Errant RMG owners going free; Time to place BGMEA under scanner
A BASIC sign of the rule of law underscoring societal and political
life is a working of it in natural manner. Given this premise, the
owners of Rana Plaza and the garment establishments located in the
collapsed building should have been nabbed immediately by the law
enforcers and produced before the law. That it has not happened is a sad
commentary on the state of affairs. The prime minister having ordered the arrest of those responsible for
the tragedy in Savar, we hope to see some effective action in arresting
them.
We expect justice to be done, knowing full well that if the
owners of the building and the factories go free this time, the
ramifications can only be horrendous. That of course raises the very
necessary question of why garment industry owners have, despite the
hundreds of deaths of workers in accidents at their factories, remained
beyond the pale of the law. In recent years and months, accidents have
claimed the lives of workers at such establishments as Tazreen Fashions,
Smart Fashions, Spectrum and now at Rana Plaza. Altogether 112 workers
perished in the Tazreen fire last November; 65 workers died in the
Spectrum tragedy in 2005; and seven lost their lives in the January 2013
Smart Fashions tragedy. Except for the owners of Smart Fashions, which
has no BGMEA affiliation, none of the owners of the establishments in
question have been punished. The owner of Tazreen was seen moving around
freely at the last BGMEA elections. A number of inquiry bodies, each
one formed after the occurrence of a tragedy, have submitted reports
which have never seen the light of day.
Such a situation needs to be corrected. The first step is to place
the BGMEA under a scanner in order to probe its role in ensuring better
security for workers. BGMEA leaders, regularly concerned about violence
in the garments sector, have not convinced the nation that they have
done their job where taking the owners of bad RMG factories to task is
concerned. The government must be under no illusion about what it needs
to do, which is that all garment industry owners whose indifference and
callousness have led to the deaths of workers must be taken to task. It
is time to say enough. A failure to act decisively this time will only
strengthen what is now a growing culture of impunity.
Finally, one needs to ask the BGMEA leadership: what prevented them
from ordering the two-day closure of garment industries, the day on and
after the tragedy, rather than yesterday? That way they could
demonstrate their sensitivity to the plight of garment workers and
express solidarity with them better.
Source: The Daily Star
