After last week’s horrendous incident in Savar, everyone is looking for someone to blame, and following the past week’s reporting, it seems as if there are two main groups; those who want to see Sohel Rana and his politician party buddies pinned to the wall, and those who blame the garment industry and its buyers, looking to boycott the entire industry and encouraging friends to change their Facebook profile pictures to blood-stained garments.
Boycotting the garment buyers is not the solution to the core problem. It would merely be pushing the problem forward and letting it turn into something else. The problem is in the way Bangladesh is run; corruption and a lack of transparency that dilutes the will and effort of those who actually are prepared to give and share their wealth in order to support the overall growth and the well-being of the country.
Stories of Bangladeshi suppliers whose factories are run in accordance to international sustainability standards, whose factories provide a decent job, health care and in some cases education and child care for the employee’s families - those stories are never run and those examples are never given.
But these factories do exist and one could only wish for them to become role models and set an example for others. All of this does exist and is possible - even in Bangladesh.
That said, buyers must act as role models too and set examples of what relationships they choose to enter with suppliers. Without a doubt, buyers have taken advantage of Bangladesh and its cheap labour; making lucrative deals with suppliers and being able to produce cheap garments sold to Westerners.
Thanks to past decades, increased media attention to sweat shops, child labour, inhumane working environments etc, end-buyers (you and me), have become more aware and begun to question multinationals and their methods of production.
Today you will not find an international garment producing company without a sustainability and corporate responsibility department as part of their organisation, receiving more and more attention every year.
This said, buyers are nowhere near where they aim or need to be. Nowhere near what is stated in the oh-so-often eloquently written sustainability goals. Why? Well, this is the tricky bit: the power of how things are managed in Bangladesh is not in the buyers’ hands.
The garment industry has become so powerful and in such demand that if even the biggest buyers would reject a supplier - that supplier would simply turn to a smaller buyer that isn’t as scrutinising as a large one. Is it then the buyer’s fault or the supplier who simply doesn’t care at what price (human lives) s/he sells his services?
Buyers cooperating, worker’s unions (which many buyers include as part of their sustainability standards), can together push and encourage suppliers to improve the working standards for their employees.
By no means should this mean that suppliers are pushed to the limit of bankruptcy - Bangladeshi garment factory owners are amongst the wealthiest in the country and can surely spare some of their profit margin on securing infrastructure and fire safety in their factories.
The buyers certainly secure that for their own employees in Bangladesh - where you will also find their employees paying Bangladeshi tax, contributing to the country’s wealth. Perhaps if the wealthiest people in Bangladesh would start paying tax as well, and if the government would have a trustworthy way of distributing this wealth in a fair way to its people - perhaps then, heart breaking incidents like the one in Savar could be avoided in the future. Perhaps then, the situation and current direction Bangladesh is heading could change.
Not one person, not one buyer or one party is to blame here, everyone shares a part in taking responsibility.
However, ultimately it is up to Bangladesh to set and live by its own standards and ensure that everybody that wants to invest in the country abides by those rules.
Per Liljas is a freelance journalist who has lived and worked in Bangladesh.