In fact, these revelations, coming as they do from the mouths of people who have been very close to the highest leadership of their parties, reveal only an insignificant part of the tale of how both Sheikh Hasina and Begum Khaleda Zia had not only misgoverned this country but also destroyed the very soul of this nation of 150 million people over the last sixteen years under the guise of democracy.

All these years they had posed as good Samaritans, as leaders of the oppressed people, and as champions of democracy and development and women empowerment, while the people knew in their hearts that there was not an iota of truth in what they said, and that they were no better than the man they had contemptuously removed from power -- Hussain Mohammad Ershad, the dictator. Curiously enough, they ruled like Ershad did, and lied, and still keep lying, like he did without batting an eyelid.

The entire post-Ershad era, from 1991 to 2006, can be summed up as a tale of how ruthlessly these two ladies ruled this country, and tore asunder the moral fabric of the nation. Both became supreme leaders of their parties, their credentials being that one was the daughter of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the legendary leader and architect of this country, and the other was the widow of General Zia ur Rahman, the valiant freedom fighter who declared our independence on behalf of Bangabandhu, and informed the world of our resolve to fight for liberating the country from Pakistani occupation.

Both promised to give us democracy, root out corruption, and alleviate poverty, but what they left behind after their stints in power is the badly bruised and battered Bangladesh that we see today. Together, they systematically destroyed all democratic institutions, and democratic norms and culture. They looted and plundered state wealth and property for themselves, their families, their party leaders and their cronies.

Whatever Lutfuzzaman Babar, Abdul Jalil, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Abdul Awal Mintoo, Tarique Rahman, Ghiasuddin Mamun and others have confessed to so far is but a tip of the iceberg of the macabre acts of loot and plunder, extortion, kidnapping, rape and murder that the so-called elected governments of these two ladies had indulged in. The full story has not been told. Nor will it ever be, unless these two ladies decide some day to spill the beans themselves, as their minions have done.

Some people say of the two ladies that one is better than the other. To me, they are just two sides of the same coin if you have followed the pattern of their rule. They most zealously kept in place all those things which Ershad did in his nine years of ignominious rule to undo democracy and foster corruption and crime in this country.

They sat majestically where Ershad used to sit as a dictator, and ruled the country like he did, with utter disdain for democracy and all moral and ethical values. Just to perpetuate their power, they literally vied with one another in politicizing in varying degrees all the national institutions -- the Election Commission (EC), the Anti- Corruption Commission (ACC), the Public Service Commission (PSC), the bureaucracy, the police, and even the judiciary.

They have done the greatest disservice to this nation by politicizing the bureaucracy, the police and the judiciary. It will take years to repair the damage done, and to restore dignity and trust in these institutions. They have demonstrated an unquenchable thirst for power, and an insatiable greed for wealth and property.

As the heads of elected governments, the first thing they did was to allocate important portfolios to those cronies who were the closest and most crooked so that they could foul up things better than others. Then they would increase their own, and those of all other ministers and lawmakers, pay and allowances and perks and privileges, as if they all virtually lived on this subsistence. And this they would do more than once, in one term.

They would have the most luxurious fleet of cars to ride, the largest retinues and, of course, many armed guards in front of their offices and residences -- a sine qua non of power and privilege in an impoverished country. Then would begin the real game -- the grabbing spree.

You grab whatever you can lay your hands on -- government land, the land of a widow or an orphan, houses, flats, ponds, footpaths, and even graveyards. Collect money in whatever way you can, if possible with both hands. Award government contracts and enter into business deals. Give licenses to TV channels, private banks and insurance companies. Procure transport and various electronic gadgets.

It is the money you get through under-hand methods which decides all the deals. Laid- down standards and specifications, the actual user's needs, and price rationale, are not the deciding factors. Then import duty free luxurious cars, sell them to businessmen and industrialists and make quick money practically without any investment. And then, send out party activists and armed thugs to extort money from rich businessmen, shopkeepers, bus terminals, and ferry-ghats.

This is how politics has been criminalized in this country. This is how the nouveau riche have sprouted in Bangladesh, as they have in most other third world countries. These two ladies considered this country to be a plateful of cake, to be nibbled at and finished before others had a chance to partake of it. They thought that this country was nothing but a personal fief or at best, a private limited company, for the rulers to rule and govern it the way they wished to.

Please do not get me wrong. There is not the slightest intention here to belittle or malign anybody. In fact, this is how these two ladies treated the people and the country. Look at them when they first entered the political arena and now, after they ruled this country. People knew what they had then, decades ago, but they do not know what they have now because there is no transparency and accountability in our system of governance.

Maybe the government intelligence agencies and ACC are privy to what these ladies have in terms of wealth and property. This interim non-elected government is trying to bring about reforms to enforce accountability and transparency in our elected political government system.

If the revelations made by some of our political and social elite, and the indictment of detainees so far, are any guide, then we can safely assume that the assets and properties of the two ladies would be astronomical in value. Till now all we know of them is how elegantly they dressed up, how frequently they undertook trips abroad for pilgrimage and for visiting their sons and daughters, and for treatment and convalescence.

Make no mistake. They are as brazen faced today as they were yesterday. Both Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia dismiss corruption charges levelled against their party leaders as false and baseless. What about the 200 million Taka recovered from Babar and deposited in the government treasury? What about over 3 billion Taka siphoned abroad, and recovered later by this government?

If these two ladies are correct, then what Babar and Tareque and Jalil and the rest of the pack have confessed is not true, which ought to lead us to conclude that the report of the ill gotten money recovered from these golden men of BNP variety, and deposited with the government treasury, is false, which most certainly is not the case.

Imagine a minister responsible for upholding the rule of law sheltering a murderer and allowing him to flee the country in exchange for a bribe of 200 million Taka. The same minister also confessed to negotiating a 10 million dollar fast-track frequency allocation deal for a telecom company, the money being shared by Khaleda Zia's son Koko and BNP lawmaker Ali Asgar Lobi. And Khaleda Zia dismisses it as rubbish!

Would anyone believe that Khaleda Zia as prime minister had no knowledge of it? About AL leader Wakiluddin admitting that Bashundhara used to pay 25 lac Taka on monthly basis to AL, Sheikh Hasina comes up with the defence that there was nothing wrong in receiving donations like this. So this is how she would justify receiving bribe in exchange for doing a favour to some businessman or group.

It is a pity that neither of these two ladies has any sense of guilt, or remorse for the myriad wrongs and injustices they inflicted on the people of this country.

Meanwhile, the people of this country wait with bated breath for the day when these two ladies would be asked by the concerned government agency to tell their version of the untold story, or rather, the saga, of their deeds and misdeeds, and account for the same. After all, where there is a beginning there is a denouement as well.

Brig Gen (Retd) Shamsuddin Ahmed is a former military secretary to the president of Bangladesh.