The volatile situation appears to have cooled down somewhat now, and focus in the daily papers at least seems to have shifted to the fracas within the ruling BNP in Sylhet.

Nevertheless I think that it is still well worth looking into the recent riots, as it would be foolish to think that the long-standing tensions and fault lines within the industry have been addressed or resolved, or that we can continue to ignore the many contradictions that exist within our principal export industry without paying a steep price.

I do not want to go into the propriety or acceptability of the riots. Enough has been written on that subject and I have nothing new to add in opposition to either violent protest or excessive force to counter it.

But the fact that the violence of the protesters cannot be condoned does not mean that the garment workers did not and do not have legitimate grievances.

The simple truth of the matter is that the garment manufacturers have the workers over a barrel, and they have not been hesitant to exploit their unequal bargaining power. At the same time, there is not a lot that the government has done to level the playing field or to provide protections or safeguards for the workers.

The reasons for this are pretty obvious. In the first place, the government is filled with people who, if not necessarily factory owners themselves (and many are), are of that class, and so obviously their sympathies will be with the ownership and not the workers.

The second is the immense amount of foreign exchange the industry brings in and the employment it generates.

There are over two million people, mostly women, directly employed in the industry, and no one can argue with the fact that the industry has, by and large, had an extraordinarily beneficial impact on Bangladesh's economy and society.

Apart from providing direct employment to two million and indirect employment to millions more in auxiliary and ancillary industries, by bringing so many working class women into the work force and empowering them, the industry has been a prime mover behind many of the social and economic gains that women have made in the past two decades.

It is fair to say that, by and large, the garment industry has transformed the face of Bangladeshi society for the better. The knock-on effect in terms of women's empowerment, rights, health, and education that can be attributed to the garment industry is very real.

Few, if any, of the workers would be better off without the industry, which is why they work in the garment factories in the first place. And as bad as things are within the industry, garment workers are, by and large, probably better off than in other industries or the informal economy.

The government thus has little choice but to bend over backwards to accommodate the owners.

The owners have one simple and seemingly compelling argument: that they are doing the best that they can in terms of wages, workers' rights, and working conditions, but that they must remain competitive in the international market. If they are forced to pay more or improve conditions, then they will go out of business, and the millions of workers will be put out on the street.

However, the time has come, I believe, for the industry to move beyond such transparently self-serving and easily contradicted rationalizations.

First, this admission of the owners is in itself an admission of their failure. The sad fact is that in the past two decades or so of the industry's existence, there has been little or no value addition provided by the industry in Bangladesh.

With the exception of knitwear (which is a small part of the whole), the Bangladesh garment industry has remained in business by offering bargain basement prices to the buyers, which are in turn generated by turning the screws on the workers.

The business model is based almost entirely on low cost rather than quality or value addition and the primary input behind this low cost strategy is low wages.

Secondly, please. I know people in the garment industry. I see the cars that they drive, the houses in which they live, the schools in which they educate their children. The idea that the owners could not turn a profit if they improved conditions or wages is utterly ludicrous.

They might not be able to live such a lavish lifestyle, driving BMWs and Pajeros, but they could still turn a handsome profit.

It is simply that the owners have made a choice to elevate their own monetary needs over those of their employees. There is nothing unusual about that, but, please, I do not want to hear nonsense about how it is not possible to pay workers more and to stay in business.

Finally, many of the problems in the garment industry: abuse, security, worker safety, factory conditions, are not necessarily directly tied to costs and would not take much money to improve. It would cost nothing monetarily for factory security to treat workers with dignity and respect.

So where do we go from here?

The industry is hardly likely to reform itself, but there is much that the government can do.

One reason that the Bangladesh business model has to be based on bargain basement wages is that everything else in Bangladesh is expensive. Poor infrastructure, long turn-around time at port, extortion, lack of ability to enforce contracts, over-regulation of the industry in terms of permits and licenses needed, and above all, corruption and inefficiency, all of these add precipitously to the cost of doing business in Bangladesh.

If the government addressed these problems (all of which are within its sphere of responsibility) then it would be much cheaper to make garments. We could still offer cheap prices but the workers could take home more money and even the owners could take home more (not that they need it). It would be a win-win situation.

It is a crying shame that the two mainstays of the Bangladesh economy and of our foreign exchange earnings, the garment industry and our migrant labour work-force, are basically built on the backs of abuse and exploitation.

I know that we have to start somewhere and that something is better than nothing, but I cannot help think that it is long overdue for us to start climbing out of the world's bargain basement.

Zafar Sobhan is Assistant Editor, The Daily Star.