The political atmosphere of Bangladesh has been vitiated so much that these days honest and dedicated politicians have become a rare species. Politics these days is considered as a business proposition by majority of its practitioners.

The situation was not so bad until mid 1975. The first parliament of the country had only two recognized businessmen namely MR Siddiqui of Chittagong and Matiur Rahman of Rangpur as its members. But they were well educated and seasoned politicians.

In the olden days, politicians as well as members of the parliament used to come mostly from professions like legal practice, teaching, medical practice, journalism, trade unionism, and sometimes from the landed gentry who used to practice principled politics and were rarely seen to compromise with the principles they stood for. However, there were some exceptions.

Most of the yester year politicians used to keep welfare of the country and its people in mind while involving themselves in politics. Whereas, the majority of the present day politicians have no principle. They keep on changing party allegiance for self-aggrandizement and fulfillment of their personal ends and gain power through whatever means possible. The tragedy is that they are not ashamed of their deeds.

The rot originally started before independence of Bangladesh back in 1958 after the army chief of Pakistan, General Ayub Khan usurped state powers through a military coup. In independent Bangladesh it started soon after the brutal and undemocratic political change over in August 1975 followed by imposition of martial law.

In order to consolidate power and to give his government a civilian facade, the then military ruler first made a mockery with the people in order to legitimise his power though holding a referendum in which he was the lone candidate. Thereafter, he floated his own political party by alluring some disgruntled politicians devoid of any political clout and some opportunist members of the then civil society. Ironically it included a few from the political party that was in power before the changeover.

In doing so, money collected through questionable means was used for distribution of favours and all the state machinery including various intelligence agencies of the state were used. Money from the national exchequer was also used for the purpose. In the process, the floodgates of corruption were opened which kept on flowing during entire period of the first military and quasi-military rule till 1981. Money from nationalised commercial banks was virtually doled out to favoured ones in the form of bank loans that subsequently gave rise to a new phenomenon popularly known as "loan default culture."

It cannot be said that the first democratically elected government of the country was free from corruption. Corruption was there, but it was in a much lesser degree compared to what one can see now. It could not engulf the entire society as it has today because of the existence of a functional parliament and vocal opposition outside the parliament at that time. Most of the ministers, parliamentarians, political activists and government officials of that time barring a limited few were not dishonest. Majority of the dishonest and corrupt politicians and officials kept on changing their colours after every change over, democratic or otherwise. It is not difficult for a dispassionate analyst to verify the above observations.

However, the biggest mistake of the first democratically elected government was, introduction of one party system of government in the country through a constitutional amendment which facilitated the conspirators to take over state power in August 1975 through brutal killing of the country's founding leaders. It may, however, be noted here that the new system could not see the light of the day as the changeover took place before it was introduced.

Cronies of the then military ruler including the so-called ministers and pseudo parliamentarians elected during the period through questionable elections were allowed to amass enormous wealth and gain muscle power by resorting to corrupt practices backed by the powers that were. Taking advantage of the situation, unscrupulous government officials, businessmen and trade union leaders joined the bandwagon. Honest politicians and government officials were silent spectators.

After the brutal assassination of the first military and quasi-military ruler in May 1981, a civilian, who was the vice-president at that time, was elected as the president of the country through a managed election under the tutelage of the then army chief who a few months later, usurped state power by staging a military coup.

Opposition political parties of the time were too meek to challenge the new ruler and one section even extended tacit support. Following the footsteps of his predecessor, the second military ruler also created his own political party in the same manner. Dishonesty, cronyism and corruption were the hallmarks of that regime. Corruption was allowed to spread its tentacles in almost all the areas of administration.

Although parliamentary system of democracy was reintroduced in 1991 as a result of a popular upsurge spearheaded by the united movement of all the major opposition parties and student organisations, corruption, graft, nepotism and favouratism, instead of evaporating, rooted firmly, thereby eating into the vitals of the country's social fabric. In the process, the bureaucracy lost its neutral stance and a section of its members in league with the powerful section of the ruling political parties started running after grafts in order to fulfill their selfish ends to the detriment of the national interest.

The scenario started changing a bit after a newly elected government came to power in 1996. But after about three years of its incumbency, things started running anticlockwise. No wonder why Bangladesh continued to rank first among the most corrupt countries of the world for the last five consecutive years according to Transparency International's corruption perception index.

Under the said circumstances, one can only hope that good sense will soon prevail upon the movers and shakers of our national destiny in order to rid the country from the current impasse and ensure a peaceful transition power through timely holding of a universally acceptable election due in early 2007. Let us hope for the best.

Jahangir Bin Alam is a former Secretary, Foreign Investors’ Chamber of Commerce & Industry.