Main Page «
Front Page «
Metro «
Business «
International «
Sports «
National «
Op-Ed «
Home «
Timeout «
Letters «

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

The spate of violence that the country’s ready-made garments industry is once again experiencing, with a slew of factories vandalised by agitated workers in the past fortnight, could have more to do with 14-hour workdays, abysmal working conditions and growing economic anxiety for the workers, rather than a ‘conspiracy’ hatched by ‘Bangladesh’s enemies’ as the authorities have been saying. A report in Saturday’s New Age suggests that the unexplained phenomena of workers going on a rampage after seeing dead colleagues in the factory bathrooms is perhaps better explained by what is known as ‘mass psychogenic illness’ or ‘mass hysteria’ - instances of which were recorded across Bangladesh last year, and have been recorded elsewhere in the world in the past.
   While a number of conspiracy theories have been offered to explain the resurgence of violent protests in the garments sector over the past month, the evidence strongly suggests that the culprit could be mass psychogenic illness. While this illness remains largely unexplained by establishment Western medicine, it is believed to occur in work or residential environments with large numbers of young women, and characterised by strict discipline. Doctors in Dhaka suggest that malnutrition and poor working conditions could also have played a major role in triggering the violence witnessed in the past fortnight.
   Against this backdrop, perhaps the industry leaders as embodied by the Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association should arrange for psychologists and counsellors to talk to workers at the factories and pacify the anxieties and fears at the source of these possible hallucinations. Industrial relations in the garments sector is sadly one of mistrust, with factory owners often prone to believe that a section of workers are intentionally sabotaging their business at the behest of outsiders, and workers fearful of the violence and abuse that a bulk of factory management perpetrate as policy to cow them into submission. If industrial relations are to improve, the initiative must come from the factory owners, many of whom have shown evidence of tremendous patience and understanding, as the New Age report reveals, by having religious rites performed at the factory to reassure workers that they are now safe from ghosts or evil spirits.
   First and foremost, the industry as a whole has to recognise to a greater extent that one of the biggest architects of its tremendous success in Bangladesh is in fact the source of cheap dedicated labour that the workers provide. Once this is recognised officially, a section of the factory owners who know no better than to pursue a management policy of violence and abuse must be enthused to improve their relations with workers, improving working conditions even nominally to prove that the workers are valuable to them. Thirdly, the BGMEA must take a lead in bridging an increasingly widening chasm that is developing between the workers and factory owners. While a long term effort in this regard must be the introduction of trade unions, in the short term the BGMEA cannot afford to act only on behalf of the owners – it must become the industry’s apex body from the factory owners’ lobby group that it is. Without strong steps in this direction, the existing conditions look set to cause more divisions and mistrust in the industry, jeopardising its future in the long term.

Pre-empting monga season

The Maoist government of Nepal has abolished, according to a recent New Age report, an age-old custom whereby peasants borrow money from indigenous moneylenders and work their way out of debt. The system was akin to slave labour as the wages paid by the money lenders to these peasants with which they would pay back their loans would be pathetically low, which merely ensured that a large portion of the peasantry remained in bondage for almost all their lives slipping ever deeper into the vicious cycle of poverty. The system has been ruled illegal by the current government in Nepal that also intends to carry out massive land reforms.
   The scenario is strikingly similar to what occurs in parts of Bangladesh, particularly in the northern districts where there is a serious dearth of industrial employment. The phenomenon that the government of Nepal is now abolished emerges almost every year around late October in Bangladesh’s northern districts and is known here as ‘monga’. During this near-famine situation, there is little or no demand for agricultural labour and most landless labourers are forced to borrow money from local money-lenders at exorbitant interests, reaching up to 15 per cent per month. Often peasants are also forced to sell their labour in advance for a pittance and made to work throughout the harvesting season when there is a high demand for labour and wage rates begin to climb significantly. Thus, those who had sold their labour earlier to escape poverty for a few days are denied their opportunity to exploit sudden spike in demand and labour wages. This seasonal crisis also compels a large number of small farmers to sell their produce weeks before they are ready to be harvested, which, needless to say, only leads to further exploitation of their misery.
   While there are lessons to be learnt from Nepal’s recent decision, the government should seriously and sincerely look into the possibility of making provisions of small loans targeted for farmers easier and free from rent-seeking, as it is a general complaint that small loans of Tk 5,000 require a substantial amount of paperwork besides, of course, mandatory payment of speed money to the middlemen ranging between 10 and 20 per cent of the total loans. But more importantly, governments should seek to build sufficient infrastructure and ensure smooth utility services in such areas and at the same time provide specific incentives to channel investment into those areas to set up industries to effectively alleviate the situation.

Of late there has been a vigorous movement in and outside the country to have Cox's Bazaar, the longest unbroken beach in the world, to be selected as a top natural heritage site and the whole country took part in it with marked spontaneity. But, as we vote for Cox's Bazaar and for Sundarban, the largest mangrove forest in the world, with gusto, and expect everyone in the world to know them, the reality is rather disheartening because though these two places are well known to us, to the world traveler, Bangladesh does not feature in their list of preferred tourist spots. And that is a fact! In the top travel magazines in the world Bangladesh as a place to visit is hardly mentioned and therefore no matter how spectacular and unparalleled Cox's Bazaar or Sundarban are, the ordinary backpacker as well as the seasoned traveler looking for more than a budget holiday have no clue as what these names stand for.
   The irony of this ignorance is that other places in the region, which are not so fascinating in terms of natural abundance and beauty, have become top spots just because these places had an aggressive and non-stop marketing campaign going on for them. Maybe India with its massive country has a lot to offer in the context of diversity but when countries like Malaysia and Thailand capitalise on what they have to the fullest, and gain huge dividends from them to boost their national economy, our failure to utilise these assets becomes all the more visible.
   In fact, if a comparison is made, then we see that we do have all the natural blessings to turn our country into a tourist hotspot. During a popular tourist familiarisation tour in Thailand arranged by Thai, their national carrier, media and tourist agents of all potential tourist pulling countries were invited and many of our travel agents commented that there is no topographical difference between Chiang Mai and our Chittagong Hill Tracts. In truth, the CHT can easily be turned into a splendid tourist destination featuring hill-side resorts, mountain lodges, trekking and kayaking on the wild hilly streams. And then there are the beaches in Cox's Bazaar and Kuakata and a massive forest in Sundarban.
   In addition, Comilla, with the ancient ruins and even Dhaka, the 400-year-old capital can also be turned into popular tourist attraction spots if the right policy is there.
   Regrettably, despite all the possibilities, the National Tourism Policy, conceived of 18 years ago has not seen proper implementation. Reportedly, today, within the SAARC countries Bangladesh is second from the bottom in the sector of tourism, just above Bhutan. However, even this data is flawed because Bhutan is a top tourist destination for niche western tourists. And, as South Asians have very little idea about the mountainous country, most think, erroneously, that it does not have a tourist infrastructure.
   Bhutan, in reality, has a thriving tourism infrastructure and the only reason we do not know about it is because the promotions are usually done in the west and rarely in the regional context.
   But that argument is not relevant in our case because by not having a compact and coordinated tourism sector we are losing out on precious foreign exchange. Malaysia and Thailand have assiduously pursued the tourism mantra and today their status on the tourism map is secure. Other smaller south east nations like Laos and Cambodia are quickly coming in with the latter capitalising on the Angkor Wat, a place also served to pop culture through its presence in a Hollywood film featuring the wildly popular computer gaming character Lara Croft.
   And, amazingly Vietnam has turned the legacy of its decade-long invasion by the US into a tourist attraction. In Vietnam, many war sites with actual wreckages of American planes and underground Vietnamese machine gun posts and hideouts have become top tourist spots for many ex-army Americans who come back to the east to recount their young days spent fighting here. For some curious reason the American obsession with Vietnam continues and though the US lost the war they themselves had started, and were compelled to withdraw their fascination for the war and anything to do with the Vietnam is almost mythical.
   Meanwhile, our National Tourism Policy of 1992 had all the guidelines aimed to boost the sector and the policy had eight specific objectives: increase earning by attracting more foreign tourists, encourage tourism among the locals and ensure tourism for them at an affordable rate, development and sustenance of the tourism industry, increase employment in the sector, develop a positive image of Bangladesh abroad, open a sector that would allow investment from non-government sectors, provide entertainment for local and international tourists and promote local handicrafts and skills.
   Yes, today we do have a sizeable number of local tourists but that has nothing to do with the policy because Bangladeshis have become familiar to the idea of a yearly holiday through becoming open to globalised views. But, aside from that, almost all the targets of the policy remain unfulfilled. The fact is, we do not have even one thousand foreign tourists coming to Bangladesh during the peak season and the ones who do go to the tourist spots are mostly foreigners working here in Bangladesh.
   And as a result we are losing out on a very lucrative sector. Once upon a time, India was promoted as a whole country but now the focus has become more focussed. Each region of India now has its own tourism promotion campaign supported by a solid infrastructure. Hence, we now see specific ads luring tourist to Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Darjeeling and so on. Indians have gone beyond the first step of tourism and today they are well inside the deeper realms of the trade and the same goes for Malaysia. Just a few years ago, Malaysia as a whole was being promoted, but today, the spots have individual promotions and so the country is broken up into chunks of delicious tourism attracting segments. The idea is, if this does not suit you, then we have something else, but the aim is to get you here at any cost.