The advocates of so called democracy(rightly termed kleptocracy), as it has been practised by our leaderships since independence without exception, will certainly find the materials contained in this column most unpalatable . What we have been used to seeing & experiencing in Bangladesh for the last 36 years leaves us with no choice but to endorse /condemn in one voice the evils of the practice that was once formulated to set the course of statesmanship to the best interest of mankind. Founding fathers of the USA (adaptors of the noble concept) perhaps could never imagine that monsters like Hitler & many others one day would be in a position to assume the authority through the same mechanism to cause "holocaust"/genocides etc that many of us in our past 70s witnessed with horror that still remains fresh in our dreadful nostalgic memory. Of course Bush and others mentioned by Manzur even to day continue to get away with the blood-baths under the auspicious cover of UN mandates to establish "A govt. of the people, by the people, for the people" in Iraq & elsewhere.

Certainly Lee & Mahathir of Malaya Peninsula knew it better to adopt rule of democracy as it suited their people as well as their environment best. They did not fail like our most revered leader ,"Bangabandhu"did due to blunders, conspiracies of all kinds which de-stabilised the nation in its infancy.

The concluding paragraph of the subject article sums it up very correctly to say the least, " The tree is worth for the fruit it bears " or "The taste of the pudding is in eating ". Let us all pray & hope as also mentioned in CA's address to the nation-- everything goes the way the course is set and the people of this country can wait for 18 months for a new era that has to be very much different from what we had from AL or BNP in the past 36 years.