All the times Jimmy Carter batted for democracy in Bangladesh

The 39th President of the United States (POTUS), Jimmy Carter, passed away on 29 December, aged 100. While scores of obituaries pour in about a travelling Carter's lifelong "peacemaking" career, particularly during his post-presidency years, it is worth mentioning Bangladesh's place in Carter's illustrious career.  

When Carter took office in 1977 for his single term in the White House, he inherited a tumultuous US political landscape that was coming off the brink of the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam War — and living through the Cold War. In light of this, he took a different approach to foreign policy compared to his predecessors, at least in terms of his commitment to establishing peace. 

"Jimmy Carter brought the human rights movement into the halls of power and worked to create a government guided by human dignity," said Tirana Hassan, executive director at Human Rights Watch (HRW). He was also the first president to champion principles drawn from the United Nations 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, according to HRW. 

While in office, Carter met Bangladesh President Ziaur Rahman in 1980 at the White House, where he applauded the latter.

On 27 August 1980, Carter said, "We also had a chance to discuss the advantages of democratisation of the Bangladesh political system…Also, we have been very grateful at the leadership that President Ziaur has played personally, not only among the Moslem nations and the community there but indeed throughout the entire world community."

Carter also praised Zia's statement to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), where he called upon the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to provide oil to the poor and developing countries of the world at lower prices and also encouraged the OPEC nations, with their tremendous influx of capital, to invest in the developing nations, like Bangladesh, according to The American Presidency Project (APP) archive. 

After his first term, Carter lost the election to Republican Ronald Reagan, which critics say was a result of Carter's failure to achieve his ambitious political goals, such as peace in the Middle East. 

But Carter did not nestle in retirement; rather, he embarked on a vigorous post-presidency career as a mediator, a "peacemaker" among other things. He also invested much of his time advocating for humanitarian efforts in the Global South. 

In 1986, Carter came to Bangladesh on a two-day visit and met then President Ershad. Carter, president of the Global 2000 non-governmental development organisation then, signed a protocol initiating a rural health project similar to Global-2000 projects in Sudan, according to the United Press International, an American news agency archive.     

Carter invested time in many other instances advocating for human rights in Bangladesh, and beyond. His efforts made him a Nobel Prize-winning humanitarian in 2002. 

One of the noteworthy examples in Bangladesh was when President Carter became involved in the effort to free a young Bangladeshi girl who had been abducted — a victim of a notorious Pakistani slave trade — in the early 1990s. President Carter acted individually as a renowned human rights advocate, in cooperation with the international effort, on her behalf, according to the Carter Center. 

In August 2001, Carter visited Bangladesh and met both Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina. At the time, he observed and appreciated the caretaker government's preparation for an upcoming free and fair election. That year, the Khaleda-led Bangladesh National Party (BNP) won the election. 

In a post-election statement, Carter observed that in light of the international and domestic reports which say the elections were "relatively peaceful… in accordance with international standards… contrary to public statements of rigging," he cautioned against undemocratic responses — such as the boycott of the parliament by the opposition.  

"Party leaders, including former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, also pledged not to boycott the next Parliament… However, Sheikh Hasina's recent vow to boycott Parliament runs counter to her August pledge and has the potential not only to destabilise this new Parliament but also to unravel the delicate fabric of Bangladeshi democracy," Carter said at the time. 

Many years later, in 2017, then Prime Minister Hasina mentioned meeting Carter as part of Bill Clinton's delegate in 2001. "I directly witnessed the incident of BNP giving an undertaking that they would sell gas if they could come to power," she told a conference of agriculturists at Krishibid Institution, Bangladesh in the capital. 

She claimed her refusal caused her election loss stemming from a campaign against the Awami League. 

In Carter's post-presidency life, he established the Carter Center to pursue his own course of personal diplomacy. Starting in 1982, the centre has monitored more than 110 elections in 39 countries, according to academic Richard Hargy.

However, Carter's life escaped media attention as though he had been tucked away in some sort of obscurity, despite a prolific career spanning beyond his presidential term. 

To that end, The New York Times obituary mentioned, "In the four decades since Mr Carter left the White House, no other sitting president had paid him the respect of coming to see him in Plains [in Georgia, Carter's hometown], making Mr Biden's visit something of a symbolic embrace that reflected evolving views of the defeated president-turned-elder-statesman."

Biden was the first Democratic senator to endorse Carter's long-shot 1976 bid for the presidency. That being said, Biden could have done well to take stock of Carter's stance on the Palestinian cause. Carter had been the most vocal US president to voice support for the Palestinians.

One of his presidential milestones had been when he brokered the Camp David Summit in 1978. It is when the "historical handshake" between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Carter took place, leading to a peace deal between Egypt and Israel the following year.

The 13-day summit led to the "Framework for Peace in the Middle East," which had three parts, including a process for Palestinian self-governance in the West Bank and Gaza.

Israel agreed to withdraw from the Sinai, and Egypt promised to establish normal diplomatic relations between the two countries and open the Suez Canal to Israeli ships, among other things. However, over the years, the deal turned sour as Egypt faced ostracisation from the Arab League, including the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). PLO did not accept the terms of the accord. 

Carter's international best-seller "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" published in 2006 resulted in a lot of backlash. He, for the most part, defended the use of the word, becoming one of the first US politicians to publicly identify Israel as an apartheid state. He remains the only former POTUS to do so.

The next major advance for peace in the Middle East was the Oslo Accords in 1991, the terms of which bore a lot of similarities to that of the Camp David Summit. 

While the 1977 Panama Canal Treaty under the Carter administration is another presidential highlight, the Iran hostage crisis (1979-1980) is considered one of the reasons which cost Carter re-election, according to some pundits. 

But amid all the glaring praise and admiration for Carter upon his passing, it is easy to miss the Carter administration's shortcomings, which also cost lives. 

For one, the 1980 Gwangju Uprising in South Korea saw the killings of scores of student demonstrators. The uprising was quelled by the South Korean military with the approval and logistical support of the US under the Carter administration.