Conclusion

The acute dependence on the self-centered capitalist western public for apparels markets for the country’s overall economic development is a major weakness of Bangladesh’s economic policy. The economically advanced countries of the west are eager to import our exportable goods produced by cheap labour at the lowest possible prices but export to us their high cost manufactured goods at increasingly higher prices, including their brand of political democracy. Their commodities and democracy are gradually tarnishing the age old rich socio-economic and religious-cultural values of our own. The west “compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of production; it compels them to introduce what it calls civilization into their midst, i.e., to become bourgeois themselves; in one word, it creates a world after its own image” (Marks-Engels, Vol. 1, P. 38). Under this process there will probably emerge a handful of vertex billionaires in Bangladesh someday but the dignity and glory of the nation will not remain unimpaired. Let us remember what Al Qur’ân reveals, “Ye are the best community that hath been raised up for mankind. Ye enjoin right conduct and forbid indecency; and ye believe in Allāh; and if the People of the Scripture had believed it had been better for them. Some of them are believers; but most of them are evil-livers.

From the buyers’ side it is said that if a western retailer paid 2 pence more in UK currency per piece of apparels, then the wage of the garments workers could be doubled provided the garments owners paid the workers just wage. The diplomatic missions abroad may demand that foreign buyers give us reasonable price for our apparels. Of course it is true that if we ask for better prices for our apparels, the buyers may not automatically raise it, but if collective efforts by developing exporting are launched, it may probably help apparels prices to rise by some percentage points. The increased price may in course of time go to the pockets of the workers; this is what actually is called “trickle down effect” in economics literature (Ittefaq, An analyst, 8 August 2010, P. 23).            

The garments factory owners of Bangladesh and their western imperialist capital owning allies should remember the age old proverb that “Hungry men are the angry men” and no law and law enforcing agencies can resist them from bursting out in the long run. Had it not been so, the European colonies around the world could survive for eternity, and the garments factories are trifle things.

The garments owners of Bangladesh should try to search out an alternative market for their apparels outside the west. According to business leaders there is enough demand for Bangladeshi apparels in Saudi Arabia. Strong effort will need to be made to tap this potential, for example, by establishing ‘Bangla Bazar’ or ‘Bangla Town’ in Saudi Arabia similar to the ‘China Bazar’ or ‘China Town’ around the world. Saudi Arabia can be a good market for Bangladeshi apparels if the designs of the apparels are conformable to their demands together with the western designs which are also demanded there as Arab women and children of different Middle Eastern countries residing in Saudi Arabia have recently become accustomed to wearing western types of garments (Sayeed, 22 August 2010, P. 23). Other Middle Eastern countries can also be prospective markets of Bangladeshi apparels if efforts are made to expand the apparels markets there. The sole dependence on the western apparels markets, as it stands presently, could thereby be reduced. Al Qur’ân reveals that, “He (Allāh) it is Who hath made the earth useful unto you, so walk in the paths thereof”.^67/15  In addition to looking for new markets Bangladesh will have to export more-value-added apparels instead of increasing the quantity of exports. To do this, emphasis will have to be given on high-tech fashion rich production and export of apparels. Bangladesh at present mainly exports apparels like basic T-shirts, polo-shirts, cotton-shirts and trousers in which the amount of value-added is very low. This is also one of the reasons why the garments owners cannot pay sufficient wage to the garments workers (Karim, 28 August 2010, P. 07). Side by side, efforts should have to be made for gradual expansion of the domestic market of apparels through improving the purchasing power of the country’s large population to reduce the huge dependence of the garments sector on only the traditional foreign markets.

It is not logical to pay low wage to the workers on the ground that there is abundant supply of labour in the economy. Likewise, it is not logical to threaten the worker that the garments owners will shut down the factories if the workers demand higher wages. “It is coercion on the part of the rich ones to prevaricate in the case of giving away the wage of the workers and pay off debts” (Hadith: Bukhari and Muslim), it is farther said that the Prophet (s) will raise allegations against three kinds of persons in the day of resurrection, of them one is “The person who makes one work hard and even after realizing work in full from him, does not pay the worker his due wage (Hadith: Bukhari).                 

There may exist disputes among the owners and the workers centering arrear payments and these can be solved in a peaceful manner. But no one should be allowed to capitalize on these disputes and incite workers to create violence as some labour leaders and NGOs have allegedly been doing every now and then. It is said that these labour leaders receive tens of millions of Taka as bribe from the said foreign NGOs; even the garments owners also give these labour leaders fat amount of money as bribe. “Imprecation of Allāh is on both the givers and receivers of bribes”(Quoted in Dainandin Zibane Islam, 2000, P.516 from Aan Nihaya Fi Garibil Hadis, Allama Ibnul Asir (r), Vol. II, P. 226).

Destruction and eventual shutting down of the factories brings no good to the workers. If labour leaders and NGOs are found responsible for inciting violence, they should be dealt with iron hands. The resent cancellation of the registration of an NGO by the government is a good example. In an environment of intimate relations between the owners and the workers, there will exist no misunderstandings between them. The workers will remain satisfied with the wage the owners pay to them and both the owners and their factories will be safe, there will be need no need for industrial police to wield sticks over the heads of the workers to keep them calm.

A healthy growth of the garments sector is necessary in the collective interest of all – entrepreneurs, workers and the economy as a whole. Yet, it is true that some owners are busy in making their pockets heavy without giving the workers. There are directives of the finance ministry and the Bangladesh Bank to provide financial assistance to the losing establishments. Some tries to take the benefit without being loser. The garments workers should be paid minimum wage by taking into consideration their overall cost of living, i.e., the costs of food, clothing, shelter and health care.

Many garments owners are eager to run the garments factories by paying the workers Taka 5,000 as minimum wage. They maintain that a business in which the workers are paid their just wages cannot but flourish. But congenial environment will have to be ensured by preventing any unrest created by political elements and toll raisers in the ‘Jhut’ business. They claim that a handful garments owners that do not pay the workers their due are creating problems. This is one of the reasons put forward for the introduction of industrial police to prevent anarchy in the ‘Jhut’ sector and to control the defaults in wage payments by certain owners. But the CGWF leaders argue that the arrest of the defaulting owner will not serve the purpose of the workers. The right course of action will be to allow trade union facilities so that the owners and the workers can solve their problems through discussions (Chaudury, 15 August 2010, P. 13).

BGMEA and BKMEA leaders welcome industrial police while CGWF leaders want the right for trade union facilities for fruitfully solving the problems between the garments owners and the workers through consultations. Even Al Qur’ân reveals that the “affairs are a matter of counsel”^42/38 and “who make amicable settlement, his wage is the affair of Allāh”. ^42/40   Prophet (s) has asked not to buy anything from a helpless person (Hadith: Abu Daud). It means that it is not permissible to take unlawful advantage of his helpless condition. Shah Oali Ullah (r) has opined that an approval taken by force is unacceptable in Islam (Hujjatulillahil Baliga, Vol. 2, P.103. Quoted in Dainandin Zibone Islam, 2000, P.482).        

Bangladesh has made a commendable success in the garments sector. Let this sector not be ruined like the once prosperous jute sector of Bangladesh because of the rashness either on the part of the owners or the workers or both or other concerned third parties. We may at best beg by heart to Allāh the Almighty in the words of Bengali poet Tagore Ò‡Zvgvi cZvKv hv‡i `vI Zv‡i ewnev‡i `vI kw³Ó (To whom Thou givest Your flag, give him the strength to bear it). Let us move forward in our own traditional holy and pious way without paying heed to the westerners who are entangled in serious socio-economic-cultural and religious crisis which is the fruit of their own rash materialistic worldly deeds.