Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh & now Indonesia – who is steering the “protestors”
How “orchestrated” were the protests in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh & now Indonesia – Each certainly had a core reason but were there some hidden hands egging them on? How many of these pawns were aware & how many simply joined in for their own reasons? Did any of them stop to consider the ultimate outcome or were they not bothered. Did US & India play main role or did they just fan the flames from behind or set the stage & then watched how matters unfolded? The latter, is somewhat difficult to assume given the long list of regime change US declassified files acknowledge decades later.
While both Imran Khan & Sheik Hasina have directly pointed at US role, Gotabaya chose not to provide any high-profile interviews since his ouster.
In the case of Pakistan & Bangladesh Assistant Secretary Lu was involved while in Sri Lanka’s case the protests started immediately after the departure of US Secretary Nuland. Both Pakistan, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka were pursuing “neutral” foreign policy.
How did US foreign policy vis a vis covert regime change unfold in Pakistan in April 2022 by trumped-up charges of corruption against Prime Minister Imran Khan?
The “sin” PM Imran committed was to forge ties with Russia & China & that resulted in democracy delivered to Khan similar to all ousted leaders who fell into the “against US” list. Imran’s fate was advanced by berating the West & EU envoys for pressurizing him to condemn Russia at the UN. The day after his 3 May 2022 rally US Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South & Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu met with Pakistan’s envoy in US whose cable to Pakistan was leaked. As Pakistan did not comply per US wishes in UN, US gave a nod to the Pakistani military, which in turn influenced Pakistani Parliament & out went Imran by no-confidence motion by Parliamentarians that the US embassy was regularly meeting! A bold Khan produced a diplomatic cable (https://theintercept.com/2023/08/09/imran-khan-pakistan-cypher-ukraine-russia/) presenting evidence of US involvement in his ouster with US quick to respond that the issue was internal & for the Pakistani courts to decide!
Destabilizing a 240million populated Pakistan has been a piece of cake for the US!
Imran Khan won elections in 2018 & was ousted in April 2022. Pakistani military arrested Khan on 9 May 2023 (note date) & held for 4 days before the Supreme Court ruled his detention illegal. Protests resulted in military attacking Imran’s party supporters majority of whom remain in jail. Unlike most South Asian nations, Pakistan’s military plays a direct & indirect role in the governance of Pakistan. Imran Khan in an interview claims the Pakistan army chief & a former Pakistani envoy were feeding the US about Khan’s anti-US stand. https://theintercept.com/2023/06/05/imran-khan-interview/ while the role of the Pakistani military is noteworthy so too is the role of commentators who are the hired voices to do the cover-up through their columns & generally tasked to spread disinformation & misinformation! What is important to note that no regime change is possible without insider help & inside agents.
If Khan’s ouster was due to his “neutral” stance, did it apply to Gotabaya Rajapakse’s sudden ouster as well? Sri Lankan elections in November 2019 came after a regime change orchestrated jointly by QUAD partners US & India in 2015 bringing to power Maithripala Sirisena as President & Ranil Wickremasinghe as Prime Minister. That honeymoon ended with the Easter Sunday bombings in April 2019 which sealed the end of that government & enabled a nationalist-themed campaign to bring US dual citizen Gotabaya Rajapakse to power. It was during the 2015-2019 tenure that saw India & Sri Lanka forge greater ties with the US particular in terms of military & intelligence agreements and sealed the ability to provide logistics services to the US via ACSA agreement signed in 2017. It remains a puzzle for what reason the Easter Sunday attacks took place though the former President Sirisena has recently accused India of masterminding it. Taking this allegation seriously it appears that India is following the same template as the US & is now engaging extremist Islamic groups for its own geopolitical goals.
Be that as it may, what is equally puzzling is why the US would decide to oust Gotabaya given that they could easily use his desire to return to US as a carrot to get their goals achieved! The nature of that ouster remains itself a case study since a greater part of the drama ended up with locals settling personal scores & vendettas which is why piecing the puzzle is somewhat difficult.
What should be understood is that neither the US nor India have any favorites except whoever is prepared to betray the nation & national interest. This means they are always fishing for the best traitors amongst all spheres of society and would lavishly award & reward them for their treacheries including helping remain in power so long as they meet their wish list. Imran Khan certainly did not fit into that list, but Gotabaya presented no open defiance to either US or India and he certainly had no close ties with China either. So, perhaps even Gotabaya must be wondering what happened to him for US or India to want to oust him given that he cannot return to the US either!
The most recent regime change was seen in Bangladesh. When US-ally Yunus was flown to take over as leader, it does not leave much to the imagination. PM Sheik Hasina unlike Gotabaya was given refuge in India. As one of the fastest growing economies, Bangladesh looked a promising nation, her ties with Russia & China are attributed to her downfall. Bangladesh is in chaos with 450 people dead & as expected Yunus invites UN fact-finding mission. The protests were against the 30% quota allocated to children of freedom fighters. Ironically, PM Hasina abolished the quota system in 2018 but it was held illegal by Dhaka High Court reversing the decision. How many of these protestors knew that PM Hasina abolished the quota system? Eventually the Chief Justice was forced to resign while several other judges also followed thus crippling the legal system & a new trend of jungle law where unruly mobsters believe they can take law & order to their hands & remove & appoint people they please.
The “discipline” behind these protests where students were functioning as traffic police were all signs of training given by numerous US regime change agents providing training in Bangladesh & Sri Lanka. Many are now indoctrinating the agenda of LGBTQIA amongst youth as a fad while promoting drinking, smoking among both sexes to exemplify followers of “liberalism”. For lack of counter measures to educate these youth on the dangerous self-destructive path they are taking, youth are being led astray & the denationalism is occurring even in India, where the regime change grand finale is likely to be.
Regime change has not stopped with Pakistan, Sri Lanka & Bangladesh. It’s now Indonesia’s turn to face the music. This time the protest is against changes to election laws. The ugly scenario will no doubt backfire when it would become fashionable to organize violent protest groups & oppose legislative changes which perhaps the government may not even want changed! There is always a flip side to all issues & the ordinary people will end up the eventual losers.
Are these sudden protests just regime change or are they part of that great reset which involves the elimination of the nation state system where the notion that politicians are unsuited to govern & unable to govern, where people’s representatives are “being chased” by the “people” and the symbolic Parliaments are being attacked with aim to burn them down, thus justifying the reason to not exist any longer?
– Do troubles create an exodus of fleeing migrants as Hungarian leader Victor Orbon explained? https://x.com/HoodedClaw1974/status/1826935273738928378 Is it about preventing nations come out of poverty by continuing to keep them destabilized & under the wrath of international monetary agencies & hedge funds? Is it about transnational corporate takeover of debt-ridden nations resources & assets to take nations back to the times of Dutch East India rule under neo-colonial slavery! Is it all about enslavement where the wealth is once more getting centralized into the hands of a few, even the white majorities in US, UK & Europe are now victimized via a new scheme being rolled out as DEI (diversity-equity-inclusion) which is not merit-based by marginalizing the majority in favor of minorities who can be easily manipulated as they are in smaller groups!
What we saw unfold in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh & now unfolding in Indonesia are not good signs & those masterminding these will find out at some point in time that they cannot control the crowd. With law & order at a standstill jungle law is nothing that can be easily brought to control. Eventually entire nations end up reversing all that they have gained. Corporates who naively fund these protests for short term gain will unfortunately face long term repercussions. No country can progress or be productive when a bunch of people think they can bully a nation by protesting in unruly gangs. The damage they commit are irreversible & dangerous. No nation wants to end up having foreign boots on the ground claiming to bring law & order. We had first hand experience of that in 1987 where the saviours ended up shooting all communities unable to identify who the enemy was! Therefore, we should not allow such a scenario to be repeated.
Shenali D Waduge
