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Naomi Klein, shock doctrine and Bangladesh

Muhammad Aminul Islam
Til stare into the future of Bangladesh In the long line of eyes staring at me.
A pitch dark veil will cover those worrying eyes, and Traces offailed desires rubbed down my throat, TH scream: 'I know nothing 'bout all this,
I understand nothing of all this.' (Hulia, Nirmalendu Gun).
IS Naomi Klein is more famous than her groundbreaking work Shock Doctrine: The Rise of the Disaster Capitalism? A Canadian by birth, who shot to fame through her seminal work No Logo: Aim at the Brand Bullies in 1999, Naomi Klein has emerged as one of the theoretical gurus of alternative globalisation (alter-globalisation) movement. Her No Logo has become the equivalent of a cultural manifesto for the critics of unfettered capitalism worldwide and has been described as 'a movement bible.' The alter-globalisation movement is a cooperative movement to protest the direction and perceived negative economic, political, social, cultural and ecological consequences of neoliberal globalisation, and propagates that 'another world is possible.'
Her later work, The Shock Doctrine, an anti-thesis of Milton Friedman's democratic free market omnipotence, explodes that myth. Exposing the thinking, the money trail and the puppet strings behind the world-changing crises and the wars of the last four decades, The Shock Doctrine demonstrates how America's free market policies have come to dominate the world - through the exploitation of people and countries shocked by disasters, natural and man-made.
At the most chaotic juncture in Iraq's civil war, as The Shock Doctrine story goes, a new law is unveiled that would allow Shell and BP to claim the country's vast oil reserve. As the story goes on, immediately following September 11, the Bush administration quietly out-sources the running of the 'war on terror' to Halliburton and Blackwater. After the tsunami wipes out the coasts of Southeast Asia, the beaches are auctioned off to tourist resorts, residents of New Orleans, scattered because of Hurricane Katrina, discover to their horror that their public housing, hospitals and schools will never be reopened. These events, if put together, are examples of the classical shock doctrine. Using the public's dazed disorientation following massive collective shocks through wars, terrorist attacks or natural disasters, attempts are made to achieve control by imposing economic shock therapy. Sometimes, when the first two shocks don't succeed in wiping out resistance, a third shock is employed: may be brutal police action on the streets.
Is Bangladesh another fertile experimental ground for shock doctrine? The series of events that happened during the last few years, if chronicled, would point to the fact that
the people of Bangladesh were exposed to some catalytic events that shaped the present state of indecisiveness. Starting from Peelkhana carnage, the long list includes share market scam, Hall-Mark swindle, Destiny debacle, Padma Bridge graft, alleged killing of journalist involved in investigating journalism, collapse of Rana Plaza and RMG sector turbulences as, well as overall governance failure, the citizens have been witnessing another manifestation of shock doctrine, may be on a national and limited scale.
All these mini-shocks, mostly due to political machinations or governance failure, deliberate or accidental, have confused and dazed the citizens and pushed them to adopt a fatalistic approach, expect nothing better for the future, and not react to immediate priority issues. So, when the issue of a free and fair election arises (be it conducted by any form of government!), the nation had no tangible consensus, though there was always so. From the members of Bars and the Bench, the intelligentsia and academics, parliamentarians and elected representatives, people of all walks of life have given their opinion that the national elections should be conducted by a group of people not related to politics.
It was done by the distinguished members of the amicus curie as requested by members of the Bench and on many other occasions. It was done by the members of the Bench in their historic but disputed verdict. This was done, time and again, by the members of committee dedicated to evolve the amendment of constitution, and by members of the civil society. But unfortunately for the nation, no common platform could be agreed upon; no consensus could be reached as to how to achieve the elusive common platform, or achieve a consensus. What is lost in the conundrum is that withouta credible election, a regime, on theone hand, never answers the unanswered questions it was supposed to answer during its tenure and, on the other hand, citizens cannot demonstrate their ownership of the state.
The absence of the first makes the regime despotic while the absence of the second fails to make the society inclusive. The first robs the society of its creative faculty and the second makes it backward looking and restive. If some wise men were consulted, they could point out that the nation as a whole has become too restive, and may go beyond governance. We only hope that our political naysayers, who predict a failed state, are proved wrong. It is really surprising that nobody is really caring about the sad incidents happening all over the country, from Patgram to Kutubdia! Unfortunately, we have no Nirmalendu Gun (of his time!) to tell us: "I know nothing 'bout all this, I understand nothing of all this," thus inspiring us to introspect and come to a solution the nation wants.
The writer is a former Civil Servant. E-mail: theamlnsl9@gmall.com