They say that fuel costs are being enhanced once again in keeping with the increase in global prices. Sounds reasonable, but what is disturbing is the way the administration is going about it. Our Honourable Finance Minster gives a statement indicating possibility of further increase in our fuel prices and immediately the corrupt players in the market create an artificial crisis threatening the very fate of our agricultural production. Farmers have to procure fuel at exorbitant prices to run their irrigation pumps.

In the meantime, the Minster for Energy, sitting in the comfort of his office, is engaged in the damage control exercises saying that there is no plan for increase in fuel costs and that no preparatory exercises have been undertaken needed prior to fixing such upward adjustments in fuel costs.

While all this is going on, our Honourable Finance Minster is keeping quite. I believe he is scheming in the quiet of his home and his office as to how to wriggle out of this mess initiated by him.

In the meantime what is most likely to happen is that there will be a final compromise between the Energy Advisor and the Finance Minister and a joint statement will be given to the effect that everything is under control and that there is nothing to worry about for anyone. By then the damage is done.

This regime comes to its senses only when under extreme pressure, pressure that has the possibility of harming the passage of its election campaigning during the forthcoming national elections or some superpower putting the lid on its unscrupulous, anti-people management practices. It cannot operate without someone twisting its arms.

Well as I write this, I have just come across a report that the Finance Minster has found his favourite escape route, namely the media. Remember, he has done that on previous occasions too? Of late he also is giving statements to the media and elsewhere, which to my mind is either uncalled for or ridiculously senseless. Should not he just keep quiet, which will be good for the people and the nation at large?

In the meantime, let us take a trip to Kansat where we are still trying to recover from a mayhem carried out by our police. This is not the first of its kind; similar incidences of the nature did take place in recent times. This is barbarism of the medieval age. How can a government sleep over such an issue? Yes, I say "sleep" since over a week has passed and the debacle continues causing total disruption in the lives of an entire village where, so far the administration has merely punished the Officer in Charge by making him what it calls "stand released."

If the police are not shooting down people then innocent people are dying on a routine basis on our roads and highways at the hands of wild, inexperienced and negligent drivers of commercial vans and buses. On each and every occasion the police immediately comes up with a statement that the driver of the vehicle could not be nabbed as though it was a pre-recorded statement, and that is the end of it all. How very convenient.

The other day a small school-going child was crushed under the wheels of a mini-bus right at the heart of the city, somewhere in Maghbazaar, and obviously the driver who was alleged to be a helper and not a regular one has escaped. The police was proud to be able to seize the bus, though!

The other day it was reported in the media that there were as many as half a million fake driving license holders in the country. Shockingly enough, the report was based on direct interviews with the gangs or agents actually engaged in issuing these fake licenses. A similar situation prevails with regard to gangs or individuals issuing forged currency notes. Year after year, criminals are nabbed and you hear of not a single individual being punished or brought to justice.

The civil bureaucracy is in total disarray. Mass scale transfers and promotions, without proper planning, are not only rocking the very foundations of the administration, but also are on way to creating a legacy that we can ill-afford. As it is with the departures of nearly the entire bunch of erstwhile CSP cadre officials, for all practical purposes, there has been a marked deterioration in the professional capabilities of our bureaucracy.

One of the senior officials belonging to the inner circles of the administration when asked about the visit of the US Under Secretary of State told me that people in the governmental circles heaved a sigh of relief since she did not "touch on the sensitive issue of operations of the Rab and alleged human rights violations thereof."

I told him that there is no reason for complacency since there has been an all round deterioration of our human rights. The Ahmadiyyas are constantly being threatened by a known group of religious bigots right under the very nose of the administration. Our police of late have become trigger-happy and killing people right and left when innocent villagers are raising their voices demanding access to some of their basic rights to life and living. There is indeed no denying of the fact that Bangladesh has turned out to be one of the most dangerous places, where there is constant fear of lives of working journalists, particularly at field levels in the outer districts.

We, the people of this country, since our independence, never had anything in our lives to rejoice. Nearly each of the regimes in more ways than one have systematically deprived us of most of our legitimate rights, which given the will were otherwise achievable even under the prevailing circumstances. Other people may have other opinions, but I firmly believe that the dominating factor in all this emanates from the poor and unethical political leadership we have suffered under since independence. However, all things considered, I maintain that it has never been this bad.

Shamsher Chowdhury is frelence contributor of The Daily Star.