Privatisation of Security and Reemployment of Retired Army Personnel in Bangladesh

Abstract

This thesis embarks on a question of how privatisation of security can be an option for the reemployment of retired army personnel in Bangladesh. Army profession, like other military professions, is a distinct profession; but unlike other non-military professions, it is featured by specialised skill. It embodies unique training and job nature, and after all, a military mind. Like other forces of the military, army personnel go on retirement relatively in an earlier age when their working age still remains active and vibrant. The expertise acquired by the army personnel in their professional life cannot be readily utilised in their retired life. Consequently, a huge number of physically able manpower becomes misfit for non-military professions. It means that given their working age and specialised skill, they still can provide service if they are reemployed in security sector – a sector that runs well with their military background. Against this backdrop, this study explores the connection between privatisation of security and reemployment of ex-members of the Bangladesh Army. It claims that a private security force – like Private Military Company (PMC), or Private Security Company (PSC) – exclusively composed of retired members of the Bangladesh Army can open an opportunity for the reemployment of ex-members of the Bangladesh Army. Privatisation of security, which is embedded in neoliberal development agenda, sees security as a commodity that is traded in the free market like other commodities. Private security forces are being engaged in diverse domains of task in the global scale. This is in this context a private security force, comprising exclusively of retired personnel of the Bangladesh Army, is proposed. Such a force─ ‘a Ready to Use Force’─ can be utilised from the very early stage of its inception by virtue of its experience, expertise, skill and orientation in security affair. The favourable neoliberal environment prevailing in Bangladesh envisages a wider scope of trading security in the market. More to the point, an attentive study finds wider domains of engagement of the private security forces composed of ex-army personnel. Privatisation of security can ameliorate the problem of unemployment of the retired army personnel in Bangladesh.