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EDITORIAL
Get to the crux of RMG sector's problems
The readymade garment (RMG) sector, now the mainstay of the country's economy, is the single biggest foreign exchange earner and employs a vast number of workforce most of whom are women. Any snag in the smooth functioning of this crucial sector will come as a brutal blow to the country's economy as a whole.
As on previous occasions, last week too it remained a hitherto unsolved enigma, if not a mystery, why the garment industry, the nation's top thrust sector, should face one hurdle after another obstacle emanating from labour unrest. The incident originated from the alleged stealing of a mobile telephone set on 13 September at Featherlight Limited, an apparel-making factory located within the Dhaka Export Processing Zone.
After last year's violent attacks, ransacking and arson by unruly workers - allegedly non-workers too - because of which the sector sustained a loss to the tune of US$ 60 million, there was a relative respite for some months. In retrospect we surmise, if reasoning has anything to do, it cannot be termed unjustifiable when workers of sick and poorly managed factories demand and agitate for unpaid arrear wages. But why on earth the prime, state of the art factories -- that abide by the ILO convention and other compliance measures besides paying salary and other dues regularly -- should bear the brunt? No answer is available. The common man's perception is: no worker worth his name can bite the hand that feeds one.
Last year's unrest sparked from a knitwear factory where workers were demanding their 11-point claims which included wage hike, weekly holiday and reducing extra working hours, since early May in 2006. The factory authorities had assured workers of meeting their demands, but instead of resolving the issue, the management closed the factory at which the aggrieved workers along with deprived ones from other factories joined together and took resort to violence only when musclemen hired by factory authorities swung into action on them. In response to the demand of the labourers, the Government decided to form a wage commission for the garment sector to fix minimum wages. Garment workers and their leaders attributed the episode to a snowballing dissatisfaction leading to violence. The labour unrest in the industry has been brewing since long but was not addressed.
It is a recognised fact that the implementation of ILO convention by both the owners and the government could help to avert such serious problems. As regards trade unions, these bodies should also act as mediators in resolving disputes on behalf of workers as well as owners besides functioning as collective bargaining agents.
In today's world labour has emerged as a very important factor, even more important than the two other components, for which Western entrepreneurs are investing in countries in the East for cheap labour. The relevant Ministry in general and the BGMEA in particular shall have to devise ways and means for a lasting solution, failing which they will invite peril for themselves as well as for the nation.
Conspiracy theories have often been advanced - albeit shyly, without mentioning the perpetrators- to make people understand that certain countries are hatching up schemes to destroy the nation's vital RMG sector. If it is so as the BGMEA leaders usually suggest, then by all means it is a serious security concern. In this regard we observe a strange - better call it unpardonable nonchalance - on the part of factory owners, the apex body. Lip service will not do. If they feel the allegations are real, they shall have to go deep into the problem with due urgency.
In sum, the message is: Get to the crux of the problem; shadow-boxing will not bear fruit.
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Why the West is antagonistic to Islamic world?
Abdel-Wahab Elmessiri
Our relationship with the West began with Alexander the Great, the founder of the colonialist Ptolemaic Dynasty that ruled Egypt and the Levant for several hundred years. In that distant past there existed a form of parity; a certain give and take, an alternation of victory and defeat between the two sides. Even today, however, it is possible to point to factors that can as easily form the basis of mutual understanding and cooperation between Islam and the West as they can trigger conflict. For example, we share with some Western nations the border of the Mediterranean, whose importance for trade and maritime wealth should compel neighbours on either side towards closer cooperation, especially in this age of the global village.
Yet that very proximity has also been the source of intense friction because of the lure of land and resources on the other side. In its height, Islamic civilisation expanded geographically at the expense of the West as defined by the ambit of Christian civilisation, and the reverse was also true: the expansion of the West took place at the expense of the Islamic world, and tensions reached a zenith when Western powers moved to partition that world amongst themselves. Conversely, the further removed societies and civilisations are from one another geographically, the lower the potential for conflict between them. At least before the rise of Western colonialism, which staked out the entire world as its field of enterprise, no tension existed between the West and Thailand, for example, simply because land and resources were so far out of reach.
There are many similarities between the Muslim and Christian creeds that, similarly, could motivate closer communication and understanding just as they could also exacerbate tensions. Islam and Christianity share the belief in a single transcendent universal deity who has sent mankind holy books to guide them. The moral and ethical systems contained in these books are similar in many respects and could, therefore, serve as a common ground between the two religions and a framework of moral authority to which peoples of both could appeal. History in Islam and Christianity has an ultimate aim, in which mankind figures centrally; in both the existence of man on earth is not futile or absurd. The stories of creation in Islam and Christianity are similar: God breathed His spirit into matter. He created from the void, thereby imparting in man certain qualities (a body and a soul, the capacity for good and evil, and other such dualities) that distinguish him from other creatures.
Commonality and tension
These very commonalties between the two creeds can also constitute a source of tension between their respective adherents. The West is reluctant to classify Islam as an autonomous creed with its own vision of the universe. In spite of commonalties-or rather because of them-it regards Islam's rejection of incarnation, of a clerical interface between worshippers and God, and of elaborate rites and rituals and the mystical concepts these engender as deviations from Christianity and heresies. (The West does not adopt this approach towards such Eastern religions such as Shinto and Buddhism; because they are so far removed from Christianity in their view of the universe and doctrines, the West regards them as distinct and authentic creeds in their own right.) But Islam behaves similarly: it regards the New Testament as a holy book that has been tampered with and distorted by Christians themselves and it regards itself and its own revealed text as the only true religion.
Another factor that works to create a gulf between the Islamic and Western worlds is that each defines its own identity with respect to the other. Generally such a phenomenon is normal, but when it is taken to the extreme it becomes pernicious, because of latent antagonism bred by the antithesis. Since the middle of the 19th century, the West sounded the alarm against the "yellow peril" (China) and then the "red peril" (Communism). Now that these bugbears have been put to rest, it has begun to speak of the "green peril" (Islam).
Temperatures have risen recently between the Western and Islamic worlds with the growing influx into Europe of immigrants from Islamic societies bordering Europe (notably Turks, Moroccans and Kurds). One would think that these immigrant communities could have formed a bridge of understanding between the two worlds. However, because of declining birth rates in Western societies (even in Catholic societies which once had high rates) at a time when Muslims still adhere to their traditional epistemological and ethical systems, and because of increasing secularisation in the West, Westerners have also raised the spectre of the Muslim demographic threat.
A related phenomenon that tends to fuel animosity between the West and Islam today is "Eurocentrism", by which is meant the tendency to view others, and specifically Muslims and peoples of the Third World, through a purely European perspective and to pass judgement on those societies or peoples in terms of European cultural values. In this sense, therefore, the West's war against the Islamic world is a religious one. But religion, here, is not just doctrine and ritual, but a fundamental component of the Muslim's universal perspective and socio- political identity.
If most of the factors above could either serve to promote reconciliation and mutual understanding or ignite and fuel acrimony and antagonism, why has the latter tendency prevailed at this time? Why, in other words, has the relationship between the West and Islam become so openly hostile? Why has "terrorism" in the war on terrorism become synonymous with Islam?
Darwinian modernism
Surely one of the foremost factors to have fanned the flames between the West and the Islamic world is the West's Darwinian modernism, which has translated itself into a voracious consumerism requiring an imperialist edifice with an unquenchable thirst for the world's energy resources to feed it. Most of the world's energy resources happen to be situated in the Islamic world. It is little wonder, therefore, that the modernist imperialist order fired by its rabid consumerism set its predatory sights on this part of the planet and swooped down so rapidly on Afghanistan and Iraq. It needed to get its clutches on the world's largest reserves of oil, in the Caspian Sea and in the Middle East, in order to protect its national security, as it defines it, and safeguard the flow of oil at reasonable prices and in sufficient quantities to nourish exponentially growing consumer demand in the US and elsewhere in the West.
The West is not hostile to Islam, per se. It is hostile to a resistant Islam, an Islam that challenges the West's Darwinism and consumerism. A docile and obsequious Islam is something else; the West is perfectly willing to accept and work with this. Western antagonism towards Islam is not of an abstract metaphysical order; it has tangible historical roots. When this part of the world attempted to resist the onslaught of Western colonialism via the banner of Arab nationalism, the West allied itself with Islamist movements against Arab nationalism. It was only when Arab nationalism receded and Arab resistance raised an Islamic banner that the West began to lash out at Islam. Remember, Bin Laden was originally trained by the US to fight Washington's war against the Soviets in Afghanistan.
Western Darwinian modernism is not only hostile towards resistant Islam, but also towards all movements that espouse humanitarian values. It, therefore, opposes left-wing Christian groups that defend the poor and environmentalist groups. But it nonetheless perceives Islam as the greatest potential threat. As such, the West does not perceive Muslims and Arabs as autonomous human societies with their own legitimate aspirations and goals, but rather as pliable matter that must be made to submit and be forced into an iron cage-the cage of ever spiralling production and consumption for the sole purpose of material comfort and worldly pleasure. For us merely to suggest other values and aspirations, such as attachment to the land, the defence of pride and dignity, the rejection of laws of competition as the ultimate arbiter, is to doom ourselves to being pegged, in Western eyes, as irrational creatures.
No clash of civilisation
There has been much talk, recently, of the "clash of civilisations", by which is generally meant a clash between Islamic civilisation (or Oriental civilisations in general) and Western civilisation. I do not believe the concept holds water. History is replete with evidence of considerable positive and constructive interaction between the two. Even in the modern colonialist era, the Islamic world opened itself to many Western ideas, not to mention modern technology and goods. But while there is no "clash of civilisations", I would suggest that there exists a clash over the mode of civilisation.
Many in the Islamic world as well as in the West abhor the rapacious capitalism that accords the highest value to ever increasing production and consumer rates and that believes it the right of the militarily fittest to protect this economic order at home at the expense of others abroad; to send out armies to seize control over the energy and mineral resources that feed this order, to create and support proxy governments to assist it in its rapaciousness, to open their markets to its products and to kowtow to the global economic system. This insatiable consumerist capitalism is not identical with Western civilisation, but rather only one of many trends within that civilisation.
Many in the West have been deeply distressed at how this trend has succeeded in manoeuvring itself into power in the US and propelling the world to war and doing whatever it could to promote the interests of big business at the expense of the poor and disadvantaged and to the lasting detriment to the global environment. The millions who took to the streets in Europe and the US to protest American intervention in Iraq are indicative of growing opposition there to rampant capitalism. I believe that we in the Islamic world should ally ourselves with representatives of that trend in the interest of putting a stop to Washington's military rampage in the world.
There is a very real possibility for dialogue and mutual understanding. However, we must first take stock of the fact that the ruling elite in the West, with its Darwinian imperialist vision, is irrational. Rationalism presumes the existence of humanitarian and moral criteria that stand on their own as absolutes above the fray of human selfishness and bias. So how are we supposed to talk in the absence of a set of moral humanitarian criteria that all are willing to respect and abide by? Clearly, dialogue alone is not sufficient. Nor are media campaigns, however forceful. We must sustain the resistance, for otherwise the Darwinian mentality will perceive our willingness to engage in dialogue as a sign of weakness and our media campaigns as a sign of laziness. Darwinists respect only strength and they yield only to the type of pressures that they can feel with their five senses, since it is impossible to appeal to their minds that are unable to apply rational humanitarian thought. Dialogue will only succeed when backed by strength and the power of resistance.
The writer is author of The Encyclopaedia of the Jews, Judaism, and Zionism: A New Explanatory Paradigm.
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VIEW POINT
IMF, bilateral treaties
Dr Azizul Karim
Any treaty with IMF should be signed after consultation with Bangladesh's economists and elected politicians. The country's economists have already denounced the IMF and Indian request for corridor through Bangladesh's territory. Advisers to the present Caretaker Government (CG) should appear before the national media from time to time to face a panel of journalists and ensure prevention of any hide and seek regarding information about any plan and programme. We have not seen anything like that so far regarding such a highly important matter. Most importantly, why are they in so much hurry before the next general election? This is a very important question to be answered.
Secondly, India wants to give us less and wants to get much, much more. Economic exploitation by India was happening for past few decades from 1975 with export-import deficit of $2 billion dollars per annum, according to statistics. India is more interested in Dhaka-Kolkata train service because millions of dollars would be earned by India in health sector only. But India does not bother about the Farakka, Angurpota, Dahagram and other Chhitmahal issues.
The original report by B M Abbas should be read and reviewed for guidance to solve our flood problem and no availability of water during lean period or draught.
There is no anti-Indian feeling in Bangladesh. India on the other hand started anti-Bangladesh campaign for the past decades and successfully captured Bangladesh economy by exporting various goods, the balance being always in her favour.
The people of Bangladesh did not liberate their motherland from Pakistani domination to fall in the grip of Indian economic exploitation. Present stakeholders of the CG of Bangladesh and government officials of India should bring all those facts on the conference table before expecting anything from Bangladesh. Our army or the present Government should be intelligent enough during bargaining. People of Bangladesh do not pay tax for serving the cause of India or US. India wants economic benefit from us without giving us any benefit.
Some time back Sri Rahul Gandhi commented openly about liberation of Bangladesh. For his information, by means of Simla Pact with Zulfiker Ali Bhutto, Mrs Indira Gandhi set free all the 90,000 troops of Pakistan Army prisoners of war and 193 well-identified war criminals by the definition of Geneva Convention. Indira's government traded in our bloodshed and sacrifices in 1971. Furthermore, Indira Gandhi and Siddhartha Shankar Roy destroyed brilliant youth movement of West Bengal.
So Rahul Gandhi shouldn't try to pity us, Bangladeshis. The then Indian government did very unfriendly things to us for their geopolitical and economic benefits, the undesirable legacy of which we are still bearing. Humanism of Bengalees on both sides of the borders has been crushed by premeditated Kotilya politics at the expense of bloodshed of millions. Indian officials should stop lecturing Bangladesh to become secular and democratic standing from bloodied ground of Gujarat.
Notably, we neither support enemy property law about Bangladeshi Hindus. At the same time we object to pampering the writer of obscene and communal books, Tasleema Nasreen by the Anandbazar Patrika and some other newspapers which act can instigate fanaticism here.
People of this country are suspicious about the former US Ambassador to Bangladesh, Butenis and US foreign policy because of their past records: their role in 1971 supporting Pakistani killers and PL 480 game during 1974 famine will not be wiped out from history. The US govt wants to capture our economy through IMF. Mr Bush has selected India as regional policeman to capture our market, putting our Army and people to fight each other and destroy our institutions with Mackiavellian intrigue.
We are aware of Sirajul Alam Khan and Dr Kamal. Please make no mistake: we don't want to replace corrupt Hasina-Khaleda by more potential monsters. East India Company and its Permanent Settlement should not come back in midst of current geopolitical dirty game in the region.
All the national and international stakeholders should step carefully before making any quick decision against our poor people. Amen.
Dr Azizul Karim is a general practitioner based in Victoria, Australia.
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LETTERS
Emperor Sher Shah, Gen. Azam Khan
Dear Editor:
The above saying inspired me to express my views about the maxim that man has made possible what apparently looked impossible. Man has made everything possible by dint of his firm determination to achieve the goal set for social and national purposes. There are some very inspiring examples.
We would recall to memory what the Governor of the then East Pakistan Lt. General Azam Khan did in the early sixties. The Queen of England made a plan to visit Dacca (Dhaka) possibly in 1961. The Old Airport road was then very narrow and zigzag. So it needed to be widened. On one morning we saw the work started from Sonargaon road point of old railway crossing towards Farm Gate area. During those days there was dearth of modern equipment/machineries and experienced workers. Despite all those odds the work went on smoothly. A low land turned into a nice road within a couple of months.
General Azam Khan himself used to visit the site and encouraged the workers to speed up the work. On another fine morning we saw the road in complete shape nicely made straight and wide. The whole work was done in three months.
The Queen passed through this road to state guesthouse at Minto Road area.
Another such example is the old assembly building now housing Prime Minister's office. This building was also built in a record time of five/six months. The Chief Adviser is now functioning in this building with a vow to make arrangement to hold free, fair and impartial election. The present elegant Kamalapur railway station with its artistic roof standing to remind us what we can do.
Man is not born for just routine works. Every man is creative. Those who utilise it and make great things become great in the history. Persons getting such opportunity should avail it and do something for the people.
Now let us look back to the history. Sher Shah the ruler of India will remain in the history for his many benevolent works like Grand Trunk Road, planting trees by roadsides and building rest houses for travellers and many more.
A request to the Caretaker Government: a link road from Panthapath to Rampura road in one side, and towards Gulshan on the other side should be built.
Rangs Bhaban is under demolition for another link road towards Tejgaon industrial area. Nothing is impossible, what is required is quick decision, strong determination and action setting target to finish them during their tenure in the office. if these are done how people will be benefited avoiding heavy pressure of traffic jam.
M. A. AIim,
Ex. Banker
42/B-i, Indira Road, Dhakà-1215.
Ladies in the mosques
Dear Editor:
On 4 September, 2007, I was with my daughter at Uttara, and the CSB news was on the TV. At vthat time one utterance by some Maulana attracted my attention. He categorically stated that our religion does not allow ladies going to the mosque for prayer. Later I found out the Maulana was the Khatib of the Baitul Mukkaram Mosque, Mvi Oabaidul Haque, the learned Islamic jurist.
We know and were told that ladies can and should attend prayers at mosque, even if it is at night. Our Rasul had instructed as such when asked. He, of course, stated that there should be equal and separate arrangements for the ladies, for Islam does not encourage intermingling of genders.
It is in our Sub-continent that people do not encourage the ladies to attend prayers. Even Islam allows and desires that the family members (ladies and girls) must go to the Eid prayers, even when some are in 'period' and cannot attend the prayers.
Can we get a clarification and will the authorities warn the Maulana to stop from such false interpretation of the religion.
Col Mirza Shafi,
House # 82F, Road # 5
Banani.
VIP and non-VIP roads
Dear Editor:
There are four types of roads in Dhaka i.e. (i) VIP Roads (ii) Non-VIP Roads (iii) Two-lane (ways) Roads and (iv) One-lane (way) Roads.
On VIP roads only the motor vehicles ply, rickshaws and pushcarts are forbidden.
On Non-VIP roads all sorts of vehicles ply.
We feel that because rickshaws and pushcarts are not allowed to ply on the VIP roads due to various reasons, plying of motor vehicles may not be allowed on some non-VIP roads whose breadth is less than fifteen feet and cause road traffic jams.
Hundreds of motor vehicles, buses, trucks, cars, rickshaws and pushcarts ply one after another continuously on two lanes (ways) and one lane (way) roads resulting in great difficulty, wastage of time and risk of life for pedestrians to cross the road.
It is imperative that speed breakers, zebra crossing or underground passages may be made in all important and busy points of the roads for the safety and security of the pedestrians while the cross the roads.
The DCC and DMP should look into the above long neglected matters and do the needful as immediately as possible in the interest of pubic service
O. H. Kabir,
Dhaka.
US dollar, UN, IMF and gridlock
Dear Editor:
The might of the US lies in the dollar, not in military might (Cookson, Holiday, Aug. 31).
Today US$ is the single global currency. The OIC is ignoring the implications - no initiative from KSA. How to get out of this gridlock?
The Islamic global currency idea needs feasibility studies, plus a united stand. Today there is no unity in the Islamic world; there are tremendous communication gaps.
The strength of the USD is keeping UN, IMF and other international agencies in the strong group of the Americans. Asia failed to have a currency of its own, while the Euro is a defensive mechanism.
SAARC international trade is a mere three per cent of the total global volume. ASEAN is too small to bother. The global financial environment has to be changed. The first step is critical.
Global politics is in a fluid stage. The third world (two-thirds of the world's population) can't take initiative.
A catalyst is required. What it could be?
A. Mahasen,
Dhaka.
IDB and Bangladesh
Dear Editor:
The IDB president revisited Dhaka after 10 years. This belated gesture is appreciated. Bangladesh is a Muslim majority nation with the highest density of population in the Islamic world.
This huge human resources (140 million) has to be properly tapped for the benefit of OIC members.
The IDB monitoring centre in Bangladesh needs to be strengthened. Poverty alleviation will strengthen discipline, and reduce systems losses.
Engr Md Abad,
Dhaka.
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