issues that
are really found in every developing country. They’re not in any way
unique to your country. But the world is beginning to expect more from
you, because you have shown you can produce. You can get things done,
you can make progress, and I think that’s a good problem to have.
MR. AHMED: Right.
SECRETARY CLINTON:
And of course, we really believe that it is rooted in this new energy
that we’re seeing coming out of your country to really make a difference
and to show the world that your soft power is to be reckoned with.
MR. AHMED: Wow. Sure. (Applause.)
MS. SAHA: Thank you, thank you, thank you.
MR. AHMED:
Talking about energy, I also want to give you a sense of who is in the
audience. We have civil society leaders. We also have students from
different universities, educational systems, and behind me you will see
the eight-member youth advisory council of the ambassador, and this is a
think tank the ambassador has put together to consult on issues
relating to youth. And we also have representatives from many youth
organizations such as the (inaudible) for Bangladesh, (inaudible)
Initiative and Community Action. I also want to give an opportunity to
young people to raise their voice and share their concerns with you. So
perhaps we could start with Momita, a student at the Asian University
for Women.
Momita.
QUESTION: Honorable
Secretary of State, this question actually came from Tushar Bhutto from
the Facebook page of U.S. Embassy. And the question is: What is the main
obstacle for building peace in this region?
SECRETARY CLINTON:
Well, I think that there have been longstanding historical conflicts in
this region. I mean, your country was born out of a conflict, as you
know. There has been problems with and among your neighbors, both your
immediate near neighbors and your further neighbors. And we know that
some of those feelings and grievances still are present.
But what
I’ve been encouraged by is the outreach I see going on in this region
between countries, because if you look at the region as a whole, if you
take from Bangladesh through India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, up into
Central Asia, this region has been held back in development because of
the closed borders, because of the historical enmities that have
dominated the minds of people in the various nations. And the result is
that you don’t trade with each other, you don’t exchange with each other
to the extent that most other regions of the world do, even with former
enemies.
You think about Europe, where a – two terrible world
wars were fought in the last century, and now they’re part of the
European Union. And they are rich and they are – they may have economic
problems, but given the high level of their standard of living, they
will be dealing with those over time. But what’s fundamentally important
is that they put aside centuries of warfare and terrible violence
between them in order to learn how to cooperate. You look at ASEAN, the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations, that is working toward
developing greater trade ties, or you can see it happening in Africa,
you see it happening in Latin America. And it’s very important that this
region of South Asia be part of that.
So yes, it is a problem.
There are lots of difficulties and mistrust that exists. There are all
kinds of political and ideological differences, but it’s important to
keep making progress, to find specific ways to work together. We’re
beginning to see increasing business between Pakistan and India, for
example. They’re starting to open up as to trade and business visas.
Now, that doesn’t mean they’ve solved their problems. That doesn’t mean
that they have decided they’re going to trust each other, but it means
that they’re being practical and realistic.
And I think the same
goes for Bangladesh and India or with Burma, Myanmar as they develop,
goes with Nepal and Bhutan, and even the entire regional outlook will be
enhanced by being very practical about how to do more in cooperation,
in trade, business, investment, exchanges. And maybe in 25, 50 years,
the region will be flourishing in a way that we couldn’t imagine today.
(Applause.)
MS. SAHA: Well, Madam Secretary, I have a question. Whenever we talk about our internal politics, we seek U.S. advice. Why is that?
SECRETARY CLINTON:
Well, I think that for people who believe in democracy, the United
States is now the longest-lasting democracy in the world, and we’re very
proud of that. But there’s also a recognition that we didn’t get there
overnight, that we didn’t just wake up in 1789 and say everything is
solved. We had a lot of problems. I mean, we had slavery still. We
didn’t empower women until the 20th century. We had to fight a civil war
to end slavery, and we had to keep working on our civil rights movement
to recognize the human dignity of every person. We had to work on
religious tolerance.
The United States is a very religious
country, but it’s also a very pluralistic country. You can go and see
churches, mosques, synagogues, Hindu temples, you name it, where people
are free to worship as they choose, and that all took time, and it took a
lot of work by succeeding generations of Americans. And it wasn’t just
our government and political leaders. It was the – what we call habits
of the mind of our American citizens that Alexis de Tocqueville talked
about when he came to the United States in the 1820s, and he said this
is a new kind of people, where they think for themselves and where they
work with each other and where they’re overcoming these divisions that
had kept them apart if they had lived back in the place where they came
from.
And many of you have studied in the United States. How many
have you have studied in the United States? We’ve got a couple of hands
here. We want more of you to study in the United States. (Applause.) We
want you to come on student exchanges. And we are doing a big push
through our Embassy to create more study opportunities for young people
from Bangladesh.
So I think people look to us. And it’s – we do
not claim to be a perfect nation. We are very conscious of our own
shortcomings, maybe not as publicly as sometimes we should be –
(laughter) – but we know that we have works to do, and we take that
seriously. But we also want to be helpful to people who strive for
freedom and democracy, who want to respect human rights and human
dignity, who want to be build a market economy, who want to have a
responsive government. So I think people ask for our help. We offer our
help. We don’t want to be interfering in the internal affairs of
countries, but we do have a lot of experience about what works, and what
sustains democracy and what undermines it. So we will continue to offer
whatever support we can to what you’re doing --
MS. SAHA: So it’s totally a friendly advice, not any pressure or --
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, we know that all we can do is offer --
MS. SAHA: Okay.
SECRETARY CLINTON:
-- advice. It’s ultimately up to any country whether to take it or not.
But I want to stress something I said in my press conference. The
United States is investing significant sums of money in Bangladesh. And
one of the reporters said, well, why are you doing that? We’re investing
in helping in helping you improve agricultural production through our
Feed the Future program. We’re investing in helping you build health
systems through our Global Health Initiative. We’re investing in
technology and other approaches to mitigating climate change. We’re
working with various groups within Bangladesh on economic projects and
other things.
So why do we do that? Well, we do believe that
spreading democracy is good for the world. We believe that. Now
sometimes the decisions democracies make are not ones that you or I
would make, but we think, over the long run, having people empowered,
given their rights, is the best form of government that has been
invented. It certainly beats all the others. And so we think a strong
democracy here that is able to realize the aspirations of your people is
not only good for you, but it’s good for the kind of world we would
like to see. And that’s our hope.
MS. SAHA: Thank you. Thank you. Can you take questions from the floor?
MR. AHMED: Sure. I will – I have two of my friends, Savir and Jonathan. If you raise your hands, then we will take your questions.
Savir.
PARTICIPANT: We have so many hands up in the air.
SECRETARY CLINTON: (Laughter.)
PARTICIPANT: And it’s hard to pick one – so many eager young faces. I would go with you, please. Please tell your name.
QUESTION:
Hello. Welcome to Bangladesh. My name is Lashin Khan, and I’m a recent
graduate of Mount Holyoke College, and I’m working at a development
organization called Khan Foundation. So we know that Bangladesh is one
of the lowest contributors to carbon emissions, but it’s the worst
affected by climate change. So I would like to know, Madam Secretary,
what initiatives or what commitment is the U.S. planning to make at the
upcoming Rio+20 conference that would help Bangladesh or other
developing nations to tackle this challenge, either financially or in
other means? Thank you. (Applause.)
SECRETARY CLINTON:
Well, thank you. And congratulations on your graduation. I also
graduated from a women’s college – (laughter) – in the United States,
called Wellesley. And so Mount Holyoke and Wellesley are what we call
seven sisters; we’re two of the sisters.
You’re right. Climate
change is one of the biggest threats to low-lying countries like yours,
to island nations across the oceans. So we are particularly focused on
seeing what we can do to help, and here are a couple of things. I also
announced yesterday a grant to work between our research institutions
and yours, $17 million over the next few years, to think of ways that we
can help mitigate the effects of climate change here in Bangladesh –
how we use technology, what kind of agricultural practices, what kinds
of other responses to rising waters, or the effects of increasing and
intense – intensity of storms, and all of the issues that we are
studying together.
We are looking to figure out ways to actually
put into practice the fund that has been agreed to with the large
economies, making contributions to try to help countries that are at
risk. But among the challenges we face is to make sure we all know what
works best, because as we try to reduce emissions, we still have to deal
with the dangers that you are facing at the same time. So we – that’s
why this grant to work with you is so important.
The other thing I
have just started – and Bangladesh was a charter original member – is
something called the Climate and Clean Air Coalition to prevent
short-lived polluters – pollution like methane or black carbon or soot.
And we are working with a small but growing group of countries –
Bangladesh, Sweden, Canada, Mexico, the United States, and others – to
take action on these pollutants while we still work on carbon dioxide,
because they’re about 30- to 40 percent of the problem with greenhouse
gas emissions.
And there are ways of attacking those right now.
For example, Bangladesh has joined something that we are sponsoring
called the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, because the way that
women in the developing world cook the food for their families kills 2
million women and children a year because of respiratory distress and
diseases, and pollutes the atmosphere. So we are working to try to
develop clean cookstoves that will then be made available through
organizations like Grameen Bank or BRAC so that we can help cut the
pollution and improve the health.
So there are numerous ways we
are working directly with your country, and then more generally, in
preparation for Rio+20, looking for how we’re going to build on the
commitments of Copenhagen, Cancun, and Durban, where for the first time,
developed and developing countries together said we all have to work to
limit climate change. So we’re working at it. It’s a very difficult,
long-term challenge. In the United States, we’re increasing gas mileage
for cars; we’re cleaning up coal-fired power plants; we’re working on a
number of areas, even though we don’t have an overarching, comprehensive
legal framework. That was not possible with our Congress, but President
Obama is continuing to make progress despite that. (Applause.)
MS. SAHA: We learned that you’ve become the champion for using social media. So how do you manage? (Laughter.) You have a Face.
SECRETARY CLINTON:
I have to say that I think social media is used much, much more by
young people than people my age. I’m well aware of that. But we in the
State Department have tried to empower our diplomats to use social
media, particularly to reach out to young people around the world. And
in fact, I was over at the Embassy thanking our employees who work at
our Embassy in Dhaka, and thank them because the Facebook page for the
Embassy in Dhaka is the third-most used in the world – (applause) – for
all of our State Department.
MS. SAHA: Now Madam
Secretary, you have bunch of questions through social media, through
Facebook and our ATN News email. So I’d like to – (inaudible), you
wanted to ask something on behalf of ATN News.
QUESTION:
Thank you (inaudible). This question came from a public poll conducted
by ATN News. The question is from Piel Alem from (inaudible). What you say about the common perception held by many young people that the U.S. is anti-Muslim?
SECRETARY CLINTON: Oh,
that hurts me. (Laughter.) That hurts me so much, honestly. I mean,
it’s a painful perception to hear about, and I deeply regret that anyone
believes that or propagates it. So let me say first that
certainly I think the way the United States demonstrates respect for
religions of all kinds, and particularly gives people from every
religious faith the opportunity to participate in our society, is an
important statement of our beliefs and our values.
And are there –
is there discrimination or prejudice in the United States, like in
every society and country in the world? Unfortunately, yes. I mean,
human nature has not changed dramatically. There is discrimination
against people of different religions, of different races, of different
ethnic groups all over the world. We see the results of that. But I
don’t think that it is at all fair to hold up the United States,
separate and apart from the challenges that we all are confronting to
make sure that we respect the rights of every human being. And I believe
that the United States, through our laws and through our constant
political dialogue, has gone probably farther than anywhere else in the
world in trying to guarantee legal protections for people. I would like
to see more countries do more to protect the rights of minorities
because I think that’s an important part of democracy and of recognizing
that no matter what our religion or whatever our background might be,
we share this planet with people from many different vantage points, and
we should be respectful.
So I think that part of it is the fact
that we have been engaged in self defense and in protecting ourselves
for more than 10 years. And we have gone after the terrorists who,
personally, I do not believe is in any way reflective of Islam. I think
that people who use religion, who pervert religion, for their own power
or their own personal needs or their own desires are doing a great
disservice to religion. And you find people who, over history, have used
every religion for that purpose. And it’s unfortunate that terrorists
today, at this point in history, are too often using a religion that is
one of the great reflections of man’s faith and one of the three
monotheistic religions that I came out of, as a Christian.
So we
know that there are those who, for their own reasons, try to politicize
what the United States has done in a way that I think is unfortunate and
unfair. And I certainly think President Obama has sent a very clear
message of respect and appreciation of all religions, and in particular
of Islam. So it is something we’re aware of and something we will
continue to speak out against, but I think, looking at how the United
States practices religions tolerance is something that speaks louder
than any person’s political statement would.
PARTICIPANT: (Inaudible.) Can I please jump in?
PARTICIPANT: Yeah.
PARTICIPANT: I’m sure that we have many eager audience – in fact, I have a question, but – (laughter) – I’ll leave it to audience.
So, let’s see. We have this young fellow here. So, sir, what’s your name?
QUESTION:
I’m (inaudible) from University of Dhaka. I have (inaudible) and now I
am involved in (inaudible) University of Dhaka, and I am also
(inaudible) at the American (inaudible) Association. In fact, I am
(inaudible) common people because the students have the opportunity to
go to USA, but you provided earlier a visa lottery that was open for
common people. And with this lottery program, our people – almost 5,000
people very year went to USA, they contributed to your country, and they
also contributed to the country because the (inaudible). But this
opportunity is now closed for Bangladesh, so it is (inaudible) for us.
So do you have any plan for resuming the DV program for our people or
any other (inaudible) exchange program so that the common people can go
to the U.S. and contribute to USA and (inaudible)?
PARTICIPANT: Sir, thank you for your question. (Applause.)
SECRETARY CLINTON: Let me ask one of our people here at the Embassy because – maybe let the ambassador directly respond to that.
AMBASSADOR MOZENA:
Thank you very much for that question. I know – (applause) – it’s one
that might be on the mind of many of you. The Diversity Visa Program was
formulated to assist those countries whose emigration flows to America
were not at a high enough level, given the population of that country.
And now so many Bangladeshis have, in fact, emigrated to America that
Bangladesh has surpassed that level and therefore no longer qualifies
for having the Diversity Visa Program. So that has now ended, as the
questioner rightly pointed out.
SECRETARY CLINTON: So why don’t you, Ambassador, talk about the efforts we are making to increase student exchanges and other study opportunities?
AMBASSADOR MOZENA:
Well, Madam Secretary, you may regret having asked me to do that.
(Laughter.) It’s very hard to give up this microphone with that question
in the air.
On the stage is my youth council. We are focused on
youth, on the leaders of today and the leaders or tomorrow. And we have a
wide range of programs that – to facilitate youth going to America, to
facilitate youth here in Bangladesh, working among themselves to help
build this wonderful nation.
The place to find out more about all
of that is to come to our American Center here in Dhaka, also the
American Corners in Jessore and Sylhet and Chittagong. And soon, in
mid-July, we’ll be opening the Edward M. Kennedy Center in the Dhanmondi
area among – close to Dhaka University and all of those private
universities, reaching out to you, to the young people, to create a
platform for you to build, work together to make the Golden Bangladesh.
I’d better stop there because I’m sure I’m getting dagger looks from my boss. (Laughter and applause.)
MR. AHMED: Madam Secretary, we’re going to take one more questions, definitely from this side. So.
PARTICIPANT: (Inaudible.)
MR. AHMED: Okay. Sure. Please.
QUESTION:
Thank you. Well, first of all, I’d like to say you have got a very
beautiful smile. (Laughter.) Anyway, I’m (inaudible). I’m a (inaudible).
I’m also working as a lecturer in (inaudible) University of Bangladesh,
and I’m also vice president of Bangladesh Youth Empowerment Society.
So
my question is: You’re, like, one of the most – even the most, maybe
the most – influential woman in this world and are a very influential
character or figure for all the women in this world. So from – in your
journey from a very – from a young leader to today’s position, the
Secretary of the United States of America, what were the advantages or
disadvantages you got being a woman, a (inaudible) even? Thank you.
(Applause.)
SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you. Well, I
think that it is exciting to see the opportunities for women opening up
in many places around the world, not just in my country, and here in
your country. As I see more and more women taking positions of
responsibility, not only in politics and government but in academia, in
the professions, in civil society and business, that’s been one of the
changes that I think has helped Bangladesh, to go back to Mooni’s
question about soft power. The empowerment of women, half the
population, makes a huge difference. And certainly, I have lived through
that kind of experience in my own country, where more and more women
were able to pursue their own dreams, to study in colleges and
universities that were opening doors to them, to pursue careers,
professions, and make a contribution.
In my own case, I have
always believed that you have to get a good education, which all of you
are doing, to equip you to make the best decisions for yourself. You
cannot expect to be able to advance in your own chosen path if you are
not prepared. So the first advantage I had is I had an excellent
education. I had a very good secondary education, higher education, went
to law school, got a law degree from Yale University. So I felt that I
had gotten the education that I needed to be able to start making
decisions.
I think second – the second advantage, which really has
stayed with me my entire life, is that I had a family and I had
parents, both a mother and a father, who encouraged me and who made no
difference in their encouragement and expectations for me, their
daughter, as they did for their sons. And I just lost my mother in
November, but she was somebody who understood that you have to make your
own way in life because ultimately that is how you will determine the
purpose and meaning of your life. And she was a wonderful mother and
gave me so much, and that, of course, made a huge difference.
I
think the other advantage is that I was determined, I was healthy, I had
a lot of stamina, I had a thick skin – (laughter) – and therefore, as I
went through various phases of my life and had people tell me from a
relatively young age that girls didn’t do that or girls shouldn’t do
that or you can’t have that scholarship because that’s only for men or
you can’t go to that program, I just kept going. And luckily, a lot of
those obstacles have been eliminated in my country. So the kinds of
legal obstacles, institutional obstacles, that used to exist no longer
do, for the great part. And so young women have more choices than even I
had when I was younger.
So I mostly see advantages, but that
doesn’t mean that there aren’t problems and that there aren’t challenges
and that there doesn’t remain a double standard, because – I will be –
just – I don’t want to mislead you; there is a double standard. There’s a
double standard in every society, including advanced societies that I
live in or that exist in Europe and elsewhere. But you can’t give in to
that. You can’t be embittered or angered by it. You just have to keep
working to overcome it.
And the final thing I would say is I was
advantaged because I always believed that women had every right to go as
far as their hard work and their talent would take them, but they would
have to prove themselves, that there was no given, there was no
presumption that couldn’t be rebutted. You had to demonstrate that you
were capable and ready and willing to do whatever the job was.
So I
think that it’s been mostly advantages, but it’s also because I just
kept moving forward and did not allow other people’s expectations or
other people’s opposition to determine the choices in my life. And I
would think that’s true for both women and men, because they’re trying
to chart new ground and some of these young youth leaders – and have on
my bracelet the Volunteer for Bangladesh sign here – (applause) – you’re
trying to create something for your country that is kind of new. Young
people historically have had to wait their turn. That’s the way it’s
been in the past, but that’s no longer the way it is. You now are able
to demonstrate your own ability, make your own mark, make your
contribution. But I am sure there will be people who tell you to wait –
wait your turn, don’t go too fast, don’t try to do too much. So you have
to be smart about it because you want to be successful, but you also
have to be strong enough not to get discouraged and deterred for doing
what you believe is right to do. So I think that’s the best I can say to
answer your question. (Applause.)
MS. SAHA:
Madam Secretary, you are an inspiration and leader to us, and you are a
loving mother, and you are a great soul, I must say. And my question is:
You use your (inaudible). What is the magic?
SECRETARY CLINTON:
Well, thank you for that, because some days it feels harder than other
days – (laughter) – to try to bring people together. I mean, I see a
very important need in the world to overcome our differences and bring
people together because we have so much to gain by working together. And
I spend a lot of my time trying to convince people to figure out ways
to work together. I mean, it was in the newspapers what I said last
night. In both my meetings with Sheik Hasina and Begum Zia, I said I
wish you could figure out ways to work together. You need to work
together to get an election mechanism in place so that your democracy
has predictability and can keep moving forward.
In every place I
go representing my country, I try to think of what is the best argument
to make, what is the best way to present the potential of greater
positive results for people if we can just figure out how to overcome
and bridge our differences, because in the modern world in which we’re
living, we’re all interdependent, we’re all interconnected. You just
can’t say that you’re going to only deal with your own kind of person or
you’re only going to meet your own kind of person or you’re only going
to listen to your own kind of person. That’s not the way the world is
going to work. And we’ll either figure out how to be more integrated or
we will disintegrate. And we will have more conflict and we will have
more problems that we won’t figure out ways to solve because we won’t
work together.
You have big problems with water, right? You’ve got
to figure out ways to work with India and Nepal and other neighbors,
and you have to make the case that it’s in their interest to work with
you. So you don’t make agreements with people you agree with before you
start. You have to figure out what are the areas of agreement that you
can possibly meet together on.
So I spend most of my time trying
to think of smart ways to help people overcome what is keeping them
apart, keeping their people poor, keeping conflict going, giving room
for violence, and all of the problems that we have when I think the
world has such an enormously positive potential for all of you. Because
finally, I would say, Mooni, that the work I do is about my daughter and
about the next generation and about the kind of future you deserve to
have. And I said last night it’s like when Ted Kennedy came here as a
young man and planted that banyan tree. That was an act of symbolic
faith in your future. And the tree has flourished. Well, that’s like a
metaphor. You have to be planting trees in soil that has been uprooted,
sometimes polluted by all of the problems, but you have to keep doing
it. And each of you who is a young leader has so much at stake in making
your country what it can be in your lifetime.
PARTICIPANT: Absolutely. Thank you.
MS. SAHA:
Madam Secretary, you are just pressing on the young leader. Of course,
we are in an excellent gathering of young leaders, but I mean in terms
of smart politics, so what about the experienced leader? So who they are
now – well, I’m not saying that they are creating problem. They are on
the (inaudible), so then --
SECRETARY CLINTON:
Well, I mostly deal with the experienced leaders, the leaders who’ve
been around for a long time, because those are the people I sit across
the table from – presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers, other
national leaders. But most of them are beginning to see that the world
around them is changing. You cannot escape social media. Social media
can get information to people that governments used to try to control
and prevent you from having. Politics is utterly changed because it’s
not just authorized sources of information that the government approves
about what is happening politically. It’s bloggers, it’s tweeters, it’s
people with an opinion. And everybody who has a cell phone can take a
picture of a corrupt official demanding a bribe, and post it, and say
this should be a corruption-free country, and we’re going to do
everything we can to stop it. And they can also call out leaders who are
abusing power and abusing human rights.
So even experienced
leaders now have to recognize that you can’t keep doing politics the
same old way. And there has to be an openness to new ideas, an
acceptance of accountability. I mean, one of the biggest problems in
developing countries – and look, it’s a problem here – one of the
reasons that you’ve not been eligible for a Millennium Challenge compact
is because of corruption and the failure to take more steps to stamp it
out. So every leader has to be asked, “Are you in this – are you in
politics and government for yourself, or are you in politics and
government for the people of your country to leave them a better a
future?” That’s the question. So now it can be asked not just by
journalists but by millions of people who are connected on social media.
And
I think that’s a promising development. A lot of governments are trying
to figure out how to prevent that. We do a lot of work in the State
Department to break down the firewalls that authoritarian governments
try to put in place to prevent their own people from getting
information. We’re seeing it now in Syria, a brutal, violent crackdown
on what started as peaceful protests by students and young people, which
is now morphing into a very widespread conflict that is very dangerous.
Inside Iran, constant efforts by the Iranian Government to keep
information out so that people don’t have a chance to think for
themselves. And so we do what we do, spend a lot of time trying to help
those people inside such countries have access to information that they
can then convey. And I think every leader is going to have to deal with
that.
MR. AHMED: Can we take a few more questions from the audience, please?
PARTICIPANT: There are a lot of young entrepreneurs in this audience, so we want to also give them an opportunity –
MR. AHMED: Yes. And we can also take questions in Bangla. (In Bangla.) Okay. Let’s go to our friend over there.
QUESTION:
Well, thank you. This is Razound ah-Mazoud, a student of international
relations from University of Dhaka. Well, we have seen that there was a
signing of a partnership agreement last night between United States of
America and Bangladesh. And now much hopeful can we be of seeing a
long-term strategic and stable U.S.-Bangla relations for a future
generation? And what role do you expect of the Bangladesh to play in the
region where we have Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, and India not far
from us, in fact and (inaudible) issues? Thank you.
SECRETARY CLINTON:
Well, the question is a very good one because part of the reason that I
wanted to develop and then sign the partnership agreement last night is
to do exactly as your question implied, to put our relationship on a
stable basis, regardless of who our president is, who our secretary of
state is, who your prime minister is, who your foreign minister is. It
should not be dependent upon the personal – the persons holding the
positions; it should be between our two nations, between our governments
and our people year after year after year so that we develop
institutional cooperation between us.
And that’s the purpose of
that partnership agreement, and I’m very pleased about it because we do a
lot of government-to-government talking, we do a lot of
government-to-NGO talking, we do a lot of government-to-business
talking. But I wanted to bring it all together under one umbrella so
that we could count on it lasting year after year after year, because
that’s the kind of partnership we want to have.
With regard to
your second question, I think that Bangladesh has the opportunity to
play a constructive role in trying to resolve regional problems, and I
would like to see you do that going into the future, reaching out to
your neighbors. Now, it’s not a short-term proposition. It can take
time, but make it clear that Bangladesh wants to have a pivotal role in
resolving cross-border problems. I mentioned one, water; climate change,
which is obviously another; opening up economic markets. I heard last
night that Bangladesh now has maybe either limited or no-tariff access
into the India market. I mean, that’s the --
MS. SAHA: Yes. No tariff. Yeah.
SECRETARY CLINTON: -- kind of cooperative agreements that I think are very good, not only for Bangladesh but for the region. So I would urge that.
MR. AHMED:
Can we also expect duty-free access to the U.S. market? Because that is
a major concern for the R&D sector. And you mentioned R&D, and
so many women are employed in this sector. So is this something that is
--
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, we’re certainly
looking to see what we can do. I heard quite a bit about that last
night, and we want to finish a trade and investment agreement. But I’ll
give you an example of the kind of agreements that we want to enter into
on trade and investment, because we’re very close, we hope, to
negotiating this – do have requirements for labor standards, because we
think if you’re going to become a middle-income country, you have to
have a strong base on which to build that kind of labor force, and so
you want to build in labor protections. And that, to us, is a key part,
and it’s also part of the International Labor Organization Declaration.
Because
after a certain point of development – and you’re seeing it in China.
China’s having more worker unrest, more labor problems. They’re finding
all kinds of outside attention as to how they put together electronics
or garments or whatever. So as you evolve economically, you have to
begin to have a legal framework to protect labor rights. So in our
agreements, we do have requirements, and sometimes those are difficult,
not only for the government but for the business sector. But we think
it’s the best way to set out how you’re going to have the kind of
economic progress that will not just exploit people but will build a
better future.
MR. AHMED: Absolutely. Thank you. Samir, do we -- (applause).
MS. SAHA: Lots of questions.
PARTICIPANT: It’s very hard to pick one, seriously.
MR. AHMED: (Inaudible.)
PARTICIPANT: Like her. I hear you. This side, this side. (Laughter.) Please.
QUESTION:
(Via interpreter.) My name is Alia Atta. I am the general secretary for
BGIF. We work with workers’ rights. And there we face all kinds of
obstructions with the police, goons, thugs, and false allegations in
court. And, in fact, one of our leaders, Aminul Islam, was very brutally
murdered. With such conditions, how can we work with the cause of
workers’ rights? Thanks.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank
you. (Applause.) And – well, first let me say that I spoke out strongly
to point that there needed to be an independent investigation into the
murder of Mr. Islam, because certainly his family and his colleagues
deserve answers about what happened to him. So on that particular case,
this is a real test for the government and for the society to make sure
you don’t say that anyone can have impunity. That’s a key issue for the
rule of law.
Secondly, on your larger question, the history of
labor rights and labor unions in any developing society is always
difficult. There are strong forces that oppose workers being organized.
We have this in my own country. You go back to the 19th and the early 20th
century when labor unions were just getting started, there were goons,
there were thugs, there were killings, there were riots, there were
terrible conditions. We passed laws at the beginning of the 20th
century against child labor, against too many hours for people to work,
but that took time. It took time to develop a sense of political will
to address those issues. So you are beginning that, and it’s a very
important struggle. I think in today’s world, everything is accelerated
because everything is known. There are no secret issues that can’t be
exposed. There are exposes about factories from China to Latin America.
So you are doing very important work. Do not be discouraged or
intimidated. But you deserve to have the support of your government and
your society.
The third point I would make is that we have worked
from Colombia to Cambodia with the owners of factories and other
enterprises to help them understand how they can continue to make a very
good profit while treating their workers right. And in fact, we have
spent a lot of time trying to help owners of businesses understand how
to do that. And it’s worked. And we have people who are quite experts in
that.
For many years, Colombia, the country in South America that
has one of the fastest-growing economies in the world right now, had
hundreds of labor organizers killed. And they were killed by economic
forces and political forces that didn’t want to share power, didn’t want
to share profits, who didn’t see that that was part of the obligation
of democracy and society. So we have seen this happen all over the
world, and we stand ready to work with factory owners and labor
organizers to have a better dialogue, to understand what can work, and
then to help you implement it.
So I thank you for raising it
because it’s a part of becoming a middle class country. Workers deserve
to have their labor respected and fairly paid for. Factory owners
deserve to have what they pay for, which is an honest day’s work for the
wages that they pay. So there is a way to accommodate those interests,
and we’ve seen it, and we can continue to work with you to try to
achieve it. (Applause.)
MS. SAHA: Madam
Secretary, I have a question regarding cooperation between our two
country, like America and Bangladesh, on power and energy sector in a
changing reality of Myanmar and after resolving our controversy with the
maritime boundary with Myanmar, so --
SECRETARY CLINTON:
Well, first, I want to recognize that the way that you handled your
maritime boundary with Burma and the way you’re handling it with India
is exactly the way it should be resolved. You went to the international
authorities, you submitted your information, you’ve had a favorable
ruling. But you did it by a peaceful rule of law approach, so I really
compliment you on doing that. And – (applause).
MS. SAHA: That’s smart power, they use. Must be. It must be use for smart power.
SECRETARY CLINTON:
It’s very smart, because it’s now resolved. And it comes at a very good
time because, as Burma is reforming economically and politically, I
think that Bangladesh can be a big help to the people there. And there’s
also economic opportunities for your businesses in working across the
border. So I think it’s a win-win for your country. And I would hope
that as the democratic reform effort there continues, civil society here
will also get involved because they’ve been under a military regime for
40 years, right? So they don’t have yet the institutional experiences
that you have been developing. So I hope that there’ll be some outreach
to try to assist them as they make progress.
MS. SAHA: I specifically like to know about the investment in energy and power sector.
SECRETARY CLINTON:
Well, energy and power is critical, we know, to Bangladesh because you
still don’t have reliable, affordable electricity across the country.
And we talked last night, and as part of the partnership agreement, the
government asked if we would provide technical advice about potential
development of your hydropower, exploring whether you have natural gas,
unconventional gas resources, including shale gas, other kinds of advice
that we would be willing to offer. So we’re going to send a technical
team to work with you on that, what kind of renewable energy in addition
to hydropower, whether there’s an opportunity for geothermal, for wind,
for solar, greater than has been anticipated. So we stand ready to help
you meet your energy needs.
QUESTION: Thank you so much. (Inaudible.)
MR. AHMED: We will have to wrap it up, so I think --
MS. SAHA:
I would like to ask our honorable, respected Madam Secretary, what are
you taking back with this trip? You have visited China and you are going
to India and --
SECRETARY CLINTON: Right. Right.
MS. SAHA: -- so this evening, you are leaving for India. So --
SECRETARY CLINTON: Yes.
MS. SAHA: -- from – exactly what you are taking back.
SECRETARY CLINTON:
Well, I’m, first of all, taking back just the overall impression of the
dynamism and the progress that is being made here and in the region.
You’re right; I was in China. China obviously is continuing to grow and
develop. They would be the first to tell you they still have hundreds of
millions of people that they need to lift out of poverty, that they
need to educate, that they need to provide health care for. So they are
the most developed developing country, that is for sure, but they still
are facing issues they have to address. I’ll be going on to India.
India, too, is making progress, has hundreds of millions of people still
in poverty that they have to find ways of providing income to,
education, health care.
So I think that the region itself, with
you right strategically situated between China and India, has developed
incredibly fast, but people’s aspirations probably have developed
faster. So there’s now a greater expectation that people’s economic and
political needs will be met. And I personally believe that you are on
the right track. Over the long run, people’s freedoms cannot be denied.
And what you’ve done by taking a democratic route – it may be messy,
because democracy is messy; it may not have top-down control over
everything, but that way you also don’t prevent good ideas from bubbling
up – you are on the right path.
But you know the problems you
face. You understand that far better than I do. And what you need is
national unity and a consensus toward continuing that progress. And I
know that’s hard. You have two very powerful political parties that
alternate between one and the other, and you have a lot of challenges to
the sustainment of a peaceful political path forward, but the people
have to demand that. Regardless of who you vote for or what party you
support, the people have to demand that everybody is trying to
accomplish the same thing, which is continuing the economic development
of the country, providing democratic institutionalization for the
country, respecting the human rights and human dignity of every person
in the country, bringing people together, developing a volunteer
mentality so that people go out and help each other, because the
government cannot and should not be expected to deliver everything
everybody needs. That is a recipe for failure in today’s world.
So
you are on the right track. Build up civil society and continue to
support democracy and economic opportunity and market development. And I
feel very positive about what I’ve seen and heard, and I’m particularly
impressed by the young people who I have met.
PARTICIPANT:
Thank you, Madam Secretary. Thank you. I would like to request
(inaudible) to thank Madam Secretary on behalf of the audience, and
please (inaudible).
SECRETARY CLINTON: And let us thank you. You did an excellent job with too many hands. (Applause.)
MR. AHMED:
Madam Secretary, thank you so much. We are so grateful to you for your
time. And this is your second visit. And the youth of Bangladesh are
really hopeful. We pray for you. We wish you all the best. And
hopefully, the next time you’re in Bangladesh, in five years’ time,
you’ll be here on Air Force One. Our prayers and good wishes.
(Applause.)
SECRETARY CLINTON: Oh, my God – (applause). Thank you.
MS. SAHA: Bangladesh is (inaudible).
MR. AHMED: A round of applause for Madam Secretary. (Applause.)
MS. SAHA: Thank you very much. Thank you. Goodspeed. (Inaudible.)
SECRETARY CLINTON: Same to you, my friend. Thank you so much. Good luck to you. Thank you.
PARTICIPANT: Yes. No, we wish you all the best. You’re such an inspirational role model, and I’ve read your book so many times. (Applause.)
SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you. Thank you all.
