Most of these stories only make us painfully realise that things once known as beautiful and valuable are becoming scarcer day-by-day.

Like many of the sweet water fishes, like many of those beautiful birds, like the herons and doves, like the tall grasses and large haors and beels, we are seeing fast erosion of things that once we were so proud of.

We are witnessing deliberate destruction of things splendid, built with care and love by our forefathers. And, every day, the media is presenting such news items with great diligence, much to our embarrassment and shame.

This week the law enforcers dug out some more forest destroyers from under the bushes, the very people who were supposed to protect the pristine resources of the country!

After having nabbed the large cat of the forest, the chief conservator, law enforcers were looking for the hideouts of the smaller cats. Once on the run, these cats tried to hide in a hole but, unfortunately, their tails remained exposed and they got caught.

The shocking part of the story is that, while the virgin forests were being raped openly by these officials, the relevant people in the government in power looked the other way. Obviously they were beneficiaries of the looting scheme.

Stories abound of the chief conservator and forest officials paying huge sums to the top brass in the government (even a former caretaker government adviser!!) to get the prized postings. And they made two hundred times the money paid to get to where they had gone.

They bulldozed through the Sundarbans, the Modhupur forest and the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Just as hyenas feed on carcasses of dead animals, these officials fed on the trees and other resources of the forests for years together.

But the biggest news to hit the stands came on Wednesday, when some BNP reformists spread out on the table a 15-point reform proposal. The group was given leadership by BNP Secretary General Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, who arranged for a press briefing for the purpose.

Word has been going around for quite some time now of his activities concerning bringing about reforms in BNP. Finally it came on Wednesday. People, no doubt, took it with a pinch of salt.

What is there in the reform proposal, and why did it come so late, when irreparable damage has already been done to the party? Why didn't they resign en masse when the party chairperson had been running the party like an autocrat? Did the reformists exert influence on the chairperson to change her style of running the party? There is no such record in the past five years.

The other question that is clouding the minds of the people is, what about reform of the reformists? What about their antecedents? Do they have clean records as far as corruption and amassing of wealth is concerned? Have they all submitted the wealth statements and sources of their income?

Were they ever vocal about the rampant politicisation of the judiciary, education sector and health sector, and politicisation of state organs like the Anti-Corruption Council, Election Commission, Public Service Commission etc?

It is interesting to read that Mannan Bhuiyan "dodged" a question concerning the tenure of the party secretary general, which he has been holding for last ten years. It only exposes the innate autocratic nature in some people, and that Mannan Bhuiyan is no different.

People in general are already quite sceptical about the outcome of the reform proposal, judging the background of the people who are now trying to eat the same dinner on a separate plate.

We wish to end this piece by throwing the question in the air, what is meant by "council has final say?" As far as we remember, no BNP council meeting was held in the last fifteen years or so, but many major decisions had been taken by the party chairperson, without caring to go to them. Therefore, what good can council members do if they are nothing but paper puppets?

There is no iota of doubt in any mind that both Awami League and BNP are run by people having the mentality of the colonialists. They consider their own party supporters and workers, and the citizens, as their subjects and, accordingly, expect them to work at a flick of their fingers.

These leaders possess the mindset of the landlords, and the zeminders of the bygone eras, and act accordingly. Therefore, reforms are only ploys to stay away from the jail, where many of the leaders actually belong.

Shahnoor Wahid is a Senior Assistant Editor of The Daily Star.