Image credit: Illustration by Soham Sen | ThePrint
Dr. Firoz Mahboob Kamal
The rise of autocratic China and the US complicity
In January 1979, the USA and China formally established their diplomatic relations. The intermediary role between the two bitter rivals was played by Pakistan. Even in the eighties, China was a typical third world country fighting hard to resolve its hunger and poor economy. I visited Beijing in November 1997 to attend an IUSSP (International Union for Scientific Studies on Population) seminar. To me, the Beijing airport looked even poorer than Bombay or Karachi airport. The city roads were flooded with bicycles and had a few motor cars. Beijing city hardly had any highrise buildings that are seen in Dubai, Singapore or Hongkong. But now, China is a different country. It is an economic and military super power -second only to the US.
Despite huge economic progress, China has failed tremendously to improve its human rights record. It is hardly better than North Korea. Freedom of speech and democratic rights have no place in China. A brutal fascist regime now rules China. Because of its military and economic power, China is now more aggressive and coercive. It threatens neighbouring states like Vietnam, Philippines by claiming its exclusive right in the South China Sea. It also wants to occupy Taiwan. China also supports the brutal fascist regimes in North Korea, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
In the making of such a powerful fascist China, the US government has a huge contribution. In the cold war era, in order to encounter the Soviet Russia-led communist block, the US and allies colluded with the autocratic regime of China and ignored its poor basic human rights record. Since China has the world’s largest labour market, the US companies were encouraged to invest in China to exploit its human resource potentials. Such US-led industrialisation initiatives contributed heavily to make China the second largest economy in the world. China may even become the number one economic power in the coming decades.
Such economic power gave birth to new confidence and political ambition among the Chinese ruling elites. In the name of the Belt and Road initiative, China invested hundreds of billions of dollars in Asian and African countries and thus could buy their political allegiance. In its domestic front, China has started its brutal cultural war on its Uighur Muslims minorities. Xinxiang -its resource-rich Muslim majority province now faces demographic engineering to be a Muslim minority one. The Uighur Muslims are now the target of de-Islamisation and cultural conversion. Millions of Muslims are taken to concentration camps to eradicate their Muslim identity.
Now, China’s geopolitics has massively changed. Because of its military and economic might, China is now the US’s main geopolitical adversary on the world stage. So far, the US government was focussed only to harvest more economic gains -as is the usual core instinct of every capitalist. But now it raises the issue of China’s human right violation. It exposes the US leaders’ grotesque hypocrisy. If they had any interest in the promotion of democracy and human rights in China, they could easily do so when the US had a good working partnership with China against Soviet Russia. In those days, China dearly needed the US money. Hence, the US government could easily attach a binding precondition for its economic investment in China. It could easily pressurize the Chinese government to give adequate human rights to its people. The US and its allies have imposed economic sanction on Afghanistan to improve its human rights record. But the US didn’t do so against China during its long fifty years of cordial relationship. Instead, the US government showed full compatibility with the fascist regime in Beijing. As a result, the US now encounters an enemy of its own making. Thus the capitalists sell their ropes for their own hanging.
The rise of Hindutva India and the US help
The US government now takes Hindutva India as a strategic partner to fight its geopolitical war against the emerging China. The US looks obsessed with this issue. Hence a notorious killer like Prime Minister Narendra Modi gets a warm welcome in the White House. Thus the US repeats the same mistake as it committed in the case of China. After building a mighty China, the US is now creating another huge monster. As per plan, the US companies are now transferring their industries from China to India. As a result, India is quickly emerging as a global economic and military power. In a recent public meeting, Narendra Modi jubilantly and confidently declared that India will soon become the third economic power in the world. Surely, if the USA continues to inject trillions of dollars into the Indian economy, Modi will be able to easily fulfil his dream. In such a situation, the US will have no other option but to make another alliance to encounter this US-made Indian monster.
India is known for its fascist policy against the minorities. The country is now ruled by Hindutva extremism organisations like the RSS-BJP axis. Mostly, the Indian Muslims and in some places the Christians are the victims of the genocidal killings. Hundreds of mosques and churches are destroyed in India. Muslims houses and business establishments are the targets for planned destruction. But none faced any punishment for such heinous crimes. Instead, those who destroyed the Babri Mosque were rewarded with the land of the mosque premise.
India needs the US money. If the USA and its allies had any interest to promote the basic human rights and protect the minority rights, they could have easily added a precondition to its economic investment in India. But the US looks blind on these issues. Rather, the killer regime is taken as a strategic partner. They are desperate to help the growth of the Indian economy ignoring all its crimes against the minorities. The US government is only concerned to encounter the China-Russia axis; for that they need the collaboration of India. Hence, they overlook India’s human rights issues. As a result, the atrocities against the Muslims and Chistrians go unabated. So, the state-run bulldozers are seen in the streets to destroy the premarked Muslim homes and shops. In the north-eastern state of Manipur, the Hindutva thugs are seen to rape and kill the Christian women. Even two women were paraded naked on the street.
The Muslim majority state of Kashmir has been made an open-air prison. Whereas, as per the UN resolution, Kashmir is not a part of India; and the fate of Kashmir must be decided by a fair plebiscite. But India continues to defy the UN resolution and faces no punishment for that. The US and its allies are very vocal against the Russian occupation of Ukraine but stays silent on the Indian occupation of Kashmir and Israeli occupation of Palestine. More than 700,000 soldiers are deployed in Kashmir to sustain the occupation. More than 100,000 Kashmiris are killed. Tens of thousands of Kashmiri women are raped by the Indian occupying forces. The native Kashmiri people are deprived of any political as well as basic human rights. Kashmir has now become the most fortified police state of India. But the US remains silent on such atrocities.
The US interference in Pakistan and the Army’s capture
In the US foreign policy, its security and geopolitical interest get far more importance than any other issue of the world. Even issues like promoting peace, democracy or human rights get little importance. Recently, the US and its allies have been making a huge uproar against the military take-over of Niger. Niger has a population of only 27 millions. But the same US government engineered the ouster of democratically elected Prime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan and instigated a military take-over there. Whereas, Pakistan has a population of 240 million. As a result of the US policy, Imran Khan the most popular democratic leader of Pakistan is now languishing in a death cell in a prison in Atock.
In Pakistan, democracy now lies in the graveyard. The country is under the full capture of the Army. The Army now runs the country through pet political stooges. Recently, the country got a caretaker government. As per the constitution, this caretaker set-up is only mandated for holding a general election in 90 days. It must cease to exist after the election. Since they have crossed 90 days’ time limit, the caretaker governments’ stand constitutionally illegal in the provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. But in Pakistan, there is none to execute the law. Therefore violation of the law continues. The caretaker executives engage in everything, but show little interest in holding elections. As if, they stand above the country’s constitution and law.
Since the caretaker ministers are selected by the Army generals, they take orders only from them. The Army has made a coalition with the corrupt bureaucracy and judiciary to run the country. Even the President of Pakistan -the number one man of the country and the Chief Justice of Pakistan stand helpless. Even the executive orders of the President and the judicial verdict of the Supreme Court fell on deaf ears. The court verdicts didn’t get executed. Recently, the principal secretary of the President made a fake signature of the President Arif Alvi to announce two bills as law. Because of the Army’s protection, such criminals loom large and stay unpunished. The President of Pakistan is so powerless that even the Election Commissioner defies the Presidential order to meet him in the President’s office on election issues.
Supporting Imran Khan is now a punishable crime in Pakistan. The military establishment has put tens of thousands of Imran Khan’s supporters in prison without any trial. If the court gives bail, they get rearrested. More than 20 unarmed people are killed for protesting on the street. Journalists face death or forced disappearances for telling the truth. But the US government is totally silent on such Army atrocities in Pakistan.
Since the early days of the Cold War, the USA proved to be the greatest enemy of democracy in the Muslim World. This so-called global guardian of democracy accepts a democratic government in a thirld world country only if it serves its strategic interest. The US never showed any compromise on that issue. In the fifties, it dismantled the fledgling democracy in Pakistan, Iran, Turkey by engineering the military take-overs. The US government also blocked the growth of democracy in Indonesia, Algeria and Palestine. The death of basic human rights and the murderous fascism in the Middle East also owe to the USA’s political engineering and protection.
Since Imran Khan showed his uncompromising stand on an independent foreign policy and refused to be a political slave, had to pay the price. The US government collaborates only with the military fascists. The case of General Abdul Fatah Sisi of Egypt is a recent example. Since the Pakistan Army has already proved to be the most servile mercenary for the USA by killing more than seventy thousands of its own people it is taken as the reliable partner to fight its current war on China and Russia. Since Imran Khan possesses immense potential to be a leader not only for Pakistan but also for the Muslim World, is reckoned by the USA as its great threat. Hence Imran Khan is driven down the same route as President Muhammad Morsi met in Egypt. Since these military thugs have no popular support, they rely on the USA for their own survival.
Rapidly changing geopolitics of Pakistan
Now the geopolitics in Pakistan is rapidly changing. The Pakistan Army -the only occupying force of the country has successfully taught the people that votes don’t decide politics in Pakistan; it is the gun that decides. The people too have learnt the lesson fully. Since politics is the most important ibadah in Islam, millions of people are now engaging in politics. It is also understood that distancing from politics has a heavy penalty. It brings the brutal rule of the worst criminals. Pakistan is an example for that.
Since votes didn’t work in Pakistan, people are now taking guns to decide their own fate. Thus, politics is now becoming a holy jihad in millions of people’s lives. So there is a huge resurgence of war against the Army in South Waziristan, Baluchistan and other parts of Pakistan. The Islam loving people of Pakistan want to get freedom from the rule of the de-Islamised militant secularists of the Army.They want to follow an Islamic route. So, Pakistan is rapidly moving towards Islamisation cum talibalisation. Now, almost every day the Army is under attack from the Islamists and facing casualties. Even the secularist Baluch fighters are now aligning with the Islamists. The Islamists’ victory against the US Army in Afghanistan has generated a new confidence to change the political map of the area. The Pakistan Army is not stronger than the US, the Soviet and the British Army that were defeated by the Islamists in the past. Moreover, because of its recent atrocities, the Army has few friends among the people. The Army’s alliance with the US has also highly exacerbated the people’s anger. So, the Islamists are more confident to build an Islamic state -as was envisaged at the time of the creation of Pakistan.
War on Islam and the US’s collaboration with the fascists in Bangladesh
Bangladesh is a strategically important country in South Asia because of its 180 millions Muslim majority population. In the last days of British rule in India, these Bengali Muslims played a seminal role in creating Pakistan in 1947 -thus could draw a new map of the subcontinent. Such potential still exists for further changes in South Asian geopolitics. This is why the US -like India and other global players has its own agenda in Bangladesh. To sustain its status as the sole World Power, the US needs to constantly fight its war against the potential contenders. This is why it had a long Cold War against the communists. The US still has its War on Islam. Now it runs another war on China -currently the US’s number one adversary on the global stage. But the US can’t fight all such wars alone, it needs mercenaries outside its NATO alliance.
In its post 9/11 War on Islam, the US dearly needed mercenaries from the major Muslim countries. A democratic government in Bangladesh was a hindrance to such a project. India needs such mercenaries too. A free and democratic country grows freedom-loving citizens and doesn’t produce mercenaries. Hence democracy becomes the first casualty in a country like Bangladesh. In Pakistan, Egypt, Algeria and many other Muslim countries, democracy didn’t meet a different fate either.
Bangladesh is known for a huge number of anti-Islamic fascists. In 1971, under the leadership of Shaikh Mujibubr Rahman, they joined Hindutva India to break Pakistan – the largest Muslim country in the world. Thus, they helped promote the Hindutva agenda in South Asia. Having been in power, Mujib snatched all democratic rights from the people and established a Soviet-type one party system. He made Bangladesh a vassal state of India. These militant fascists currently led by Shaikh Hasina -daughter of Mujib were taken by the US as the most servile and compatible partners in its War on Islam. As a prize for such collaboration, Hasina was allowed a free hand to crush the Islamists in Bangladesh -as al-Sisi is allowed in Egypt. Hasina still continues with the project.
To bring fascist Shaikh Hasina to power in 2008, the US, the UK and other western countries joined hands with the Hindutva India to destroy the growing democratic process in Bangladesh. Islamophobia was at the heart of such an Indo-US led project. As soon as could capture power, Hasina started a bloody war against the Islamists. Thousands of people faced deaths, torture, prison sentances and forces disappearances. The Islamic leaders were hanged. To facilitate Hasina’s ascendance to the power, a military coup under the leadership of General Moin U. Ahmed was initiated in 2006. Later on, in 2008, General Ahmed helped Shaikh Hasina to come to power through election engineering. Such US-complicity in installing a militant anti-Islamist like Hasina in power caused a huge damage to Islam and democracy in Bangladesh.
The US’s moral failure and the alliance with the monsters
The US continues to fail in its policy. It also fails to learn from the previous failures. Its Soviet-phobic China policy failed. Its Islamophobic War on Islam also failed -as failed in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. Its China-phobic India policy will fail, too. Such repeated failures of the US owe to its policy based on phobia and hatred against others. The coalition with the killer gangs of the civil and the military autocrats does not help succeed in the long run. This is indeed the roadmap for failures. It can only generate wars.
The US leaders must understand that their long term benefit does not lie in supporting the automatic regimes in any part of the world. They claim to be the promoters of democracy. In fact, they have proven to be the promoters of militant autocracy and fascism. The cases of Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh and brutal kingdoms in the Middle East are good examples. A fascist ruler can never be a friend of a civilised man. In fact, they quickly make their alliance with their autocratic cousins sitting in Beijing and Mosco. It is evident in the case of Shaikh Hasina of Bangladesh. She was installed by the US and its allies; but now aligns with China and Mosco.
These tyrants are incompatible with any form of democratic values or civilized rule. But unfortunately, the US government fails to understand that fundamental truth. Such moral morbidity of the US and its allies owes to their toxic anti-Islamic bias. It has killed their insights. This is why they could install fascist monsters like Abdel Fata al-Sisi in Egypt, Shaikh Hasina in Bangladesh and General Asif Munir in Pakistan. The US thus harms peace and commits its worst crimes against humanity. 24/08/2023