For one, the OIC secretary general's post was just ours for the asking. When we withdrew our candidature last time, that of the former Speaker late Mr. Humayun Rashid Chowdhury , on Saudi Arabia's request, we were more or less assured that this time we would be given this post. We should not forget, as Mr. Rashid seems to have, that Bangladesh is not a country to wish away in the Muslim world. It is the third largest Muslim country and has a good reputation , good enough to have one of its candidate head an organisation such as the OIC. Did Gabon not head it and is Morocco a major power in the Islamic world? Both these countries headed the OIC.

The writer's exposition of Turkey is also weak. What has Turkey's NATO membership or it being a bridge between Asia and Europe got to do with the OIC? None of these were at all a factor in why Turkey received so many votes. He may be right in assessing that the familiarity of a candidate with the organisation where he is seeking the post helps in winning and in this case, Turkey had the edge. But the Turkish candidate served not in the OIC headquarters but perhaps in one of its subsidiary organisation although I am not really sure what link his organisation has with the OIC.

We lost a post which could have been ours by unanimous approval if we had not nominated a candidate who did not meet even the barest minimum qualifications for the post. After all, the OIC is not an international organisation dealing with health matters like WHO for example. Therefore the one qualification that our candidate has as a former minister made no sense at all to the OIC. Take this away and what is left of our candidate? I am amazed how Mr. Rashid could write this piece, for he is a former diplomat himself . Has he not read what this erstwhile candidate is now saying? If ever a country lost a major international post by its poor choice of candidate, it is this failed effort of ours at the OIC. There is just no other explanation for our defeat.