However, it is understood that the government of the day is very keen to at least create an appropriate atmosphere for political reforms before considering lifting of the ban on indoor political activities. It has also been said that the restoration of the real mechanics of a truly representational democracy is the priority.

A very pertinent question in view of the above scenario relates to the eagerness or otherwise of the general population about the resumption of usual political activities. One may wonder whether Bangladeshis are suddenly seeing committed and patriotic individuals, instead of supine and servile politicians, who will deliver them out of the deplorable mess they find themselves in?

In other words, do we have politicians whose activities bear testimony to their passionate commitment to public causes for the defense of the rights and liberties of the common man? Is there credible evidence of painstaking efforts to ensure that the well-springs of democracy remain undefiled? Do we see the few who would make things happen for the overwhelming majority, who have no idea of what happens?

If we look at the history of the sub-continent we find that the people have risen to great heights when they have basked in the glow of noble kings or leaders. We also see that many regimes had been destroyed, not by adversity but by abasement. Corruption has been the greatest solvent of public institutions; poverty poses a far smaller threat.

Incidentally, in the democratic experience of Bangladesh since at least 1991, we find that our politicians have remained occupied in maintaining a system, which is poisoned by collective bad faith and polluted by individual avarice. Instead of vision and imagination, our leaders have served by deception and craftiness. Their eloquence flourished most when public affairs were in the worst condition.

The question that should bother a discerning mind is whether, with our fragile institutions and economic under-performance, we can have a truly representational democracy. There is no denying that the whim and caprice of the ruling clan of the immediate past have transformed our democracy into a confrontational and dysfunctional entity. The burly sinners of our political world have consistently corrupted goodness.

If we have to hurry through for the sake of democracy, and lift the ban on indoor politics even before ensuring the preliminary steps of punishing the corrupt politicians, then the change ushered in by 1/11 will lose its meaning.

Without doubt, our polity will need time for our democracy to have an aristocracy of talent, knowledge and character. While waiting for that, a good number of criminals and plunderers must be permanently debarred from politics and public life.

The process of replacing the mercenaries of our political arena by men of honour and knowledge will prove lengthy, and the delivery promises will be difficult to fulfil, but the filth and stench of public life have to be cleansed. Politics has to be salvaged from the dangerous blend of incompetence, unscrupulousness and plain wickedness.

The question is: must the reins of power be handed back to those who appear promise bound never to become wiser? Also, whether we should revert back to that party system which takes grievous toll of an individual's independence, judgment and freedom of action?

The nation has suffered heavily by leaving the governance of the country entirely to so-called politicians. For many such professional politicians, politics is merely bread and butter or, worse, a means of personal enrichment.

The disenchantment of our people with the state of politics and our politicians has to be appreciated. The premonition that after elections the corruption, injustice, power and tyranny of wealth, and inefficiency of administration, will make a hell of life as soon as freedom is given cannot be summarily dismissed.

It is perhaps time to take freedom in moderation. It is also time to see if our legal system has made life too easy for criminals and too difficult for law-abiding citizens.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that, at present, our people are in a mood, which comes rarely in the life of a country. They are looking forward to new direction, a new era; a new life.

It is time not merely for a new budget or a new licensing policy or a new price structure. It is perhaps the moment for shaping and molding a new society, for giving a new and clear orientation to the nation.

Let us remember that our society has to not only fight against the big time criminals masquerading as politicians, it has also to do away with the few hundred petty tyrants who mushroomed all over the country during the last couple of years.

The election could be made the matrix of a reborn nation. More important would be to establish Government of Bangladesh limited -- limited not in responsibility, but limited by the rule of law and the discipline of the constitution.

No government should treat the constitution as its private property, and our laws as its personal backyard. In the meantime, let us not subject ourselves to misplaced enthusiasm by overstretching the virtues of democracy.

Muhammad Nurul Huda is a columnist of The Daily Star.