The good, bad, and the ugly
First, on the positive note, what is redeeming is to discover amidst us people with courage and conviction who could keep themselves away from the temptation of corruption.

A situation when one could amass wealth illegally by crime and corruption, without the fear of penalty or recrimination, deserves condemnation. Dr. Kamal Hossain's apology to the nation is an example to be emulated by all except those who showed contempt for decency and utter disregard for the laws of the state, and created a culture of impunity where crime and high corruption thrived. Criminals deserve a second chance. And we must not hate the criminals; we should hate the crime. But how to deal with pure evil is another matter.

Rather than dealing with the social and cultural determinants of the social blight, I will try to explore here what Dr. Kamal Hossain characterized as "sick politics" or dysfunctional polity, which collapsed under the weight of its own dysfunctionality on 1/11.

How did the situation come to this? There are at least three narratives on the history of corrosion of Bangladesh polity. One school would assert that since the taking over of political power by General Ershad 25 years ago, corruption has marked the body politic of Bangladesh.

Others would assert that the so-called "democracies" are responsible for sponsoring corruption in Bangladesh. There are others who would point fingers at the alliance government headed by BNP for creating a new history of corruption in Bangladesh.

The eye of the hurricane of corruption was Hawa Bhavan. Ironically, Prime Minister Begum Zia's favorite metaphor was "flood of development" that was sweeping across Bangladesh.

But why would elected politicians suddenly become evil? What explains their transformation from civil to evil? Were they just bad people? Could it be the result of the bad influence of Hindi cinemas, where the likes of Umresh Puri pretend to be smiling politicians but secretly patronize criminal gangs? Those who bought expensive houses in Dubai, and bought top of the line cars, and became victims of unbridled consumerism beamed to them by satellite television?

The problem of such off-the-cuff analysis is that it does not define corruption, nor does it separate corruption from outright criminality. Even within corruption there are gradients of corruption, as in criminal behaviour there are degrees of crime.

One can wake up one morning and say, "I am going to rid the world of corruption. I would compliment the idea, but judge it as naiveté." We wish the world was peaceful and Bangladesh was corruption free. Wishes have their rightful place. We must have dreams; but to confuse reality with dream, or pragmatic thought with wishful thinking, will be counterproductive.

Corruption, and criminal behaviour and malpractices are generic problems. Normal societies generate normal corruption, normal crime, normal malpractices. Lying, cowardice, submission to and abetment of crime and malpractices, were not invented in Bangladesh. They all are part of normal society.

What makes Bangladesh unique is the scale of these problems. And I might add, the conspiracy of silence. Many in the government and outside remained on the sidelines as spectators of a diabolic game.

The civil society spoke out; the communication organs of civil society, especially the print media, pointed out the evil and, in turn, were denigrated as taking part in "media terrorism." One cabinet minister of the past government had the audacity to call the civil society a collective of barbers (a derogatory term in Bengali).

It is crucial that we separate the extraordinary level of corruption from ordinary, routine corruption; misdemeanor from felony, and theft from treason. Those who have access to the necessary information need to do such screening carefully.

Secondly, let us not divide the world in to a simplistic duality: the good and the bad, the civil and the evil. One who was civil became evila transformation that needs careful understanding.

What helped such a transformation?
There can be several factors accounting for the dramatic shift that converted a civil element into an evil one, but the ones that stand out are the total desecration of the judicial system and the defilement of the law.

Creating and empowering a fanatical terrorist group to repress political opposition, protecting murderers from the law, obstructing justice, and falsely accusing innocent citizens of crimes which they not only did not commit but were victims of, are obscenely ugly.

Various forms of corruption, from money laundering to bribe taking, and so on, must be dealt with in terms of their own merits, but should not be equated with extraordinary crimes.

The main repair works the present government must do is reinstate the cycle of crime and punishment, and return to administration of justice in a fair and impartial manner so that men and women in charge of governing can do their job without fear or favour. Important and unprecedented steps have been taken, for which the nation will remain grateful.

We may not create heaven on earth, but to prevent earth from degenerating into hell is an obligation for us all, because of which we must deal with the evil, and in a civil manner. In these extraordinary times, when mega corruption and heinous crimes are being exposed, the guardians of society must not lose their cool, and must remain vigilant so that revenge does not take the place of justice and ends do not justify the means.

Habibul Haque Khondker is a sociologist.