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Imperative of punishing the profligates
**The state needs to debar a significant number of suspected politicians from participating in electoral politics in order to ensure the growth of a healthy polity.**
LARGE Scale malfeasances and pure criminal action resorted to by highly placed public official and public leaders have shocked the nation. Whether it is the unsettling scam in the financial sector, particularly the banks or the forgery of important State documents like freedom fighter certificates by senior bureaucrats or the suicidal adulteration of foodstuffs or the leakage of question papers of public examination, the public is at a loss to see the spectacle of authoritative inaction or half-hearted action at best.
The need, quite clearly is to firmly punish the profligates at the earliest. Punishing the bad hats is an urgent priority because we have to once for all put a stop to the rise of dishonest people in the socio-political arena.
It is to be noted that we must not make the mistake of thinking that those who hunger for political profit, or profit in the form of power, are less dangerous to society than those who seek monetary profit. It is time to rein in the unbridled ambitions of unscrupulous money-makers.
Politicians who have visibly plundered national resources and did not feel uneasy with their ill-gotten wealth need to be exposed and punished. Ministers who had helped, and connived with, the transfer of prime government land at token prices for doubtful use by near relations have to answer for their highhandedness and flouting of rules.
The sense of propriety, and the distinction between public property and private gain, needs to be restored. If the constraint of legality is not effectively established by ensuring punishment of the corrupt then the crown would always go to the loudest voices, the biggest sticks and the readiest fists.
The state needs to debar a significant number of suspected politicians from participating in electoral politics in order to ensure the growth of a healthy polity. That goal cannot be achieved if it is not possible to criminally convict a number of politicians.
The state needs to mobilise the best trial lawyers, and experienced and capable investigators, for successful prosecution. Financial remuneration for such jobs should be high and there must not be any bureaucratic encumbrance in this regard.
Punishment of the corrupt would be meaningful when ill-gotten money can be judicially or administratively brought back to the state coffers. In cases of criminal breach of trust and misappropriation, most often the siphoned-off money could not be confiscated by the state. Now that we have signed the International Convention on corruption, efforts should be made to retrieve national wealth by enlisting international cooperation.
The profligates need to be punished because ground realities regarding the imperatives of astute political management of the affairs of Bangladesh deserve serious consideration. It is against the background of such a backdrop that concerned Bangladeshi citizens will sincerely hope and pray that, indeed, politics truly
becomes difficult, so that increasing numbers of brats and non-entities do not occupy the centre-stage of our political horizon.
Such concerned citizens, and the well-meaning folks of our country, earnestly desire that politics becomes the art of wise and patriotic people, and is effectively salvaged from the clutches of the insensitive.
There is no denying that in spite of our adopting a lofty constitution we do not have the ability to follow it. Equally true is the fact that while we are the proud inheritors of a rich and vibrant culture we do not have the wisdom to cherish it. The compounding tragedy is that our resilient people have to suffer and endure in patience, without recognition of their innate potential.
We need to ask ourselves if the apathy of the citizens -particularly the elite who have almost opted out of the democratic process - is responsible for the corruption, incompetence and inefficiency that we see all around? We have to admit that as a nation we have paid substantially for our follies in leaving the governance of this country largely to the professional politicians, for many of whom politics is not bread and butter, a means of livelihood, orworse, a means ofpersonal enrichment.
Criminalised and vandalised politics is another indicator with alarming fall-out. Violence and politics have become almost synonymous. The emergence of
political bully-boys would not have been possible without patronisation by political parties. Violence has had serious negative impact on the political culture of the country.
We have to admit that our ethno-linguistic and religious homogeneity factor has not succeeded in bringing the dynamics of socio-political relations within a manageable limit. Presently, our society is characterised by a significant elite-mass gap. A small segment of society influences decision-making, and allocation and distribution of resources.
The stalling of democratic experimentation in the initial years of independence led to a succession of military and quasi-military rule by a coalition of the higher echelon of the military and civil bureaucracy. Political leaders joined later to complete the "coalition of convenience." The first two groups remained dominant.
Bangladesh polity has failed to forge national cohesion on fundamental values. Inadequate nation building and state building processes is the cause. Lack of mutual trust and prevalence of hostile political attitude have resulted in weak political institutions and weak national capacity to resolve national issues. The process needs to be reversed. Such reversal demands expeditious punishment of the profligates.
The writer Is a columnist of The Daily Star.