This security does not only mean the security of life; it includes the security of leading a day-to-day normal life, the security of work, the security of the freedom of expression, etc. All these together may be called human security.

The people in power are there to implement the law. So if these people lack morality the misuse of law makes the security of the citizen fragile, because no law is fool-proof in itself and cannot prevent misuse by its enforcers. The morality of the law enforcers may restrain them from misusing the law. A law enforcer who lacks morality may destroy, by misusing the law, the peace of an innocent citizen; and may even snatch away a few years from his life.

The secret court of morality is within a person, in the core of his heart. In that court of morality, a person himself is the accuser and the accused; he himself is the prosecution as well as the defense lawyer; and at the same time, he is the judge.

In this court, the law is the universal moral code of conduct, and the punishment is the sting of one's own conscience. If morality has no room in a person, then he/she loses his/her conscience. A person lacking conscience is like a beast, no matter how smartly he or she behaves.

Due to the lack of morality in many political leaders in Bangladesh, notorious gangsters and out and out corrupt people have become the mainstay of our politics. Now "famous" gangsters and highly corrupt people contest in our national and local elections, and they get elected.

When someone in this country becomes a gangster of high stature, he amasses a huge amount of black money; he starts to think that he is eligible to become an honourable member of parliament. When someone possesses these two "noble" qualities, he thinks that it is shameful of the nation not to elect him as MP. As politics has turned into an extremely lucrative business in Bangladesh, gangsters and corrupt people are in a mad rush to join it.

For a long time the gangsters have been riding happily on our politics. As a result, the politics-addicted people of Bangladesh cannot think of politics without them. By building up a strong law and order maintaining force imbued with morality, the political party running the government may easily get rid of its dependence on gangsters and party cadres to stay in power.

At present, Bangladesh has one policeman for every 1,300 people. According to the United Nations, there should be one policeman for every 500 people. The police to people ratio in the UK is 1:430, in the US, 1:410, and in Malaysia, 1:283.

There is no alternative to a strong law and order maintaining force for providing security to the people. The police are the friends of the citizens, and if they (the police) are used as a repressive force by the politicians in power, it is the politicians' fault, and the police are not to blame.

The faith in religion takes roots in the mind during childhood, so it does not usually waver while a person grows up. In the same way, if morality is implanted in the core of a person's mind during his childhood or student life, the possibility of its faltering during his later life is reduced greatly. We have to introduce morality as a subject to be taught at all levels in our educational institutions.

In politics sans morality, let alone the caretaker government, even if the angels come down from heaven to conduct the elections, it will not be free and fair. If morality reigns over politics, free and fair elections can be held under a party government; a caretaker government will not be needed for that purpose.

Without infusing morality into our politics, all the political reforms we are now talking about will go in vain. To make the country socially habitable we need to install in the country, through a drastic reform of our mentality, the rule of law replacing the rule of person(s).

In Bangladesh, a big number of "election engineers" is always available to rig the election results on behalf of the big political parties. These immoral people always remain absorbed in the thought of making money or getting some undue advantages by being in or around the power when their party wins the elections.

Voter ID card may play a great role in stopping election engineering. It seems, at this moment, that we are going to get the voter ID card. Perhaps research has already been started on how to frustrate, through adopting a new state-of-the-art method of election engineering, the effectiveness of ID card in holding free and fair elections in the future.

Corruption has an iron grip all over our society. Except for a few, we all indulge in corruption; we shout against corruption; and we all want that except me and my friends and relatives, and my dear political leaders, all the corrupt persons must be severely punished. If punishment can be ensured for all the corrupt people, friends and foes included, the fear of punishment will act as the panacea against corruption.

Due to lack of morality we could not make the elections free and fair, but we have been able to make them extremely expensive. The candidates go to the Election Commission office with a huge procession, beating drums and chanting slogans, just to file their nomination papers, as if they were going in a bridal procession.

They spend a lot of money only to arrange the procession to the Election Commission office; let alone the price they pay to buy the party nomination from some immoral leaders of the parties, and the money they spend to run the election campaign.

We have laid the path for our elected representatives to indulge in corruption to get back the money, with "interest," that they had spent for the elections. To make elections inexpensive we must understand that they are not festivals, but a solemn duty to the state.

Politicians are to play the leading role in the politics of a country. If national interest loses ground to the affection for the children of the politicians, or patriotism loses its appeal to their greed for wealth, then the people lose their security; and the country will fall gradually deeper into a bottomless hole.

If the "party cadre" system can be eradicated from politics, and corruption can be reduced from 100/150 per cent to 10/15 per cent; then after fifteen years nobody will be available in Bangladesh to receive dole money.

The people of Bangladesh are among the most intelligent people of the world; we are not supposed to lag behind other nations. Only if we can use this high level of intelligence, not for bad purposes, but to build a country based on morality, then the people of this country will enjoy all sorts of security; and the country will become habitable for us and for the future generations. To leave behind a civilised country for the coming generations is our moral duty and obligation.

Faruque Hasan is a freelance contributor to The Daily Star.