Bangladesh Protests: politics is a negotiation, not a zero-sum game

You think will happen to in Bangladesh? Which demands do you think the students should meet to better things?

I don't think you're gonna like my answer. Just as Egyptians didn't tend to like my answer to this, and, Sudanese didn't like my answer to this, and Syrians haven't liked my answer to this. And I think that, also if I talk about Kenya, they wouldn't like my answer to this either. I think they should stop protesting. I think they should stop.

You had the the the the issue that you were protesting about has that that you've gotten a concession on that, and I think that any further protests okay. Let me put it this way. At this point, whether it was whether it whether it was from the beginning or not, at this point, I don't have any reason to doubt that the protest movement in Bangladesh has been thoroughly infiltrated by Western intelligence, by The United States and their their interest. See, this is this is this is where I have to make a I have to sort of clarify how I can talk about a country like Bangladesh when when I'm I'm not Bangladeshi, and I'm not intimately familiar with the domestic internal politics of Bangladesh. The same was this was the case with Egypt and Sudan and wherever else.

I can't speak as an expert on the domestic situation in any of these countries, but what I can talk about is American and Western agendas in in that country or in that region.

Yeah. Their interest in disruption.

Yeah. And what I can see and what I can talk about is when I see recognizable patterns, recognizable signs of US interference, of American interference. And and also when I see what looks like the predictable, reliable, tried and true playbook of Western intelligence agencies in regime change operations, when you see that playing out, it should alarm you, and it should cause you to reassess your own strategies moving forward. So that's what I can talk about. I can't talk about with any intelligent way, the internal politics of Bangladesh.

But what I see is that let me okay. You know what? Let me explain it this way. Look at every country that has a significant role in the Belt and Road project, And now look whether or not there's been protests and civil unrest in any of those countries. There's been in every one of those countries, in every country that the Belt and Road project that is included in Belt and Road project.

And those protests have tended to start as being about a particular policy. Meaning, it begins with a legitimate grievance. And then it it morphs into a call for the toppling of the government. This is a very predictable pattern. This is we've seen this time and time and time again.

And when you see that, and then especially in Bangladesh, when you have someone like what's his name? Eunice? Mohammed Eunice, is it? Mhmm. The the microfinance guy?

Yeah.

Who's the darling of the West? Mhmm. When you have someone like that and then you have the so called opposition leaders and so on actually calling for Western intervention into your country, this is deeply suspicious to me. To me, this is deeply, deeply suspicious of those individuals and their motives. And, obviously, that is not going to go well.

If you if you actually pursue that direction and you pursue that kind of a call, that's that's they're just they're just voicing. They they they they have themselves infiltrated the house of the opposition, and now they're opening the the door to let colonizers in to take over. So I would say stop protesting. I'm sorry to say that. But, you know, if you're gonna be involved in political opposition, if you're gonna be involved in political protest, then that means that you're involved in politics.

You're involving yourself in politics Mhmm. Which means you must understand politics. Mhmm. You're involved in a political movement means you have to understand politics. And that means that you have to understand what you want and why.

And if you're being driven by your overall exasperation, your overall frustration, your overall depression, your overall hopelessness, your overall despondency and and anger at the government or what have you, that's not a political motive.

Yeah. And and that's not gonna yield in any

That's not gonna help you.

Yeah. It's not gonna yield in any constructive

That will be manipulated, absolutely, and I believe it is being manipulated. It's being manipulated in Bangladesh. It's being manipulated in Kenya. Mhmm. It was manipulated in Sudan.

It was manipulated in Egypt. And everywhere, it's manipulated. I'm I'm not saying that you don't have a right to feel that way. But just like in a a personal interaction, interpersonal relationship, when you start feeling that way, what should you do? Time out.

You need to take time out. Get your head together. Mhmm. Just like Rasulullah said, have wudu, sit down, lay down, whatever it is, get your head together because you have handed control over to shaitan. And shaitan in this case would be The United States.

I mean, it's it's the the they're really playing on and toying on the feelings of the young people Mhmm. Of the youth who have this natural inbuilt vigor in them

Yeah.

For ideal, for change, for optimism. All of that is being manipulated and toyed with.

And and who are generally on the right side. Yeah. You they they have a they they have every right to have agreements. You have every right. But they will make it such that pursuing redress for your grievance will result in a much worse situation that you can't even imagine.

That's how they do. Yeah. That and I've and I've seen it. Personally, I've seen it time and time again happening over and over and over again.

At this day and age where there's those this

Like, I'll give you I I'm sorry to interrupt. But I'll give you an example. What's going on in Kenya right now?

Mhmm. Case in point.

Case in point, Kenya right now. They had this law, the finance reform law, and and it it was more or less drafted in line with the IMF, things that the IMF wanted. Okay? And it was going to increase expenses for people because the government wanted to was the government was forced to, by the IMF, try to increase their revenue so that they can pay the loan, the their their IMF loans. They wanna they need to increase revenue

In order to

in order to pay the loans. Okay? So that meant raising taxes, removing some kind of subsidies and exemptions from people, and people protested. Completely understandable. And then they withdrew the the bill.

The bill. Okay.

So okay. You're done.

They responded to the

Yeah. They they conceded. Okay. You're done. That means you stopped.

Yeah.

That means you're supposed to stop. But you get the momentum going, and you start feeling rightly or wrongly that your government is corrupt, that your leader is a is a bastard, that your leader or your your president or your prime minister or whatever is a corrupt criminal thief, what have you, and maybe they are. Okay. So you start calling for the overthrow of that person. This just excuse me.

This just creates more and more instability. And now in Kenya, because they were forced to withdraw this bill, now you still have to you still have the problem.

Yeah. The

You still have to pay the IMF.

The shock. Yeah.

You're still you're still in in debt in debt slavery to the IMF. So instead of so instead of trying to generate more revenue, now you're gonna cut expenses. You you have to cut expenditures by the government, which is austerity, which is what the IMF wants anyway. Mhmm. To cut to cut spending, government spending, to cut support for for the people, social spending, which is austerity, which is neoliberalism.

Yeah. Which then means that more and more state assets and state services and so on are gonna have to be privatized. So at the end of that, you ended up, in my opinion, in the Kenya protest, you ended up giving a greater win, a bigger win to the IMF than a win to yourself. You were trying to fight them and you ended up handing them an even greater victory than they thought they could get.

This this should be a note to the contemporary protesters.

Yeah. You should in in my opinion and I'm not I'm not I'm I'm not not generally an advocate of protest, but I'm also not against them. Mhmm. I am for whatever is a an effective strategy for achieving an objective, which means that you have to have a clear objective. And if protest is the means by which you can most effectively achieve that objective, and it's a reasonable objective, then do it.

But once you have achieved that objective, go home. Stop. Because because the the the thing about protests also is that it can so easily get this momentum that snowballs because there's always a crackdown, obviously. Obviously. And in Bangladesh, it's horrific.

The crackdown is absolutely horrific. But that should also tell you, and I'm I'm sorry, but this is the these the the government is is you and your people. This is you and your people. So you do have to understand that when they and and I'm not justifying it at all. It's it's terrible what they did.

The way they responded was terrible. But that's the behavior of a government that is in a desperate situation that feels under immense pressure and doesn't really know what else to do. Like in Bangladesh, China has been has has been slowly, gradually pushing out or or taking taking territory, say, economic territory, if you if you look at it as a as a sort of a conflict or a war type of scenario Mhmm. Western multinationals have have been giving up territory to China. Mhmm.

China has been gaining ground against Western multinationals. Western multinationals are unhappy about that. Mhmm. And China has been offering Bangladesh an alternative to the IMF in terms of financing. Hey.

The OCGFC don't like that.

Yeah. Of course.

The the western multinationals don't like that. America doesn't like that. So for them, we can just we can just cause chaos and anarchy in your country. Yeah. And we can and and the way they will do that is by waiting for the opportunity for there to be a legitimate grievance that is enough to spark protests.

They will infiltrate student movements, infiltrate opposition groups, and incite them further and further and further. And then of course you have the other incitement that comes from in in the form of government crackdown. Mhmm. Because obviously when the government cracks down and is violent towards protesters, passions Yeah. Are are inflamed even more.

Yeah.

And then of course that it it's very easy for a policy protest to turn into a protest for the toppling of the government because this government is killing our people.

They didn't put it down.

Yeah. It's it's it's a it's very systematic.

Yeah. They put

it down. And and and you see and if you if you follow politics as long as I have, you you can recognize the pattern over and over and over again. Same same thing in Kenya. They were shooting the protesters in Kenya as well. And then after shooting the protesters in Kenya, of course, the emotions are inflamed, and now we wanna topple Ruto and get him out.

Mhmm. And I'm not saying that Hasina isn't corrupt, and I'm not saying that Ruto isn't corrupt.

Yeah. Exactly.

But there's something more important than their corruption, which is the actual stability of your country

Yeah.

And and having it not be colonized.

Yeah. Imagine everything is broken down and and in rubbles, and you have you facilitate for an outsider to come and take over.

Right. Or you have or you have yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Or for if, for example, if you have a military military ruler take over who is in the pocket of The United States, how is that better for you?

You think that your situation financially, economically, socially, and every other kind of way is gonna get any better? It's gonna get nothing but worse. So my advice actually would be you got what you wanted in terms of the quota. Now stop.