The leaders are far too busy relishing the adulation of their retinues, and the acolytes are happy basking and profiting in a for-your-pleasure-madam culture. This quasi-feudal tradition of a "fiefdom" in the midst of a so-called democracy is an affront to the very notion of a civil society.

One doesn't question the authority of a feudal lord -- mere questioning is tantamount to dissent -- and this is why the parties cannot envisage a change of leadership, not because they lack any eligible contender but merely because this move to unseat the leader would be tantamount to a slur on the leader -- which might bring them to their fall.

Recently, the AL leader has announced that she would step down even if just one of the AL Council members moves for no confidence. But let's not be naive -- she could never be voted out -- even if there are members who harbour any form of dissent, he or she would be dissuaded by other conniving members. The only way she steps down would be voluntarily. Had this been a truly civilized society, the two leaders would have resigned by now.

Both leaders have out-stayed their "sell-by date." It is clear that the two leaders have contributed less to the progress of democratic culture within their party and more to the erosion of democratic values. The brazen and unscrupulous malfeasance of the party top echelon overshadowed any form of democratic voice emanating from some of the lower echelon, who thus remained forever docile and willing partners, and thus depriving the nation of any semblance of headway towards a democratic culture.

The latest move by the BNP leader to install her brother among the party top echelon is yet another indication that "familo-cracy" is here to stay. This unilateral and undemocratic move by the party leader only helps to suggest an existence of a deep seated oligarchic culture within the party -- and this very same leader was talking about democratic reform within the party?

The move is about as subtle as an elephant in an egg factor. Rest assured, this brother of her would soon be selected as the leader (i.e. the party chairperson) who would no doubt be a surrogate to the present BNP leader in her absence. What best qualification merits him a place in the party? His family ties of course! And we might soon see an analogous move by the AL leader. And there is pressure on CTG to hold the election earlier so that the parties can again have a field day with their ill-conceived agenda.

Nevertheless, the CTG has a job to finish before it leaves. The jobs are:

• Revamping the entire electoral system (preparing a genuine voter-list and introducing voter ID system), so that it stays totally independent and non-partisan.
• Bringing all the political and corporate graft to justice with clinical diligence.
• Cleaning up entire government and its agencies so that corruption would never be able to breed.
• Restructuring government and its agencies so as to bring proper transparency and accountability in the system.

CTG has promised to complete these in 18 months (by the end of 2008). Whether or not it's feasible in such a short time is moot -- however, whether or not CTG can survive the onslaughts of stalling and tacit pressures from different interested quarters, that is germane. The pressures are:

• Repeated demand from the two leaders for an early election -- as though any make-shift election would solve the national crisis -- of course, earlier the better for them, because whichever party wins, it could have yet another chance to relish another five-year reign of unashamed plundering while the opposition keeps the nation hostage by repeated hartals and oborodhs.
• Repeated phony outrage from the leaders that this CTG is unconstitutional and that a delayed election is bad for democracy -- one would be forgiven for thinking that these leaders actually lose sleep at night over democracy!
• Events of simultaneous terrorist bombing around the country -- perhaps aided by some interested quarter to discredit the CTG.
• Price hike of daily commodities -- inevitable, but it does bite into pockets of average consumers.

Let us hope that CTG does not snap and succumb to the pressure. If they are determined to complete the job, then complete it must! Other wise, we will be back where we were before 1/11.

Without any form of a truly fundamental reform of the major parties and without a truly independent and powerful EC, it is hard not to feel a déjà vu revisiting us. We do have the potential to elevate ourselves to the position of a developing nation, provided the political leaders come out of their rude awakening and start rebuilding and reforming their party on a firm democratic footing.

Dr. S.I. Zaman is a university professor.