What is politics for? The aim in life of a politician is supposedly to serve his country. A politician should unselfishly endeavour for the betterment of his/her compatriots, so that they can stand in glory among the nations of the world.
Politics is not a means to make money and wealth as it is thought to be pursued by most of the politicians of the economically and socially backward countries like ours. What we see in Bangladesh is that whenever a political party ascends to power, many of its leaders start getting rich day by day. But how they earn such fabulous amount of wealth? Obviously through corruption at the expense of national interests. Such dishonest politicians deposit their money in bank accounts mostly abroad. Secret accounts in Swiss banks are their first choice.
Jesus Christ said that the pursuit of knowledge is like drinking salty sea water by a thirsty man, the more he drinks the sea water the more he gets thirsty. Perhaps the crave for wealth is also like drinking seawater, the more wealth a person gathers the more he craves for it.
Accumulation of wealth itself is not a crime or despicable, rather commendable if it is done legally and through honest means. Many political leaders, whenever they come to power, accumulate wealth through manipulation of opportunity and even misuse of government funds. People shudder when they come to know that some political leaders are involved in gold smuggling, some of them have been involved in importing container load of contraband items, in collaboration with some foreign embassies to evade customs and duties. Some powerful political leaders make money by collecting tolls, through activists, under overt and covert threat, from business people. It is also alleged that often some earn illegal commissions from foreign companies while signing contracts with them on behalf of the govern-
ment. Some of them even involve in illegally and forcefully occupying plots of land, houses having disputes of ownership.
How much is enough? How much money does a person need in a lifetime to lead the most luxurious life on earth? When we see a person has much more than enough and still desperately craves for further accumulation, and take recourse to dishonesty and corruption to fulfil that craving, shall we not take that person as crazy? His/her state of mind gets more evident when we see him/her publicly posing as an ardent crusader against dishonesty and corruption! That money and wealth should be earned by any means, even through dishonest and corrupt, at the expense of national interests, is certainly a symptom of mental sickness.
Perhaps such dishonest politicians only get mental bliss knowing that they have an enormous amount of money in bank accounts, at home and abroad. They even do not know what they will exactly do with that. With the utmost effort of a human being to lead the most luxurious life, one can at best use a very tiny fraction of such accumulated wealth to defray the costs of envisaged enjoyment and amenities. But only to satisfy their craze they are perhaps ready to be the most dishonest persons on earth. They see how the people around them are suffering from hunger, malnutrition, arsenic pollution and poverty, but these facts do not create any repercussion in their minds. Is not this a symptom of mental retardation? And what they ultimately gain? One of our ex-presidents is convicted in a corruption case. A lot more corruption cases against him are under trial. Many exministers have been facing corruption charges against them in the court of justice.
Greek philosopher Plato has suggested in his book, 'The Republic', that the members of the ruling class should not have their own families. According to his thought that if the ruling class (the people in power) do
not have families of their own then they will not misuse their power and get involved in corruption to make money for their families. However, politicians in the socially backward countries have proved that even this great philosopher was wrong! Jayalolita, an ex-chief minister of the Indian state Tamil Nadu, despite being an unmarried person could not keep her hands clean and honest while in power. She has been sentenced to imprisonment by an Indian court for corruption charges brought against her. Has not her insatiable and uncontrollable avarice for wealth made her corrupt? Such lust for money and wealth is certainly not a symptom of sanity.
The gradual degradation of quality of our politicians is alarming. During the British rule in the subcontinent the idea that power can be used to make money was unknown, so only such people as had the desire to sacrifice their lives for the nation and country used to get involved in politics. Gone are those days and the instinct to make money being in politics (power) has surfaced, with people a devoid of honesty flocking into politics.
Such politicians, however, in the name of a political party which comes to power, start thinking that they will stay in power for ever, therefore will never be made accountable for their misdeeds and corruption to anybody. This wrong assumption makes them more desperate to misuse power for making money.
Everything has a limit except perhaps the lust for money and wealth of some people involved in politics in our country as well as other such underdeveloped countries. While making this comment I pay due respect to those very few politicians who still maintain utmost honesty and integrity. When majority of the politicians are crazy what bright future for our country can we hope? We need to expose the state of mind of our politicians, instead of hushing up the reality, so that they may come to sense to correct themselves.