The People of Bangladesh are Paying the Price for US-Colonial Interest in Exchange of Sheikh Hasina’s Autocratic Rule

News:

“Is US Paying the Price for Criticizing Sheikh Hasina’s Autocratic Rule?”- The Diplomat. Bangladesh seems to have snubbed the U.S. by opting for Airbus rather than Boeing aircraft. In a significant departure from its long-standing tradition of using American-made Boeing aircraft, Biman Bangladesh Airlines, Bangladesh’s national air carrier, recently decided to buy four European-made Airbus planes. However, Biman’s decision to purchase Airbus aircraft is influenced not by financial or business logic. Rather it appears to have been heavily influenced by geopolitics and Bangladesh’s foreign policy priorities.

Bangladesh’s relationship with the United States has been deteriorating in recent years. In 2021, the U.S. imposed sanctions on Bangladesh’s elite paramilitary Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and several of its top security officials for human rights violations. Then, in the run-up to Bangladesh’s controversial one-sided general elections held in January 2024, the U.S. announced visa restrictions for officials and politicians who were found to be subverting free and fair elections in Bangladesh. Recently, the U.S. has imposed sanctions on Bangladesh’s former army chief for alleged corruption. The decision to shift away from Boeing is likely part of Dhaka’s responses to the recent U.S. decisions.(The Diplomat)

Comment:

Indeed, Hasina Wajed who led Awami League regime is ruling Bangladesh with tyranny and oppression. However, the US didn’t give sanctions and visa restrictions on the top security officials and politicians for delivering the Muslims of Bangladesh from this oppressive regime. Rather, the US decisions are motivated by its vested geopolitical and economical interstress in the region. The so called democratic and human rights codes voiced by the US officials are nothing but deceptive rhetoric. The only criteria the US and other Western nations have is the material benefit, and to secure this materialistic pursuit, these nations can strip themselves of all the humanitarian and moral considerations if they have any! The US efforts like sanctions and visa restrictions in Bangladesh are centered on pressurizing Hasina regime to advancing military ties, distancing Bangladesh further away from China and quickening economic deals with US companies.

Although Hasina is publicly criticizing the US, she has promised to give the massive hydrocarbon blocks in the Bay of Bengal worth trillions of USD to US giant corporation ExxonMobil. Chevron, another US corporation, is currently controlling over 50% of the natural gas supply in Bangladesh. Granting another US company to explore Oil and Gas in the Bay of Bengal will only consolidate the control of US over the critical energy sector of Muslim majority Bangladesh. Besides, Hasina recently released Bangladesh’s Indo-Pacific Outlook (IPO) where many of its critical elements were common with US Indo Pacific Strategy (IPS). In support of the IPS, Hasina is already moving away from China for defense procurements and deepening military ties with Japan, UK and India. Bangladesh is among four countries (besides Philippines, Fiji and Malaysia) that have been selected to receive Japan’s military support in the name of an Official Security Assistance (OSA) and the common thread running through all these four countries’ involvement with Japan is the US’s IPS and ‘Contain China’ policy. So, clearly the US is not paying any price, rather it is gaining its geopolitical as well as economic interests from this oppressive Hasina regime. In an interview with Independent TV, the visiting US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Donald Lu said, “We are a big country, we pursue our interest around the world” [Independent TV, 15 May, 2024]. And it’s quite natural that some economic and political interests will be delivered to the EU and Britain, as they compete with the USA over political and economic interests. Purchasing aircrafts from Airbus instead of Boeing should be viewed from this perspective.

Like other agent rulers of the Muslim countries, Hasina Wajed has no support from the people; the people hate her and want her removal. That is why she is giving away Ummah’s valuable wealth to the colonialist nations so that in return they help her remain in power. On the other hand, the material-interest driven geopolitics of the Western colonial nations (US, UK and EU) is devoid of any humanitarian and moral considerations and devoid of any just cause. France, UK and other EU nations remain silent over Hasina’s atrocities and rampant human rights violations when they get business contracts like that of the Airbus. On the contrary, US is pushing and pressurizing Hasina on the ground of human rights violations to increase US share in the Ummah’s wealth (economic and strategic), which Hasina is bartering for stabilizing her regime. In fact, this evil superpowers’ so-called ‘great game’ is nothing but a psychopathic disorder and a punishable criminal offense in all civic standards. Acute sufferings of the Muslims in Bangladesh caused by this obsolete war-mongering and wealth-plundering geopolitics is just another sad example besides the long list of sufferings of Muslims in Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Uighur, Kashmir and elsewhere in the Muslim World.

The world is in need of a divine geopolitics to spread the justice of Islam around the world instead of pursuing inhume material interests, which would be led and watched over by the upcoming Khilafah on the method of the Prophethood. The righteous Khaleefah will protect the wealth (economic and strategic) of the Ummah from being a commodity of the colonial powers and will ensure that every Muslim shares its benefit. On top of that, this blessed Khilafah State will never allow the criminal colonialists to commit their crimes undeterred; this state will watch over every geopolitical action which they undertake to plunder and terrorize other states and then through appropriate measures destroy their material-interest driven evil politics from the face of this earth. The first Caliph, Abu Bakr As-Siddeeq (ra) established the witness over the Persians and Romans and then he was followed in this by ‘Umar Ibn Al-Khattaab (ra) who in turn was followed by Khulafaa’ and leaders who firmly established the witness over the people of that time. They were the Ummah Wasat, the number one State ruled the central stage in the world; they established the proof upon humankind and continued to convey that which the Messenger (saw) had started. Allah (swt) said,

[وَكَذَلِكَ جَعَلْنَاكُمْ أُمَّةً وَسَطًا لِتَكُونُوا شُهَدَاءَ عَلَى النَّاسِ وَيَكُونَ الرَّسُولُ عَلَيْكُمْ شَهِيدًا]

“Thus, we have made you Ummatan Wasatan, that you be witness over mankind and the Messenger be a witness over you. (Surah Al-Baqarah: 143)

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Risat Ahmed
Member of the Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Wilayah Bangladesh