Is the ruling coterie now bent upon crippling the backbone of Bangladesh economy ahead of its exit, forced or otherwise, and leave the country’s recovery at the mercy of its geopolitical patron, the regional hegemonic power? Already, the manner of violent political confrontation in which the ruling coterie has engaged with the mainstream opposition has brought about a constitutional crisis. While its latest positive response to the Opposition leader’s call for dialogue brings a ray of hope about possible resolution of the political impasse over transition of state power, the other constitutional crisis it has provoked, by the 15th Amendment followed by a cheap propaganda stunt of reviving the socalled “spirit of liberation war” by a privileged group of youngsters to counter growing “Islamist spirit” and to bamboozle voters, does not show any sign of abatement so far. Troubles are brewing over the May 5 programme of siege of Dhaka by Hefazat-e-Islam, the religious backlash to the government sponsored Shahbag orgy of aggressive secularism. Meanwhile, cumulative effect of financial scandals, malpractices and malfunctions, glaring among which are the incidences of sharemarket scam, Padma Bridge scandal, Halmark defalcation, and other banking debacles have been gnawing at the vitals of our economic growth and development dynamics. A stunning blow has come now from the consecutive mega-disasters in our readymade garments industries, which is the principal matrix of our export growth.

After the tragic fire at Tazreen Fashions which led to the ongoing ordeal of hearing at the US Trade Department, threatening cancellation of GSP facility for our garments exports to USA, the recent collapse of Rana Plaza over the bodies of thousands of garments workers, some escaping, some rescued, others dead or presumed dead and remaining buried in the rubbles so far, has sent a shock-wave in the world market of apparel trade that seeks to drastically reduce our export earnings. The onus of the disaster falls squarely on administrative malpractice and corruption under the regime.
As the Wall Street Journal of USA noted in a report dated April 25 under world news: “The factory complex that collapsed this week in this country's deadliest industrial accident was built without proper permission on unstable land.
“Public anger over the collapse and reports of regulatory issues drew attention to the difficulty large Western retailers face in making sure their suppliers operate under safe conditions.
Retailers rely largely on trade association initiatives, independent third-party assessors and their own in-house auditors to monitor suppliers in Bangladesh, the second-largest clothing exporter after China.
But such efforts can fail to uncover some dangers: At least two garment factories at Rana Plaza had passed international labour and safety standard audits under a European trade organization that addressed specific safety concerns at the factories but didn't assess the stability of the building that housed them.
Hundreds of thousands of garment workers from the areas around Dhaka went on strike Thursday (April 25) to protest poor safety standards, bringing production to a virtual standstill.
“In March, the ministry of labour and employment, international labour unions and the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association adopted a national action plan on fire safety. Plans included modernizing equipment, overhauling fire-safety and building-safety laws, and increasing inspections.
Canadian retailer Loblaw Cos., which said workers in the complex were making clothes for its Joe Fresh clothing line, said its factory-monitoring system doesn't check for building construction or integrity. The company plans to expand the scope of its factory audits, it said Thursday.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. WMT +0.44 per cent said it hadn't authorized its suppliers to use factories in Rana Plaza. Wal-Mart was listed as a customer on the website of Ether Tex Ltd., a garment factory that was operating on the fifth floor of the building. Wal-Mart said contacts between its suppliers and Ether Tex predated the factory's presence in the building.
Two Bangladeshi factories that were in the building, and suffered worker fatalities in its collapse, had cleared an audit by the Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI), which was set up a decade ago by the Brussels-based Foreign Trade Association, a body that comprises some 1,000 European retailers such as Adidas AG, ADS.XE +1.92% Esprit Holdings Ltd. 0330.HK -0.74% and Hugo Boss BOSS.XE -0.54% AG.
The group said its auditors aren't building engineers and didn't take the state of the building into account when they conducted the checks. It is up to local authorities to ensure that construction and infrastructure are secure.
‘It's very important not to expect too much from the social audit,’ said Lorenz Berzau, BSCI's managing director. ‘BSCI and other initiatives contribute to improve the situation,’ he said. ‘But it's a long way we have to go.’
Workers' groups complain such checks have failed to remedy poor safety standards. Over 700 people have died in factory fires in Bangladesh in recent years, and building collapses had already caused scores of deaths here before Wednesday's accident.
“The BSCI said Bangladesh had adequate laws governing the safety of buildings, but that the laws weren't properly implemented.”
Combined with the political unrest and massive protests over “attack on Islam” by sections of the ruling coterie, the questionmarks now arising with regard to ethical “cleanliness” of garments exports from Bangladesh have devilishly “darkened” the economic outlook of Bangladesh. On April 27, The Washington Post noted in its report by Amy Kazmin from New Delhi: “Since the beginning of February, Bangladesh has been virtually shut down for 33 days by strikes, protests and political violence pitting secular supporters of Hasina’s Awami League against its bitter rivals from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party.
While garment factories supplying Western brands try to operate normally despite the disruptions, the shutdown of transportation, including roads and ports, and government offices, including customs offices, has prevented the import of raw materials and timely shipment of finished goods.
Western buyers’ patience had already begun to fray. On Monday (April 22), the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association held a news conference to complain that it had lost $3 billion in new orders and seen $500 million in existing orders redirected to neighbouring India since January because of the unrest.

Shift from Bangladesh
Many garment manufacturers believe that the Rana Plaza tragedy, coupled with the threat of more disruptive political turmoil ahead, will prompt retailers such as Wal-Mart gradually to shift production away from Bangladesh, the second-largest garment exporter in the world after China.
‘The situation is becoming grave,’ said Rubana Haq, managing director of the Mohammadi Group, a large manufacturer that supplies retailers such as H&M, Zara, Wal-Mart and Esprit. ‘We will start feeling the pressure from the buyers now.’
“The numerous delayed deliveries stemming from the political turmoil have also given buyers an excuse to slash payments to manufacturers by 5 to 25 percent. ‘Buyers’ maximum tolerance is a two-week delay,’ Haq said. ‘After that, they are cancelling orders or imposing discounts.’
The Rana Plaza tragedy comes less than five months after at least 110 people were killed in a fire at Tazreen Fashions, a factory supplying Wal-Mart, albeit without its knowledge. The two disasters have raised serious questions about the standards and management practices of Bangladesh’s garment industry.
This week, thousands of angry garment workers have taken to the streets to protest poor industry conditions and to demand the arrests of the Rana Plaza owner and the owners of the factories inside.
Ominously, the political violence hampering the industry even before the disasters is unlikely to abate any time soon. Bangladesh.
“Ifty Islam, the managing partner of the Dhaka-based boutique consultancy Asian Tigers Capital Partners, says the country appears to be descending into chaos, which could prompt a state of emergency or a military intervention.
‘The deterioration of law and order is occurring at an increasingly rapid and alarming pace, with concurrent massive economic dislocations,’ he wrote in a recent report. ‘A worrying new element in the political maelstrom is the nascent emergency of Islamic nationalism.’
All this forms a gloomy backdrop for Bangladesh’s garment industry as it struggles to retain the confidence of its image-sensitive customers after two high-profile disasters.”
Yet a silver lining amidst the dark clouds hovering over our export growth prospects is appearing from some European and American retailers who have rallied to the support of the apparel industry in Bangladesh after the two major disasters. Response to Bangladesh garments industry troubles from leading retailers in Europe and USA has been charted in some details by Steve Greenhouse in the New York Times in an appraisal dated April 30: “The building collapse in Bangladesh that caused at least 386 deaths has produced some jarringly different responses from Western apparel retailers and brands that obtained goods from factories inside the building.

American and European retailers
Several American and European retailers have sought to minimize any ties they had to factories inside the building, Rana Plaza, while some other companies have been quick to acknowledge their ties to those garment suppliers — and have pledged to contribute to a fund to help families of the victims.
In addition, representatives of two dozen retailers and apparel brands, including Walmart, Gap, H&M and Carrefour, met outside Frankfurt on Monday (April 29) to discuss what can be done to improve factory safety in Bangladesh. Two labour advocates who attended the meeting — which the German government had arranged long before last Wednesday’s factory collapse — said it remained unclear whether those companies would agree to the financial commitments needed to ensure safety at the more than 4,000 garment factories in Bangladesh.
The Children’s Place, a retail chain based in Secaucus, N.J., that operates 1,100 stores, said that although a garment factory inside Rana Plaza had produced apparel for it, ‘none of our apparel was in production’ there ‘at the time of this terrible tragedy.’
Customs documents show that over the past eight months, the New Wave factory inside Rana Plaza had made more than 120,000 pounds of clothing that had been sent in 21 shipments to the Children’s Place. A two-ton shipment arrived in Savannah, Ga., on April 5.
The Cato Corporation, a retailer of women’s clothing that has more than 1,300 stores in 31 states, also played down any link to the building. In a statement, Cato said New Wave Bottoms, also located there, ‘was a factory of one of our vendors.’
‘However, we did not have any ongoing production at the time of the incident,’ the statement said.
New Wave Bottoms has shipped more than 90,000 pounds of apparel to Cato since November, customs documents show, with nine tons arriving at the Port of Charleston in South Carolina in February.
After Bangladeshi labour groups said they had found labels of Benetton clothing in the rubble, Benetton initially denied using any factories in the building. But as more labels and documents showing Benetton orders were found and publicized, the company revised its response, saying it had placed only a one-time order there and had severed ties with that factory.
Ineke Zeldenrust, international coordinator of the Clean Clothes Campaign, an anti-sweatshop group based in Amsterdam, criticized Western companies that sought to distance themselves from the building that collapsed. ‘It is high time for Benetton to stop this senseless game of always trying to pretend they’re not there’.
Primark, a low-price British retailer, quickly acknowledged that one of its suppliers had occupied the second floor of the eight-story building. Primark has pledged to compensate victims who worked for its supplier and their families, saying compensation would include long-term aid for children who lost parents, financial aid for the injured and payments to the families of the deceased.
‘Primark notes the fact that its supplier shared the building with those of other retailers,’ the company said. ‘We are fully aware of our responsibility. We urge these other retailers to come forward and offer assistance.’
Loblaw, a Canadian discount chain, and El Corte Inglés, a prominent Spanish retailer, have also pledged to participate in a compensation fund.
Ms. Zeldenrust called on all Western companies that had obtained garments from the five factories inside Rana Plaza to create a $30 million compensation fund.
“The German Agency for International Cooperation had called to help upgrade factory safety in Bangladesh. Worker advocacy groups are urging Western companies to join a plan — embraced so far by just PVH, the parent company of Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein, and Tchibo, a German retailer — for independent inspections and for the Western companies to underwrite any needed building or fire safety improvements.”
But dirty “competitors” are also at work, the industry leaders complain, to “sabotage” the readymade garments sector of Bangladesh. Elements from within the ruling coterie are allegedly inciting workers to violence, seeking to demonise the factory-owners so as to spare the political players in the episode. The roulette of power game is compounding crisis. Let us keep our fingers crossed that good sense may prevail, and the garments workers, the industry leaders and the government authorities may, for the sake of the nation’s future, come together to grip the situation and do all they can to make best use of the residual goodwill for Bangladesh in the world market.