Masters and slaves

We have been here before, and only recently. The callousness with which we have shrugged off the last incident will help us to forget this one too. Media is abuzz. Stories such as this get their viewership up. The bigger the catastrophe the bigger and prolonged is the coverage, appetising for our comfortable environment at home or abroad to shed some tears, to debate it on social media, to discuss it at dinner tables or even to write an op-ed. For a few days this will grab our leaders' attention as well that of those elsewhere. Time will pass, negotiators and PR operatives are called in to handle the initial barrage of public sentiment. Incredible and spontaneous human spirit tries its best to help the victims. In the end, though, life goes back to normal until the next catastrophe. And what is normal in our country?

To find a parallel to describe what is going on in the country would be nearly impossible. Even if loss of human lives through violence or manmade disaster shakes some, years of coping and living with tragedy has forced us to accept it graciously.

A classic case of master-slave relationship: Slaves are incessantly victimised by the master. The master of course has at its deposal a very large number of slaves, traded nationally and internationally to create upcoming masters.

This philosophy has been ingrained into our region for centuries and we find it hard to break free from it. Long before the advent of these nouveau riche 'exporters' we have a history of enslaving farmers when we shackled them for generations; suppressed and deprived them of basic needs, food and clothes, as they toiled to produce crops for us. Profiteering on their labour, (cheap or at no cost), we have built monuments to our progress.

Ordinary households thrive on it. Servants as we call them make our lives comfortable. They are cheap, available and, importantly, easy to 'manage' — highly unlikely to complain about abuse: sexual, physical or financial. Above all they are hassle-free to dismiss. Though they are becoming a little bit harder to find in cities, the supply is adequate for the time being as they have very few options. Servants themselves can swallow everything, but long for a tiny bit of freedom. Thus, working in a factory, enslaved in 12-hour shifts, 30 days a month, gives them some break and a sense of independent living. They may not have sick pay, holidays, parental entitlements or retirement benefits and do not get paid when absent from work, but they can still enjoy a collegial environment and a relatively improved income.

So slavery remains to be the main game, everything — the economy, politics, the law of the land — is hinged on it. How one can exploit slaves better than others decides the status and money one achieves. Hence, the fierce competition to make a buck that we are often compelled to hear from upcoming and emerging masters.

Our $20 billion sector looks to overtake China's as the world's largest apparel exporter in coming years, and the masters claim that the majority of them comply with work safety regulations, according to their international and wealthier masters (the buyers). Many accept orders on low prices which lead them to exploit the slaves, forcing them to extract every drop of sweat they can from them, and adherence to work-safety regulations becomes a luxury.

The masters know it well. That is why, lacking basic decency, they trap slaves in their buildings and factories holding their lives, however meagre, as ransom. Why should they bother when they know that there will be no penalty for non-compliance as long as they can keep other masters happy, namely politicians and foreign buyers. After all, the so-called liberated and ethical wealthy foreigners have approached them in the first place to get this dirty job done, which would be too expensive in their own countries.

This is the modern food-chain, not dissimilar to that of colonial powers when slaves could even be whipped, a function sorely missed. So they had to invent new sectors such as this and termed it as 'trade aid'. The custodians of the food chain are powerful; it has been reported that no less than 25 present MPs have direct stakes in the sector. Imagine the combined power of businessmen and politicians — with such power one could call night as day.

The instinct to inflict despicable trauma on the weak — women, minorities and the poor — creeps on us, just as our now well- lauded economic success and future prospect does. Otherwise how can one explain the social structure that fosters slavery, where the hapless trade their bodies and lives only to experience more pain.

Tragedies largely caused by human cruelty and greed, actions which could be averted, are going to become more frequent and it is hard to see whether the loss of more lives can stop this flourishing and corrupt system.

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Irfan Chowdhury writes from Canberra, Australia.