Former friends and partners are now turning into enemies, creating terror in the minds of the most powerful and famous politicians. Presidents accuse their subordinates of betrayal, while the subordinates accuse the superiors with a desire to smoothen their own future.

The love and admiration, previously so well articulated, are now being replaced with equally zealous anger, dislike and hatred. The civil society, media and the nation watch in amusement, often confused by the situation. Those with opportunities to write are now filling papers with words describing the unfolding events in the juiciest of manners, blending humour and anger in the lines.

The exposure of the malaise of corruption and the betrayal of trust and, in many ways, examples of treachery is, of course, a good thing. The disgust of the wider society and the increasing contempt for the immoral, criminal and unholy politicians and others is also a positive sign, one which we all should celebrate. It is right, therefore, that columnists, thinkers and commentators find attractive ways to narrate and analyse these stories.

After all, mounting corruption, rage of power, and greed of the political leadership has set our nation back. Their selfish actions, fuelled by lack of patriotism and consideration for the wider society, had got us going backward. However, the much discussed issues of corruption, extortion, abuse of power, and tax-evasion are mere symptoms of a wider problem, the root causes of which remain largely un-discussed.

In the following lines, I shall offer glimpses of what I feel are the root causes. One thing is clear from the events leading up to, and in the aftermath of, the fall of the first caretaker government of Prof. Iazuddin Ahmed, is that the political maturity of our nation is yet to take a solid shape.

It is clear that the current situation as it exists had not been foreseen by any of the political blocks, neither BNP nor AL had ever anticipated a situation of the kind we see now. This is a failure of a spectacular kind, one that immediately disqualifies all these major players of politics from their positions. The actions taken by the BNP led government immediately prior to the end of their tenure, and the opposition offered by AL, lacked vision, sincerity and patriotism.

Since the installation of the current government, the extraordinary events and visible vulnerability of the politicians clearly shows the lack of accountability that existed in all those years of our country's history. The absence of strong civic institutions, aware middle class, and an alert population, is evident. Because if there were institutions led by the civil society, the educated middle class and the wider professional and business communities then the situation could have not come to where it has.

The failure is not just of our political leadership, it is a collective failure of us all, as a nation. Our failure is our inability in holding these politicians accountable much earlier. Many, of course, would argue that there had been vocal opposition to various mindless acts of destruction of our nation by our leaders, but due to lack of public support this opposition was not heeded. This argument highlights our failure even further.

Politicians provide political leadership, thus they have a following in the wider society, but the civil society, professional class and business outfits offer moral and ideological leadership, for which there should have been an even stronger following.

If the educated, aware, and otherwise politically non-partisan groups had lived up to their responsibility and renewed their commitment to the nation, then the politicians would not have been able to overlook the dissatisfaction of the people.

The two points raised above, the absence of institutional deterrence from the wider non-political quarter and the lack of political maturity on the part of politicians, brings me to my final point, which is the failure of our educational establishments. Lack of serious political vision is the product of our ineffectual education system, which offers no opportunity for students to understand the nation, its history and the challenges that it faces. There is no framework for educating our young people to understand the needs and challenges of our society, and to develop a sense of responsibility.

If we were able to instil in our students a sense of belonging, and a commitment towards the well-being of this nation, our national institutions would have been much stronger and more effective in deterring the corrupt, greedy individuals and groups from looting the national wealth in whatever shape and form they could.

Instead of focusing on a genuine debate in modernising our education system, at the heart of which should be determination of a vision for the nation which, in turn, will influence the curriculum and content, we often focused narrowly along "sectarian" lines, thus wasting valuable time.

To sum up, therefore, we need a future generation of leaders beaming with confidence, vision and motivation, who will understand the needs and challenges of our nation. They will recognise the strengths, and devise ways to tackle the malaises.

For such a generation to come about, concerned, conscious and aware patriots need to raise themselves beyond controversy, broaden their hearts, and campaign tirelessly in bringing about a change in the minds of fellow citizens, the policy makers and other stakeholders in building an educational and social infrastructure. Only a modern, pragmatic, and robust educational infrastructure, reflecting the priorities of our nation, will be able to combat the issues of corruption and other destructive elements of our society.

The author is a freelancer, educator and broadcaster in the UK.