sOME time back, former Us President Bill Clinton visited Princeton to address a gathering. After the meeting, as Mr. Clinton was exiting, he shook hands with several well-wishers. One in the audience shouted, "Mr. President, we are from Bangladesh!" The former President stopped in his tracks, paused, turned back and said firmly, "Get rid of the two ladies!" Funny, how foreigners can distill complicated ills that have plagued Bangladesh for so long, into a few words.

Of course, Mr. Clinton was alluding to the two ladies who have led Bangladesh for the last fifteen years, and who famously do not get along, to the detriment of the nation. What the former American President may not know is that what he is asking is an impossible task. People in America own homes, stocks, and bonds. in Bangladesh, politicians

own political parties.

Founded by her late husband, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) belongs to Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and her family. Likewise, the Awami League is the property of the former Prime Minister and the current Leader of the Opposition, sheikh Hasina, and her late father. As long as the two ladies are alive, it is inconceivable that anyone can challenge them for the leadership of their parties. Merit and competency do not matter here, only family lineage does.

All of these would have been inconsequential if the two ladies were doing, in Bush-speak, "a heck of a job." Non-partisan Bangladeshis would agree that they are not. Not by a long shot. Their lack of vision is compounded by their pathological dislike for each other. Discussion of matters crucial to the nation's well-being, quickly degenerate into mud slinging and personal

vitriol.. Every average

Bangladeshi knows that the recent spate of bombings in Bangladesh is not the work of either the BNP or the Awami League.

Yet, after every bombing, without offering any evidence whatsoever, the BNP has blamed the Awami League, and the Awami League has blamed the BNP. Until recently, neither of the two parties knew who the real bombers were. That they claimed to know for sure that the other party did it was a lie. The opposition has more leeway here, because as the government is in power, the burden of proof rests with the BNP government.

Thank God, though both parties continue to blame each other, we now know that it is the religious extremists who are behind the bombings. is it too much to expect that the leaders of the two major parties will push aside each party's electoral ambitions and make common cause now for the good of the nation. it seems so.

Our two leaders were quick to relapse into debilitating old habits. Once again, the two ladies have disappointed the nation. There is no denying that the Awami League has borne the brunt of the militants' wrath, with the government adding insult to injury by blaming the victims most

of the time. One can also legitimately argue that the government is inviting the Awami League for talks only because it feels threatened itself and has no other choice.

Having said all that, the nation has a right to expect the opposition, the government in waiting, to act in the nation's interest and forgo party or personal interest. With the nation in peril and reeling from the advent of the suicide bombers, it was utter childishness on the part of the opposition to not only not attend the all party talks, but also not to even accept the letter of invitation! The nation deserves better.

The government must not, once again, look in the wrong places for terrorists. it is silly for the police in Netrokona to pursue leads that purport to show that a minority may have aided the suicide bombers. Minorities in Bangladesh have better sense than to aid people who would like to kill them anyway. This is a throwback to the days when the government was blaming the Awami League as the real terrorists were thriving, conniving, and making bombs undisturbed.

The good news is that the suicide bombers have absolutely no public support in Bangladesh.

Whatever their vision or mission is, it is not shared by 99.9 percent of the people of Bangladesh. if the suicide bombers want to reach heaven by blowing themselves up, they should be allowed to. They should all be gathered in one place, a remote field beyond civilization, and allowed to blow themselves up, thus sparing the nation further agony!

if the suicide bombers feel that they can scare the nation into surrendering to them, they are dead wrong. sure, anyone

willing to take his own life, can take some innocent lives with him. But Bangladesh will never surrender to these thugs.

Talking of the thugs, Bangladesh's most famous archeologist, Dr. Nazimuddin Ahmed, has written a fascinating book on how the British destroyed the indian "Thugees." (Root word for "thugs.") The Thugee cult, with both Hindus and Muslims as

members, was devoted to Kali, the Hindu goddess of death and destruction. Members of the cult would befriend unsuspecting wayfarers and at an opportune moment strangulate them with a handkerchief. The bodies would then be plundered and buried according an ancient ritual.

For over 300 years, the Thugees claimed tens of thousands of victims. Lord William Bentinck, the Governor General of india, ordered the infiltration of the Thugees. After successfully infiltrating the group, between 1831 and 1837, the British hanged over 4,000 Thugees and the cult was essentially eradicated. surely, we can do something similar to eradicate our own thugs.