The present scenario perhaps resembles one wherein captives held in bondage for a painfully long time have suddenly begun to taste freedom and apparently are desperate to free themselves from the remaining shackles. In such a situation, one starts to understand the paths of the servile behaviour in our political arena in all its ugly manifestation.

In our politics one can see a patron-client relationship, otherwise described as strong band of paternalism. The adversarial relationship between people and authority has been promoted by our politicians and as a result, our people have become beseeching supplicants and not demanders. We do not ask for amenities as a matter of right, services in return for payment of taxes, respect and dignity as a citizen but everything as a gesture of goodwill from our 'benign' rulers.

It is largely true that most of our politicians seek special favours and feel gratified if corrupt and inept supreme authorities bestow these upon them. Instead of collective gains they have preferred individual profits. Most people are beguiled by the feigned humility and politeness of corrupt leaders, ignoring the disastrous effects of the visionless and directionless policies.

It is not unusual to see many of our otherwise upright and honourable politicians praising dishonest and callous leaders because those leaders were good to them at a personal level. It would not be wrong to assume that even educated Bangladeshis look to their leaders for favours rather than ideas, meaningless rhetoric rather than concrete action.

While deliberating on democratic reforms or political party reforms, we should not be oblivious of the reality that instead of long-term institutional reforms everyone wants short-term gains. In our situation the best politicians is one who never says 'no' to his voters or friends.

Since there is hardly any distinction between public property and private gains and no effective system of accountability, our politicians have always been ready to dole out favours to their cronies and sometimes to the general public. This generosity at public expense is appreciated by all and sundry. Thus it does not strike anyone seeing people of good standing appreciating the large-heartedness of wily politicians and slippery bureaucrats.

We continue to suffer from a quick fix syndrome that is based upon wishful analysis. It is amazing how over-simplistic and phony solutions are offered, accepted and often implemented for complex social and economic problems. For example, increasing crime against property and social unrest is always treated as a law and order problem which can be dealt with more force and coercion. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that many of our educated people believe that we can make our townships havens of peace by imposing Saudi-style stringent punishments.

Democratic and the political party reforms have not received the due attention because our political elite have not believed in the concepts of modern governance. They did not think that a neutral civil service selected on the basis of a competitive examination, codification of laws, delegation of powers, local self-government and an independent judiciary and more modern universities and colleges for social sciences, medicine and engineering were essential for building a democratic and progressive polity.

The striking irony of recent times is that the suspension of democratic activities following the change of 11th January last has actually resulted in the sharp awakening of the political conscience of the nation. A realisation has perhaps dawned that the people are the only keepers of the constitution and that at poll time they need to exact a heavy price from those who have been manifestly notorious by indulging in the worst of corrupt and undemocratic activities.

Many politicians including the party heads did not sound credible when they pointed to the paramount necessity of the holding of party council session for carrying out the proposed reforms. This is so because at least one major political party did not hold any council session for the last 12 to 14 years. In fact, major party decisions have been mostly influenced by the sycophants and the time-servers, the cringing and the craven.

It is to be hoped that the present government will enact such laws and take such executive action as are not meant merely to deal with the difficulties of the moment but calculated to ensure the good of the country in the long years ahead. Though political party reforms are no less important, the caretaker government would be rendering a lasting national services by effecting badly needed electoral reform.

The nation needs to be salvaged from the cesspool of degradation to which professional politicians have reduced our country. By voting such politicians to power we have kept a gifted and enterprising nation in the ranks of the poorest on earth. The survival of such politicians as public figures depends upon the continuation of the forces of ignorance. For many of our portly politicians, goodly in girth, public deprivation is good business: they talk continually about poverty without having the will, the expertise or the imagination to eradicate it.

The time has come when our citizens must wrest the initiative from professional politicians and insist upon individuals of knowledge, vision and character being chosen as candidates for parliamentary election. Simultaneously, there is a deep-felt need for an intelligent and adequate organisation of voters. Equally important would be to cast off the shackles of political feudalism. We need to commence the process of transformation which would enable the people to control the government instead of being dominated and dragooned by the latter.

The projected reforms would no doubt facilitate the cleaning of our polity but to shake off our crippling servility the national conscience has to be aroused to such a degree that it will cease to tolerate falsehood and dishonesty in public life.

Let us remember that obedience to democratic values which is enforced by the national ethos and not by the machinery of criminal justice is our best guarantee of a clean public life. What we need urgently is a morally enthused political leadership which can really lead to higher standards of ethics and decency in public life.

Muhammad Nurual Huda is a DS columnist.