The demand for lifting of embargo on indoor politics and the waiving of restrictions on organisational activities is not matched by any sense of urgency for punishing the apprehended political heavyweights and kleptocrats who clearly stand accused of anti-social and corrupt use of the opportunities provided by their official positions.

Resumption of democratic activities is an undoubted necessity but definitely not without sufficient house cleaning. Admittedly, such corrective actions would actually mean ensuring criminal conviction of immoral and corrupt politicians and businessmen by the highest court. That would, in all fairness, require quite a bit of time, but credible trials in open courts necessitate that. While raising our voices for withdrawal of restrictions on political activities we would do well to bear that in mind.

Punishing the bad hats is an urgent priority because we have to, once for all, put a stop to the rise of half-educated arrogant predators in the political arena. Surely we do not wish to see the return of the likes of those criminally disposed young members of parliament of Dhaka city and its periphery of the not-too distant past. These fellows are now behind bars, and the sense of relief consequent upon their absence is there for anyone to see and appreciate.

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 very 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, need 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 greatest social purpose is served when wrong is dethroned.

The state needs to disqualify and 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 substantial number of politicians before the year is out. The premonition is that once the environment becomes relaxed, with the withdrawal of restrictions on political activities, the investigation and enquiries of corruption-related cases and also the trial of such cases would slacken and slow down. The last months of any government's tenure are never an appropriate time to take strong measures.

The state needs to mobilise the best trial lawyers, and experienced and capable investigators, for successful prosecution. The financial remuneration for such jobs should be significant, 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 scenario 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 keep 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 merely bread and butter, a means of livelihood, or worse, a means of personal enrichment.

Assuming that Bangladesh is passing through the supposedly illiberal phase of democratisation, it is presumed that political instability that goes with the period of transition has security implications for the country. The sources of such instability are negative politics, lawlessness, misgovernment, patronisation of violence, keeping of armed cadre in student/labour fronts, boycotting of parliament amongst others.

The reasonably free and fair elections in the yesteryears still remain open to question in terms of both input and output. The questionable input for our elections has been money, including substantial amounts of black money. Such money militates against the democratic spirit and impacts negatively on the quality of the elected representatives.

Discerning observers would agree that, in recent times, middle class professionals with credentials, and with connections with the people, have been squeezed out of the political market to yield place to rich businessmen, industrialists or individuals with questionable means of income. The security ramification of this phenomenon is that elected legislators having the backing of black money amassed through smuggling of narcotics or illegal arms can put the country at the mercy of a few powerful dons pulling strings from behind.

In Bangladesh, fingers are already being pointed at such elements. In the context of the violent trend in politics such accusations cannot be summarily ruled out. Therefore, the election system, vitiated by the money-and-politics nexus, and a literally non-performing parliament, are factors sufficient to make politics volatile and unstable, with serious long-range ramifications.

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.

Our intolerant political conduct is reflective of an immature political culture, and politics is viewed as a game in which winner takes all in a zero-sum format. Political parties contest elections as if they were fighting a war. Political division and rivalry often degenerate into personal enmity, thus infusing an unhealthy element of acrimony that leads to violence.

The party in power is mostly intolerant, arrogant, and even feudalistic in attitude. The opposition mostly opposes the government for the sake of opposition, and is in politics as if with the undertaking to bring down the government. Such a scenario has been described as "crisis of governance." A country with such a crisis in governance will be ill-equipped to face the challenges of management, including those emanating from the security environment.

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 failure 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.

The elections of 1991, 1996 and 2001 may have restored the supremacy of political leadership but, in the meantime, immense damage has been caused to our political culture by the combined onslaught of corruption, criminalisation and commercialisation of the politics of the country.

The penetration of business interests into politics, made possible through a policy of distribution of political patronage and bureaucratic support, continued on a wider scale, and the emerging business class not only attempted to control politics through donations to party coffers, they also displayed a greater readiness to join politics themselves. We now have politicians and parliamentarians who have business interests. This commercialisation of politics has become the safest and most convenient vehicle for achievements.

One major political party cries for maintenance of law and order, and protection of national interest, while the other fights for the democratic rights of the people with relentless agitation, work stoppages and violence. Therefore, policies, postures, statements and actions of the political parties and ruling regimes have a significant role in conflict aggravation and its transition from one phase to another.

The interface between the political feuds and intense power struggle on the one hand, and violence of different intensities on the other, is provided by the underworld to which the political leaders of various statures are connected in a shady way. According to credible reports, nearly 300 godfathers control criminal and terrorist activities across the country. The godfathers belonging to major political parties are actually mid and high level leaders of such parties.

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.

Muhammad Nurul Huda is a columnist contributor to The Daily Star.