I have to confess that I find the question as to whether Dr. Yunus's entry into politics will be good for Bangladesh or not to be a little puzzling. Honestly speaking, I simply don't get it. Why would it be bad for Bangladesh for one of our most eminent citizens to aspire to serve the nation in a political capacity?

There appears to be some notion that as a Nobel laureate, Dr. Yunus should remain above controversy and above the fray. The best response to this line of argument comes from a pithy and sardonic blog-post by Naeem Mohaiemen: "So we should wrap our 'only' Nobel laureate in tin foil and put him in the glass cabinet in drawing room, so that mehmans can see it and go 'aha aha'?"

The whole point, surely, is that for years the nation has collectively bemoaned the fact that good people do not get into politics and that politics is filled with crooks and gangsters. At the same time, when Dr. Yunus (or anyone else) made one of his infrequent critiques of the political system, the snide rejoinder was always: "Well then, why don't you enter politics, if you think you can do better?"

Well, now Dr. Yunus has entered politics and the knives are still out for him. I guess the first lesson of politics is that you can never please some people.

I think that the more good people we have in politics and the more political parties committed to the common good, the better. In Dr. Yunus, I see a man who has worked for the common good for thirty years, who has engendered a social and economic revolution in terms of how the potential of the rural poor (specially women) is viewed both by themselves and by others, who has not enriched himself in the process, and who is of unimpeachable personal integrity and accomplishment.

How we could be worse off due to his entry into politics, I really don't see. If Md. Zafar Iqbal or Prof. Jamal Nazrul Islam or Abdullah Abu Sayeed or Fazle Hasan Abed decided to enter politics I believe that we would be similarly blessed. Why not? These are individuals with demonstrated commitment to the public good and integrity. How could we be worse off if they decided to try their hand in government?

So far it is unclear exactly what will be the platform of Dr. Yunus's new party, but I presume it will be something a considerable portion of the country will be able to get behind. And if they feel that they want to vote for such a platform, all well and good. Others might not. They may have a difference of opinion on the issues or believe that one of the other political parties will be able to deliver better governance. That's all well and good, too.

That is what democracy is all about. Choices. One of the problems we have faced in the past was that too often we were not given much of a choice. Take a look at the major party nominations for the abrogated January 22 elections. In constituency after constituency, the voters were denied a true alternative, and would have had to choose between candidates who were corrupt if not criminal.

Right now we are in a unique period in Bangladesh history. The Fourth Republic (1991-2006) has come to a close, and as a nation we need to put lots of thought into how to formulate the Fifth Republic, which will, hopefully, last for a lot more than fifteen years.

We need to go back to the drawing board and start over. We need to think very carefully about what reforms need to be put in place to make the political process more honest and responsive and to make sure that in the Fifth Republic our democracy is more functional than it was in the fourth.

Frankly, I would even favour a constitutional convention to put everything on the table to see what would work (as I wrote in a column as far back as July 29, 2005). One thing which is clear is that the Fourth Republic of caretaker government and parliament boycott and hartal and non-accountability and court-packing and partisanisation of institutions and impunity for official wrong-doing was neither sustainable nor will it be missed.

But, of course, reforms by themselves are never enough. Reforms only work to the extent that there is honesty within the political culture. The caretaker government is a good example of how even the best intentioned and ingenious of reforms can be subverted and compromised if the political will is not there.

What is needed in this country is reform of our political culture. Come on. When elected representatives import luxury cars duty-free only to sell them and pocket the profits, something is seriously wrong. When political parties feel free to ignore their own political manifestos and election pledges once in power, something is seriously wrong. When people trying to form a new political party have to fear for their lives, something is seriously wrong.

This is not to say that the political system and indeed the existing parties are not capable of reform. There are many, many people of good conscience and integrity in all the political parties in Bangladesh. In many instances, it is these grassroots workers who have been let down and marginalised by their leaders, but the core of honesty and integrity is there.

One thing that Dr. Yunus's entry into politics will do will be to empower these people within their own party. We are, in fact, already seeing this in the aftermath of the recent anti-corruption drive, with the politicians left standing understanding that the time has come for them to clean up their act and no longer tolerate criminals within their ranks.

The existing political parties command the respect and loyalty of tens of millions of Bangladeshis, and, more than anything else, they need to be responsive to the public. They need to listen to their voters and their party workers and understand that their mission is to represent the people.

This has not happened much in the immediate past, but now the political parties realise that they have no choice. They were on their way towards irrelevance, but now they have the opportunity and the compulsion to reform themselves.

Win or lose, succeed or fail, I believe that Dr. Yunus's entry in politics has helped set in motion what I hope will be an irreversible push towards openness, honesty, and responsiveness in the body politic, a push towards creating a democracy that is truly functional and representative, and that the nation can only be the richer because of it.

Zafar Sobhan is Assistant Editor, The Daily Star.