Will there be a Trumpian effect on Dhaka's politics?

Trump's disruptive message created a sensation in Dhaka with commentators, politicians and diplomats scurrying to change stances

- JAYANTA ROY CHOWDHURY

The election of Donald Trump as the president-elect of the most powerful nation in the world has changed power equations in many capitals of the world, but in none is there such elation and dismay at the same time as among those who are members of the power elite of Dhaka.

The army-backed government of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus and its mostly Islamist supporters are among those who quickly changed their loyalty away from the American democrats and the Clinton Foundation which has been backing them to welcome the US right-wing leader they feared most.

Their sullen mood as they sent formal messages of congratulations to the Trump administration was more than evident, both in televised talk shows dissecting this change in world politics and in the scurry of commentaries by argumentative Bangladeshis on social media.

However, both the Awami League led by ousted leader Sheikh Hasina and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party led by Begum Zia were exultant at this turn of events as they smelled an opportunity to reverse what they claim was a "colour revolution," aided by the Biden administration-led American deep state to put in place a friend of the Clinton family, supported by a bunch of Islamists masquerading as students leaders.

Continuing corruption, an exorbitant price spiral coupled with rise in joblessness, attacks on common citizens, increasing lawlessness, and radical Islamisation of the country seems to have alarmed the general public and this has given some hope to those who were either ousted from governance or kept out of the new regime.