Narayanganj: Readymade garment factory owners association – Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association (BKMEA) president AKM Selim Osman during an exclusive interview with Daily Prime News said, hartal is a democratic right of every citizen. So everybody has the right to either observe if or reject it. But no can force or impose it on others through coercion.

And that should be the way of practicing any democratic rights, but what has been going on in the name hartal is coercion and forceful imposition of one’s will on others violating his or her rights. And the frequent hartals are being imposed on others as those are issueless or not of people’s greater interest, which is some sort of nakedness, said the one of the top businessmen of the country.

So for the sake of democracy and greater national interest, he urged both the ruling and opposition parties make compromise and reconcile to settle the confrontational political situation.

He said that the hartals of recent days serving the interest and purpose of anti-liberation elements. People with patriotic zeal and spirit of liberation can no way support such issueless hartals, which hinders development. Such shutdowns can no way be tolerated.

So, pro-liberation elements cannot support any such hartal that goes against the interest of the people and the country, said Selim Osman during an exclusive interview with Daily Prime News at his Narayanganj office recently.

The recent trend of torching trains, buses, public and private properties can no way be supported in the name of hartal that directly affects the state and the national economy. This trend and mentality to damage the state can no way be supported as some parties are doing all these only for their lust for power and also to grab power forcibly without caring for the people’s mandate.

Selim Osman, a very softspoken gentleman with patriotic zeal, claimed that the garment sector is the country’s largest manufacturing sector where around 45 lakhs of workers are employed with and around 70 percent of them are women. This sector has created indirectly employments for around two crore people and these people are one way or the other are quite dependant on the garment sector.

Despite frequent hartal disruptions and hindrances caused by political unrest, the foreign exchange reserve has gone up and all these happened due to boost in exports. Had there been no hartal, the forex reserve might have gone up substantially, he said.

Be in position or opposition, the politicians must look forward to and work for economic development of the country, otherwise the fate of toiling millions can no way be changed, which will ultimately short-lived their days at the helm of power even if grabbed power through hartals and unrest, said Selim Osman with a note of warning to all the politicians.

 “The crippling shutdowns also hindering the raw materials supply flow and we’re failing to keep the supply chain intact due to risk factors as we can’t rely on the insurance companies. For instance let’s assume that I have hired a truck for carrying raw materials, pickets set the truck on fire on the way and I can’t recover the loss in any way,” Selim Osman said.

Despite such risk, the government has assured of police protection for carrying exportables from Kanchpur to Chittagong Port. But how can we rely on police who’ve been failing to protect themselves from aggressive pickets and their hit and run attacks. The hartals are taking its enormous tolls on the knitwear industry as the workers do job here on per piece production basis while in Oven they work on salary basis. If I fail to bring raw materials then the workers suffer loss and due to hartal a workers per day income come down to Tk 70/80 instead of around Tk 500. So I think who have been enforcing the hartal are doing more harm to the people and working class than the government. If the people have to bear the brunt then for whom they have been launching the movement and slapping hartals – for them or the people? This has to be made clear first, Selim said with anguish.

The political parties are forcing the people to observe hartal despite the losses and immense sufferings the people have to endure. This is really not bearable or tolerable anymore. So the administration will have to be more active and aggressive to prevent such destructive activities of political forces in the name of movement, he said.

Why people have to make supreme sacrifices like laying down lives in an independent country for either for pickets or police? Moreover, destruction of public or private properties can no way be tolerated. So I would like to thank the government for initiating law banning hartal and picketing and also urge the government to enact the law at the earliest and enforce it right away, said Selim Osman.

Answering a specific question on government role Selim Osman said, the government would have to be tough in handling the situation as if it fail to handle the situation then country would have to bear the burden of irrecoverable loss as the miscreants would do harm to the people of the country.

The Jamaat activists are engaged in all sort of destructive activities and the government has no alternative but to get tough on them for protecting the lives and properties of people.

On a question whether slapping a ban Jamaat is necessary, Selim Osman said, “It is a political decision, and I would like to refrain from making any comment on the issue.”

An honest and very hardworking business magnet Selim Osman is quite optimistic about bright prospect of Bangladesh’s garment sector. This sector has attained massive progress and development and in course of time the sector would grow further attaining more leverage and global quality. The way the country is making progress, the garment sector awaits a more brighter prospect through duty-free access in more global destination in emerging world market. So, all the people will have to uphold national interest above everything else. Despite many frequent hartals and political hindrances, the garment production situation and exports remained in a tricky situation and if political unrest and shutdowns continue then the most prospective sector might face a daunting situation and suffer from body blow, he warned.

Regarding a question on US GSP facilities, Selim Osman said, actually we had never enjoyed the US GSP facilities in a big way in reality. But it has turned into a prestige issue for the country and the withdrawal would taint the country image and hinder branding that might prompt others (Europe and Canada) to do the same having chain negative reaction. And to handle the issue a BGMEA and government joint delegation had gone to US for persuasion and lobbying. US might not withdraw the GSP facilities and rather it could be increased had the political instability and unrest gone.

On gas and electricity crisis, Selim Osman said, “It is a stark reality that gas and electricity crisis is there. But still we could handle the crisis with diesel run generators though the government had raised the price of diesel. Had we failed to address the crisis that might have been reflected in the export figures. But that had not happened and our exports have gone up substantially. But the reality is we cannot recoup the losses caused by hartals. Those of us who are engaged in exports, our real working capital is time, not money or other things. Our workers do overtimes two to four hours. But we’re failing to set up new industries and factories due to gas and electricity crisis as new connections have been kept suspended.

Shifting his focus from hartal to next election, Selim Osman said the political situation has worsened as the lawmakers have taken to streets instead of joining parliament sessions making the street politics nasty and going beyond norms. But still the lawmakers are drawing the salary and other admissible benefits of being lawmakers from the people’s heard earned money from state coffer. But if they refrain from joining JS session throughout their tenure then how could the run the country efficiently if they are voted to power. So who’re in the opposition should join JS and talk pro-people issues on behalf of their voters who had elected them.

Again shifting focus from business to private like, Selim Osman was asked how he eke out time for his family members from his extremely busy schedule. “Actually I do not spend much time with my family as I have to shuttle between Dhaka and Narayanganj and had to spend most of the time on streets and factories (almost eight of my 10 working hours on road. And if I really want to spend much time with my family then I will have to close down my factories. But I hope I will be able to spend more time with my family after completion of the Jatrabari Flyover as it will help save much time I usually spend on Dhaka-Narayanganj highway,” he said.

When asked what factor had inspired you to set up such a huge business empire Selim Osman said, “An independent and sovereign country of our own is the main source of my all inspiration and also behind everything I do. This is even true for most of us and everybody should try to realize the meaning of independence and our sovereignty. Because if the country were not independent, then I would have been a peon or at best an operator of such a garment factory and working under a Pakistani owner. So I’m now owning a factory which has been given to me by my country. I had to work horrible hard during my early stage and I was even involved in transport business and I had reached this present state sweating hard throughout the day and night of my hard labour. My family was almost crippled after the 1975 changeover. My father was detained. My brother Nasim Osman was forced to leave the country with Kader Siddiqui. Shamim Osman was then a little kid. I had to take the responsibility of our family at that stage. Then I stated a hosiery business at local market. Gradually I started export of hosiery products. My first export was of around $45,000. With the grace of Almighty Allah I now exports products worth 25 to 30 lakh US dollars each month.

The good old memories of me when I was a student of Dhaka College, Bangabandhu called me to his residence and asked me not to do politics at this stage though our family was all through a political family. He asked me to do business as money was all that needed for running our family. He asked me to do such business where you can employ many and give peace and hope to others. And I started my old business thinking if I can fed them well they would love and respect me. And I started providing lunch to my factory workers after a few years of its launching. Now I feel like all the workers are members of my extended family. I still monitor their lunch so that they get proper calory in their meal. I take lunch with my around 25,00 factory workers everyday in my factory. To support this feeding programme I do have a dairy farm having around 500 cows. I sell around 2,000 litres of milk each day. I also have fish farm and I spent the proceeds from the milk sale for social welfare.

When asked how do you take care all these diversified business tasks alone at a time, he said I follow a routing like I did during my school days and this routine is helping me maintain all these business. I start working at 3:00am by handling the poultry business, then I do the marketing for kitchen for feeding the workers. I can handle all these alone taking the great help of IT technology as I work online and do many things through video-conferencing. My main agro project is located in Khulna and I do monitor everything from Dkaka or Narayanganj through digital technology. Before going digital I used to go four times a week in Khulna. But in the last six months I haven’t visited Khulna, but I’m monitoring everything through technology. If you ask me how will be this year’s mango production or how fish is growing up or how is the condition of my each cow I can tell you exactly the real field scenario right away as I see everything through technology right from my office through CCTV cameras and video conferencing. I do keep in touch with my family members through video chat and I talk to my grandson through voice chat. I would like to thank Hasina for the spread of digital tech. I’m also grateful to all my workers, employees and colleagues as they are quite helpful and love me very much and respect me as well. I also do all tasks of BKMEA through Internet right from here. He claimed that one of the first few fortunate users of computers in Bangladesh, he is one of them who started using computers at the very beginning in Bangladesh.            

Regarding a question on the new generation, Selim Osman said, “The youths of new generation must shrug off frustration for doing something worthy and remarkable, otherwise they would remain worthless and would find the path to success and glory. Everyone has to work for coming to a certain level without considering any task as degrading or not worth doing. Our Bangladeshi workers do anything when go outside, but they would not do the same job here. Despite that the country has progressed much regarding a change in mindset and now women are working in mills and factories. Most amazing thing is that many workers were unable to sign on the register for getting salary even seven years back, but now most of them draw their salary by signing the register book. Most of them even use mobile phones. On holidays or during emergencies if the workers need to work, we just send them mobile messages for joining work and they do respond and join work at our factories. Even we can pay salaries through mobile recharge cards, which is really a matter of pride. I’ve started providing training to mid-level garment executives for enhancing their managerial efficiency. This facility was not available earlier in Narayanganj. We’ve made it possible due to cooperation of our colleagues. Even five years back there were frequent labour unrest and commotion in Narayanganj factories, but the situation has charged drastically. Now whenever any such situation arises the BKMEA, owners and workers’ representatives sit together immediately and resolve the issue which is really something unprecedented in Narayanganj. But still there are some problems in Ashulia, said Selim Osman.

Bangladeshi labourers are also contributing to great deal in the development of Dubai (UAE), some African and other countries. After Chinese, Bangladeshi labourers and manpower are of great demand in overseas manpower market due to their industrious nature and professional efficiency. Politicians who have helped develop the garment sector are real politicians, not those who are trying to destroy it. Only doing politics can no way be a profession. People with proper education should come to politics for development of the country, not for tender manipulation. If the young people are engaged in tender manipulation than their future is bleak as when their party will not be in power they would suffer from frustration and turn addicts. They can never get back to fair and normal life and thus instability haunts the country often with burdens of lot of such people in politics, said Selim Osman while talking about the frustrated young generation. 

While talking with Prime News Selim Osman said, Narayanganj is not just an industrial hub, it is also a political centre place with historic political tradition. The great Languaga Movement started from here and even the Awami League born in Narayanganj. First declaration of independence also took place in Narayanganj. The current Zia Hall was known as Balur Math where Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman gave the indication of Independence and he also hinted at the Language Movement at Ghat No 5 while embarking on a ship. So narayanganj has a long political tradition and envious of that tradition some vested quarters are out to destroy Narayanganj through conspiracies. As part of the conspiracy, the river port and railway station were destroyed, and Adamje was closed to destroy the jute sector making 35 lakh workers unemployed. As an alternative to jute industry, Narayanganj has developed its hosiery industry. We’re exporting 70 containers full of our hosiery products abroad per day. We the businessmen have given something to Narayanganj for its development. But a it is matter of great regret that there is not a single outstanding school, university or even a magnificent building even in Narayanganj. Even BKMEA does not have a office here, we could not make a sitting arrangement for foreign delegates when they visit Narayanganj. We’ve just statted construction work of the Chamber building and within three months the construction will be completed. We’ve applied for a plot if RAJUK approves it the we’ll construct BKMEA Building then foreigners can have a place for business discussion in a proper place. Sometimes we bring foreign buyers to Narayanganj through helicopters. But we don’t have a helipad even. So helicopters land in Narayanganj stadium, but its access road is quite narrow and jam packed making the helicopter trip funny. People of Narayanganj are also deprived of sports and entertainment facilities as well. We’ve made the living condition well by evicting the brothels from Narayanganj, but other development activities are invisible as the politicians in Narayanganj are divided and engaged in self-defeating conflicts. We’ve urged the politicians to get united on the issue of Narayanganj’s development and we the businessmen would help them wholeheartedly, but the call falls to deaf ears and they remain engaged in divisive politics.

When questioned about the customs and bureaucratic tangles, the BKMEA president said, good and bad coexist in everyplace and Narayanganj is no exception as both Mandirs and Masjids coexist here. But still who are engaged in evil activities will be eliminated in course of time so they should think twice about their deeds. There are still some troubles in port activities but mostly things are progressing in a systematic manner with the help of the government. There were no EPP office or tax office here, but those were set up and many more thind will be needed for further development and that needs time. The development that should have done in two years of independence, but that took 42 years to come to the present level. Distorting history after the killing of Bangabandhu we could not progress much. Even the young generations are not engaged in development work wholeheartedly, they are still divided and passing time idly. But they should look at the real history wht the Pakistani repressive regimes had done to our country then they could realize what Bangabandhu had done for our nation through independence and all misgivings and dirty politics would come to an end.

Selim Osman in his concluding remark on the future prospect of the country said, “The whole world is showering praise on our country that it is a rising star in horizon and the global and local economists are saying the nation must leap forward as it has immense potentials, so the nation must proper if it is put to the right track and path to progress and prosperity by the top politicians and policymakers who are at the helm of power.

Ends/NA/AMA/16/04/13

BKMEA Chief Selim Osman Interview from Daily Prime News