Such utterances from our national leaders make us feel that our crisis is not over yet -- we, as a nation, have more difficult days to face ahead. This is because we are again trying, as we did about a decade ago, to avoid the problem that made our democracy dysfunctional rather than face it head on.

Readers may remember the Magura by-election during the first BNP government. There were allegations of serious irregularities in that by-election and, in the face of such allegations, the Chief Election Commissioner unexpectedly left Magura.

Armed with the experience of the Magura by-election, the opposition parties started demanding a system of non-party caretaker government to oversee parliamentary elections. The argument behind the demand was that party-affiliated political governments could not be trusted to hold fair elections.

Who was responsible for the irregularities in the Magura by-election? Who was supposed to prevent such irregularities and take action against the offenders? The ruling party goons were obviously responsible for the irregularities, and the Election Commission (EC) should have been responsible for preventing the misdeeds. In other words, the misconduct of the political party hoodlums and the impotence and partisan behaviour of the EC were primarily responsible for the shameful occurrences at Magura.

Given these reasons, it would have been prudent to demand reforms of the political parties to require good behaviour from their activists. Also, it would have been logical to insist on strengthening the EC and ensuring its independence. Unfortunately, our opposition parties, in their infinite wisdom, or lack thereof, decided to avoid the problem rather than solve it.

Instead of taking initiatives voluntarily to clean up our politics and reform the EC, the ruling party caved in under the intense pressure of the opposition's demand. Consequently the real culprit -- the criminalisation of our politics -- remained hidden under the rug. This also amounted to "sacrificing" our democratic process -- elected representative government being the essential prerequisite of a democratic polity -- by creating an unelected caretaker government.

Thus, our respected politicians themselves, who claim to be champions of democracy, were responsible for "killing" democracy, at least for 90 days. They did so because they wanted to avoid solving the problem of criminal activities within the folds of political parties, which would require painful changes in their own behaviour. Instead, they became overly preoccupied with removing barriers to holding immediate elections in order to quickly go to power.

We are afraid that our honourable politicians are trying to follow the same script again. Instead of taking lessons from the past, they are once again trying to hide the problem under the carpet. They are demanding immediate elections so that they can go to power without further delay.

As conscientious citizens we, too, want elections as soon as possible in order to replace the unelected government by a representative government, although after some urgent reforms. There must be changes in the quality of our politics through elections.

Fortunately, the EC has already been reconstituted, and it has taken the initiative for reform.

It must be noted that while agitating for the caretaker system the politicians were able to convince us that elections alone constitute democracy. But an election is not democracy -- it is only a means of transfering state power in a peaceful and orderly manner.

Our experiences of the past decade and a half clearly show that an "election-only democracy" necessarily degenerates into giving the establishment a "lease" to the rulers during their term of office, and dynastic politics is instituted to perpetuate this lease through generations. Democracy is truly reflected in what actually happens between two elections: how much transparency, accountability, fairness, inclusiveness, participation, rule of law etc. are practiced by the rulers in the process of governance.

The declaration of the state of emergency on January 11 is the result of the naked selfishness that the successive governments had demonstrated by ignoring these democratic norms over the past 15 years. The chicken has finally come home to roost.

If our politicians had tried to nip in the bud the criminalisation of politics, our democratic process and democratic institutions would not have collapsed the way they have. We could have avoided the "joke" in the name of by-election in Dhaka-10. We could also have avoided "hijacking" of important institutions like the EC by the rulers. We further could have avoided the pre-January 11 violence and the changes that took place on that day.

The election-centered democracy of the past decade and a half has caused many catastrophes in our country. Politics has become a profit-making business. Political parties have become dens of graft and corruption. Most criminal activities have, until recently, been committed under the patronage and protection of politicians.

Many individuals who were once idealists became criminals after becoming involved in politics. Politics and criminal acts have now become almost one and the same, and a new criminalised culture has become the part of our political scene. The revelations by the recently imprisoned political and business leaders leave no doubt about such a reality.

If we once again avoid the problem and fail to uproot the accumulated corruption, violence, influence of black money and similar criminal acts, our future, we are afraid, will remain bleak. If we are to avoid such a future, we must now drastically reform our political parties. Thus, creating democratic, transparent and accountable political parties must now become our urgent priority.

Those who argue that reformation of political parties should be up to the politicians do not realise the importance of the parties. In our country, political parties are constitutionally recognised democratic institutions. The effectiveness of our democratic polity primarily depends on the behaviour of the political parties and their activists.

In other words, political parties are the engines, or the driving force, behind democracy. Because the engine is dysfunctional, our democratic system, in the words of our army chief, has now fallen off the track.

Political parties are not private clubs. The over-riding goal of private clubs is the furtherance of the interests of their members. Thus, the management policies and practices of such clubs can be determined by their members, although they cannot do anything which is contrary to the law of the land or detrimental to public interest.

On the contrary, a political party consists of individuals who come together on the basis of either an ideology or a program. Their purpose is to go to power and pursue public welfare, rather than self-interest. Since the activities of political parties are directly related to public interest, and they affect public welfare, the public has the right to have a say in the way they are run.

An undemocratic party, whose strength comes from money and muscle rather than the consent of it members, is not suited for enhancing public welfare. Thus, in the public interest, political parties will have to be urgently reformed; cleansing operations will have to be carried out within the parties, and criminals will have to be thrown out. The politicians themselves will have to take up this slogan -- "politics for the good, jail for the bad."

The political leaders should voluntarily take reform initiatives for another important reason. They are the ones who will be holding state power, and will have to face these challenges in the future. If the thorny problem of criminalisation of politics can be solved now, they will then be able to focus on other important issues with more success.

Their success will obviously be reflected in the nation's achievements. Thus, our honourable politicians need to be reminded of the auto mechanics' old slogan -- "You pay now or you pay more later."

The track record of our politicians in resisting criminals and correcting their own selves is not very encouraging. For example, before the 2001 national elections, the EC was given the authority to cancel nomination of candidates for serious breaches of electoral laws and rules. Unfortunately, our politicians at that time ganged up against the president and forced him to repeal this authority on the eve of the elections. In addition, they prevented the compulsory registration of political parties.

Our later experiences are not also very encouraging. About two years later, when the General Secretaries of Awami League and BNP were again asked about the compulsory registration of political parties under the EC, Mr. Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan claimed that there was no need for it as it would diminish their freedom. Mr. Abdul Jalil also made the same claim. (The Daily Star Anniversary Issue, January 14, 2005).

We hope that, in the greater interest of the nation, our politicians will change their minds and take aggressive and voluntary action toward reform. We are afraid that the consequences of avoiding the problem once more will be very serious for the nation. However, the politicians may not be easily forthcoming. Thus, the citizens must remain vigilant and continue to speak up for change.

Dr. Badiul Alam Majumdar is Secretary of Shujan (Citizens for Good Governance).