Editorial Desk :
Even with reports of widespread impunity for abuses and killing by security forces, including the police, the Border Guard Bangladesh and the Rapid Action Battalion, they enjoyed all the support and encouragement. The United States of America behaved hypocritically and looked the other way. By allowing decline of democracy in many countries the influence of America as a power for democracy and human rights declined all over the world, says a US State Department report.
As viewed in the weekly Economist “In Mr Putin’s world, where might makes right, today’s lack of support is proof of Western decline. After the Soviet collapse in 1991, when America became the sole superpower, countries aligned themselves with it not so much out of ideological conviction but to win its backing. On this reading, America’s sway over smaller countries has diminished as China has risen”.
After fifty years of critical situation in Bangladesh and its demonstration of clear tendency to going along the path of communist dictatorship the US State Department in a report, titled ‘2021 Country Report on Human Rights Practices’ released on Tuesday night mentioned that the US State Department found serious problems in Bangladesh with the independence of the judiciary, arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy, punishment of family members for offences allegedly committed by an individual, substantial interference with freedom of peaceful assembly, serious restrictions on free expression and media, including the existence of criminal libel and slander laws. Dedicated in 74 pages to Bangladesh, the report also noted that the general election in 2018 was not considered free and fair by observers due to irregularities, including ballot-box stuffing and intimidation of opposition polling agents and voters.
Briefing reporters on the human rights report at the American Center, an official of the US Embassy in Dhaka on Wednesday said the report portrays the HR situation in 198 countries, including Bangladesh, based on reports from human rights organisations, civil society and media. However, its credibility was ensured through cross-checking, the official added.
According to a former Bangladesh diplomat, our main challenge in reality would be for democracy and rule of law in the coming days, not the sanctions on RAB. Explaining the situation, he said earlier, the priority of US administration on global policy was to tackle terrorism. After Joe Biden took over as the US president, the policy has been changed. Now their priority in global policy is democracy. Human rights are at the centre of US foreign policy. As part of this commitment, he said, the United States imposed sanctions on the RAB and some of its officials based on credible evidence of serious human rights abuse.
The diminished position of the US has made President of Russia feel himself strong and had the boldness to invade an independent Ukraine for its pro-NATO inclination. Defying the world, Russian soldiers are carrying out acts of barbarism on Ukraine people forcing more than four million women, elderly men and children to leave their own country for safety. Mr Putin showed the audacity taking advantage of the US weakness. The US has to take the blame for the devastation in Ukraine.
In the words of the Economist “There is something to this, even if declinism is exaggerated. The West has also hastened its own loss of influence. Until Mr Putin jolted it by invading Ukraine, the West had seemed to have lost faith in the universal principles it espoused.”
It should be clear to all that President Putin is suffering from the imperial belief that the world belongs to the power of dominance and not respect for human rights. To him, human life has no value. Mr Putin must be stopped before he destroys Russia along with himself.
The Russia-Ukraine war is the struggle between democracy and autocracy has become clearer. Supporting Ukraine, Washington is making it clear that democracy will be a great priority henceforth. Cosy co-existence is unthinkable between democracy and dictatorship or between freedom and repression.
Our government is in seize of authoritarianism by corruption and keeping the people in mortal fear and denying them their right to vote to have a government of their own. It seems unknown to the present leadership that our people fought all along for democracy. They refused dominance of the gun power over the people’s voting power. Such decadence could happen in Bangladesh and many other small countries for decadence of the US.
