The entire world has witnessed in horror as angry mobs stormed into the US Capitol on June 6, 2021. They were furious, unhinged white supremacist followers who believed Donald Trump’s continuous false claims insisting that he won the 2020 Presidential election and that there has been “massive voter fraud” committed by the Democrats in favor of President-elect Joe Biden.
We know that these claims are factually incorrect and baseless. Let’s just calla spade a spade…Donald Trump’s claims are outright lies. Along with counts and recounts of the votes in the states in “question” were negative verdicts in every single case that Trump filed. He lost over 60 lawsuits, verdicts of his loss falling like dominoes, decided by Democrat and Republican judges. Even his highest hopes placed on the United States Supreme Court, to which he has appointed three conservative justices, preparing for the day that they owe him and return the favor (for that is how Trump operates), fell tumbling. The Justices of the Supreme Court also found no evidence of any shred of irregularities in the presidential election.
Over 60 court cases were decided against Trump’s claims and even some members of his own party feel the wrath and revulsion of the gross violations of democracy of January 6, incited by the President himself. While Americans became sickened and tried to grapple with the fascist darkness which Trump and his supporters unleashed on the nation, on the other side of the world, in Bangladesh, there was a sense of elation that the grand United States, the superpower that preaches and instills democracy around the world, could not even hold its own fort. Examples of Bangladeshi taunts on social media were to the tune of, “the US should learn from us how to hold credible elections”, “since the US cannot defend itself, we can send our armed forces and UN Peacekeeping forces”, etc.
Anyone doing their due diligence knows fully well that Bangladesh is nowhere near a democracy or a “people’s republic”, being consumed by corruption and a complete authoritarian rule by an unelected Prime Minister and ruling party that has stripped all human rights and the freedom of speech from its people. Furthermore, the country is within the clutches of India and its far right, Hindutva party, the BJP, which has legitimized the abuse and lynching of Muslims and other minorities on a daily basis. For some magical reason, the Bangladeshi armed forces, who are apparently so potent that they can come to the US and show the US defense industry a thing or two, will not even stand up to defend its nation of 90% Muslims against the domination, on its own soil, of Hindu influence and interference in every facet of society.
But, the cherry on the cake of wisecracks came from none other than the son of PM Sheikh Hasina himself, Sajeeb Wazed, commonly known by his nickname, Joy.
A resident of the United States, Joy took to Facebook after Trump was banned by Twitter and other social media platforms for inciting violence to make outlandish and bizarre claims, as he usually does, regarding freedom of speech. In his rant, Joy makes comparisons between the banning of Trump on US social media and Bangladesh’s Digital Security Act, a draconian, fascist tool he was instrumental in implementing to deprive Bangladeshis of their right to freedom of speech and expression.
Joy, even after having lived for decades in the United States has surprisingly not fully comprehended how the US constitutional First Amendment, guaranteeing the Freedom of Speech functions. Nor does he seem sufficiently astute to comprehend the free market concepts of how private businesses such as Twitter, Facebook and other social media function, with their own terms and conditions.
As though these facts are not puzzling enough, what is most shocking is that a person who enjoys all the freedoms of a luxurious life in the US financed by the Bangladeshi taxpayers, with all its guaranteed constitutional freedoms, here we have a person with a point of view which is clearly biased towards defending Trump’s freedom of speech.
Donald Trump is the person who has been responsible for inciting hate and mob violence amongst his white supremamcist base during his entire presidency. For a whole month before January 6, he had fueled the xenophobic rage based on pure lies that the election was stolen from him, just as the country has been stolen from white people by immigrants (despite the fact that everyone in the United States except the Native Americans is an immigrnt). For anyone to be defending hateful speech is unconscionable.
Why does it matter that Sajeeb Wazed Joy did so? Because as the son of the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, he has a large following on social media, he is seen as a role model for Bangladeshi youth. Many are under the delusion that he will be the next leader of Bangladesh, following the traditions of a monarchy rather than the People’s Republic that the constitution of the country states it is.
For Joy or anyone else to be extending support to what culminated as a nightmare on the US Capitol on June 6 and to not say one word of compassion about the blatant destruction and abuse of democracy, of the horrific acts of domestic terrorism we witnessed, to not shout out about the futile killing of 5 people that day, one being a police officer, to not be horrified by the violence of racism, is simply unscrupulous and dishonorable.
Authoritarianism may be the new normal in Bangladesh but it certainly is not tolerated in the United States.
