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A necropolitical reading of ‘All the Prime Minister’s

Men’
Archives
 February 19, 2021  Muhammad Kamruzzamann

Muhammad Kamruzzamann
 June 2021

‘Now the right of life and death is a strange right.’ Michel Foucault  April 2021

T
 March 2021
his writing tries to understand Michel Foucault’s the notion of
 February 2021
‘sovereign’ and Achille Mbembe’s ‘necropolitics’ with a view to analysing
Josef Ahmed being granted a presidential pardon, as well as Haris
Ahmed and Anis Ahmed being able to attend their nephew’s wedding,
though they are described as wanted criminals in Al Jazeera’s ‘All the Prime Minister’s
Men.’ But the state claimed that they had been granted presidential pardon too. Categories

Before I move any further, I would like to clarify that I am giving a reading of Al  CREATIVE WRITINGS
Jazeera’s ‘All the Prime Minister’s Men’ as a reader of philosophy–it has no intention to
 LITFOLKS ORIGINALS
demean anyone linked with the documentary.
 বাংলা
Sovereign/ty

Foucault, in the very last chapter of Society Must Be Defended (1976), argues that ‘war’,
historically, has been viewed as ‘a war between races.’ But, to reconstruct the idea of
war, he claims that, with time, ‘war’ has lost its ‘national universality.’ And, according to
him, ‘State racism’ has taken its place.

To understand the Foucauldian notion, ‘State racism,’ rstly it is important to

understand his take on the notion of ‘sovereignty’ that distances itself from the
traditional understanding of the notion of ‘sovereignty’. The traditional understanding
of sovereignty, if linked to an independent state, refers to a governing system that is
free from external control, and if linked to individuals, it signi es one’s natural right to
life and death. But Foucault argues that the right to life and death is no longer natural
because the idea of sovereignty is no longer associated with individuals, rather with
some powerful institutions (for example, state and its institutions, religious
institutions). In the Foucauldian understanding of sovereignty, the state or other
controlling institutions can put people to death or let them live. The point being made
here is that the sovereign can dictate life and death that means ‘the lives and deaths of
subjects [human beings] become rights only as a result of the will of the sovereign.’

Let’s get back to the notion of ‘State racism.’ Why is Foucault trying to tag the idea of
the sovereign with racism? It’s simple because the right to life and death is no longer
natural, rather, who can live and who must die, it’s decided by the sovereign. As
dictating life and death is no longer natural, rather a constructed condition, one can
imagine that the sovereign right to allow people to live and let them die is no longer
deliberate, rather intentional thus discriminatory to secure its continuous control over
everything.

Necropolitics

Mbembe, in the essay ‘Necropolitics,’ in a sense, extends the Foucauldian

understanding of sovereign/ty: he echoes, ‘the ultimate expression of sovereignty
resides … in the power and the capacity to dictate who may live and who must die,’ and
a sovereign exercises control over death as well as de nes life as a distribution and
expression of power. He also relates his understanding of ‘sovereignty’ with the
Foucauldian concept, ‘biopower’. With reference to all these concepts, Mbembe de nes
necropolitics: it is the subjugation of life and death in front of the use of socio-political
power. In other words, necropolitics is the use of power to command ‘how some
people may live and how some must die.’

Example one

Josef Ahmed, for killing Mostafa, had been sentenced to death but, later, the charge was
commuted to ‘life in prison’. Josef being sentenced to death and later the charge being
converted to ‘life in prison’ could be considered as an example of the fact that a state
has the power to put someone to death. But the most interesting part is that he, a er
serving more than 20 years in prison, was granted a presidential pardon. It is
interesting because the state has practised all the possible things a sovereign could do
to a subject: rstly, they put him to death and, lastly, decided to let him live. And,
probably, because of this Foucault writes, ‘the right of life and death is a strange right.’

Example two

In the documentary, it is narrated that Haris Ahmed and Anis Ahmed are on the run
since their conviction for the killing of Mostafa, and they are also wanted criminals.
Though they are o cially tagged as wanted by Bangladesh Police, in ‘All the Prime
Minister’s Men,’ they are seen to be attending their nephew’s wedding. Question is, how
did they enter Bangladesh, attend a wedding, and leave the country without being
arrested?[*] It’s as easy as it sounds: a sovereign may choose to allow someone to live
instead of putting that person to death. And that’s the reason why Foucault tries to tag
the practice of sovereignty as ‘state racism’, and claims that life and death are no longer
natural rights, rather they are subjects to the socio-political control over human life
and death.

[*] It’s claimed that they were granted a presidential pardon too, but this reading is
based on the evidence presented in the documentary. It has no intention to demean
anyone.

Muhammad Kamruzzamann
Muhammad Kamruzzamann is an enthusiastic reader of philosophy, novel,
play, criticism, and critical literary and cultural theory, who loves to eat
movie and admires South-Asian classic (Raaga).

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 Achille Mbembe, Al Jazeera, All the Prime Minister's Men, Michel Foucault, necropolitical,
necropolitics, reading, Society Must Be Defended

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