Security for the highest export earning sector

LAST Tuesday's happening in Gazipur Sadar thana under Dhaka district in which a dozen garments' factories were attacked by angry workers following the reported spread of rumour about death of their fellow colleagues has been yet another unfortunate event in the country's ready-made garment (RMG) sector. Indeed, the leaders of the Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) have, for quite sometime, been in a very embittered mood for what they see as government failing to give them enough security to carry out their production activities smoothly. Under the circumstances, they have called upon the government to take action, within a week, against the rising insecurity of their establishments from vandalism. If a proper response is not noted in this period, the BGMEA is likely to start an action programme of its own. Its leaders in their statement last Monday even hinted the possibility of shutting down of some of their units in such a situation.brThis reaction from the owners and operators of the country's export-oriented RMG industries is nothing unexpected in view of the frequent troubles they are facing. The immediate problem appears to be the vandalism against the garments units causing damage to machinery, goods and other assets. A report in this paper headlined last Tuesday that 151 garments industries were vandalised between January and August of the current year and 109 of them became the unfortunate victims of such pillaging entirely on the basis of completely baseless rumours of workers' deaths while the rest were due to protest over low wages. Workers' unions tend to deny that there is any conspiracy to undermine the RMG sector and link the violence to their members' unmitigated woes related to wages and other monetary benefits. brBut such contentions notwithstanding, there can be no legal basis for vandalism. If workers are unhappy, then they must confine their activities to proper methods and inform the authorities concerned about their grievences. No amount of their frustrations give them any rights, whatsoever, to physically attack the very establishments from which they draw their sustenance. Thus, it becomes evident from these attacks that more than the workers there are vested interests of outsiders who have been egging on such incidents. Investigations by the BGMEA as well as by government's own security agencies proved this point many times. But what is proving to be very galling is the government's strange silence after these findings. brIf proactive policies were pursued by the law enforcement bodies, then many incidents of attacks on garments industries could be prevented in recent months leading to the building of appropriate security for the sector. Thus, the entrepreneurs in this sector are calling for extending round the clock security to the garments producing factories as well as ferreting out the trouble-makers from behind the wings to punish them in a manner that would leave adequate deterrent effect. Given the pivotal importance of this sector for the national economy as the highest export earner and the main source of employment for the industrial labour force, the government can in no way afford to respond casually to the demand for security from the entrepreneurs.