He has said sorry by the way of making a convoluted confession. It was a mistake for him to have mingled with politicians who are now suspected wrongdoers. He said it. I didn't.

But let us not get excited. There comes a time in life when everybody wants to say sorry. Pakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi said sorry to his countrymen because he failed to perform in the ICC Tournament in 2006.

Germany has apologized for the sufferings caused by its actions in two world wars. Then it paid billions of dollars in reparation to allied forces and the Holocaust survivors.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair apologized for the treatment of the Irish during the potato famine, Pope John Paul II apologized for the sins of the Roman Catholic Church, and Australia has apologized to Aborigines.

To its credit, the US government has apologized to the Japanese Americans interned in concentration camps during WWII. It has also said sorry for persecution of American Indians and black Americans who were lynched.

Perhaps conscience works like a festering wound, which finds relief when opened to discharge the burden of guilt. But this one apology comes a cropper, it comes too late. It also comes from a stalwart amongst us who feigns ignorance of people who were his political allies. Hard to digest that a well-informed man mixed with the mischievous bunch and didn't know they had dirty hands.

It seems all things come late to this man. He didn't clear his taxes until things came to a head. For God's sake someone of his stature, one who wants to be the leader of the people, the epitome of sound mind and intelligent scruples, is expected to stay ahead of the game. He should set examples, lead the way and be squeaky clean. He should be shipshape so that nobody can lift a finger at him!

But what can you say? He feels guilty by association and didn't bother to pay attention to what in every house parents say to their children. At least my parents cautioned me to stay away from strangers and not to accept anything from others if I didn't know them well.

And when you are grown up and educated, established in life and society as a legal giant, when you can write national constitution, make deliberations, fight court cases at home and abroad, when you can tell others what to do and have spent a lifetime soaked in jurisprudence, then you don't have an excuse. Like ignorance of law is not an excuse for citizens, ignorance of people is not an excuse for politicians. OLé!

On that count I reject the apology, which comes from the head, and definitely not from the heart. I wouldn't mind if the apology was unconditional, if it was a flat-out confession of having made mistakes. But this apology has the smack of a clever contrivance, one that is used by mischievous kids who don't do their homework. They look for excuses, blaming it on power failure, noisy neighbors, visiting relatives, or dead grandmothers.

Honestly, I am not trying to underestimate the power of apology. Vanderbilt University Law Professor Erin O'Hara and Douglas Yarn of Georgia State University have found that it matters how a guilty party says sorry to others. A sorry must not be an empty gesture because then the apology becomes another mistake which calls for repeat apology, going back to square one.

Somehow I cannot accept the fact that a man like this man didn't know he was hanging out with the wrong crowd. There were many newspaper stories, and I am sure someone of his stature, who was in privileged position compared to the rest of us, had access to lots of information.

Did he not ever bother to check on those rumors? Did he not ever have a flash of doubt cross his cross-examiner's mind? How could he not know what was common knowledge to street vendors and rickshaw pullers?

In a way, it has been good news that he never got elected. He doesn't have his ears on the ground, and he would have blown it away. He would have been inveigled by unscrupulous men. And that also tells us something else.

If he couldn't handle it in the past, he may not be able to handle it in future. It is time he should seriously think to let bygones be bygones and kiss goodbye to politics.

I am sorry if I have hurt anyone. I know the man has many admirers. But I cannot accept his apology as a proof of public contrition. Blaming it on others is not apology. Instead it is politics in the thick of it. I have quoted it before and I am quoting it again. Former US Vice President Hubert Humphrey said that to err was human, but to blame it on someone else was politics.

It was shocking to hear what sounded like a perfunctory apology, one which lacked that certain something which melts your heart and compels you to forget and forgive. Instead it aroused anger and disappointment because the man showed covert audacity in his overt apology. He wants to play endgame by shuffling his cards for a fresh start. It is a ludicrous story.

An apology has four conditions: regret, understanding of problem, acceptance of responsibility and willingness to improve. So far he has fulfilled the first two conditions, which makes it an incomplete apology.

In the movie Gandhi, a senior police officer brings a letter from Gandhi, and Lord Irwin tells him to thank Gandhi for the letter and then put him in jail.

It is my pleasure to thank the man for his apology and then tell him to get lost.

Mohammad Badrul Ahsan is a banker.