Let's get some facts straight. Politicians from the two principal parties began to talk about reforms only when they were placed under great pressure for reform from public opinion. A more potent pressure on them was the expressed intention of the caretaker government to change the rules of the political game.

It is becoming evident that the rules and conditions which the Election Commission would put in place for public representation may make many individual politicians, and even political parties, ineligible for election unless the organisations shape up.

A citizen cannot but wonder if reforms under nobody's pressure and reforms only through the party constitution and through council meeting, etc and such declaration of loyalty to procedures by most politicians is not patent political posturing.

After all, if the constitution and the councils of the parties functioned, they and the country would not be in the present mess. The top honchos of the parties bent the party rules at will to their own benefit. And are not many of the council members and "grassroots workers" actually local henchmen of the party bosses and members of parliament?

A citizen cannot but ask what assurance there is that the reform promises will not face the same fate of the broken election promises and manifestos of both the major parties? Especially the reform promises of the politicians who are pushing the interim government very hard to stage the election promptly and let them return to their accustomed role without too much of a respite?

An ordinary citizen wonders who the "people" are, when politicians and pundits invoke the name of the people to pronounce that "people want the parliamentary election within the shortest possible time and a return to democracy." A return to what we had in the name of democracy before 1/11!

The ordinary citizen does know in his/her guts that the present interregnum is almost too good to be true. Who could have imagined six months ago that the mighty and powerful who saw the state as their personal fiefdom would be behind bars in droves, hiding as fugitives form the law enforcers, or abjectly pleading forgiveness for their "mistakes"? The citizen knows that the present ad hoc dispensation cannot by definition be a permanent order.

The citizen applauds many government actions of past six months which were not carried out in decades. Examples: starting the process of separation of judiciary and the executive, putting able and honourable people in statutory institutions -- the Anti-Corruption Commission, the Election Commission, and the Public Service Commission, ridding public service of partisan loyalty, and making the police somewhat more cognizant of their public duties (much more to be done about this).

The ordinary citizen also senses that there have been false steps by the interim rulers. The overzealous move to evict poor slum dwellers, continuation of the habit of extra-legal killing by law enforcers (though at a reduced level), not exercising sufficient care about some ACC appointments (and about the plan to form local committees), not going after Jamaat politicos in the anti-criminality drive (what's the mystery?), prevarication about fertiliser supply to farmers (too reminiscent of past practices), failure to curb prices of essentials, not yet demolishing the Rangs building (will it remain standing as a supreme icon of venality?) -- are a few cases in point.

The ordinary citizen is caught between a rock and a hard place. He/she knows that the interregnum has to come to an end at some point, not too far in the future, and political and institutional reforms have to happen, including probably substantial constitutional changes eventually. But the reforms are not worth anything unless they bring about change in political norms, culture and behaviour pattern.

The citizen is apprehensive that haste and rhetoric will not get us there and that it cannot be left to the politicians' own devices. Too much is at stake. The pressure from the citizenry and the interim government has to be kept on for the politicians to prove at every step that they would keep their words this time. The citizen wants that political parties make their reform an open process for all citizens to see, hear and participate in it. The initiatives of the government for reform and change of other institutions of governance also should be carried out with the same kind of openness and participation.

The write is Director of BRAC University Institute of Educational Development. The above are his personal views.