Fate of our leaders

1. Mr. Tajuddin Ahmed. First Prime Minister of Bangladesh Government in Exile (Mujib Nagar) and Independent Bangladesh till Bangabandhu came to Dhaka. Killed in jail along with Capt. Mansur Ali, Mr. Nazrul Islam and Mr. Kamruzzaman.
2. Bangabandhu Sk. Mujibur Rahman, who fought for the emancipation of the people and pioneered the freedom struggle, Prime Minister and later President was brutally murdered along with several members of his family and others in 1975.
3. General Ziaur Rahman, the declarer of Independence, was assassinated in Chittagong in 1981.
4. Justice Sattar was unceremoniously deposed in a bloodless coup by General H.M. Ershad, the then Chief of Army.
5. President H.M. Ershad had to resign in the face of a mass upsurge and later convicted for corruption and served jail sentence. Many other cases are still pending against him.
6. Begum Khaleda Zia, Prime Minister for two full five year terms and a short stint in between is in custody, charged with corruption, misuse of power, awaiting trial.
7. Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister for one full term with simple majority and coalition with the Jatiya Party, in custody, charged with extortion/corrup-tion, awaiting trial.
Besides, many senior leaders/ex-ministers of almost all the above governments are in jail, some convicted and others awaiting trial, for corruption, extortion, misuse of power etc.
This is the tragic story of Bangladesh since 1971. Do we deserve this?
Hence 1/11 was necessary and now that the present caretaker government has started to clean up the administration, and started a crusade against corruption, we must allow it to succeed, otherwise Bangladesh will be declared a “Failed State”.
The Election Commission has started a gigantic task of preparing the voter list with National ID card with photo. And it is trying to achieve this by October 2008 so that an election can be held by the end of 2008. I do hope this can be done, but holding of free and fair election may not be the solution. There must be reforms in place-- accountability, checks and balance, non partisan president. The civil service and police must be kept out of political influence, the office of Ombudsman must be in place.
With all that, we must first strengthen the Local Government bodies, the basic foundation of functioning democratic governance.
There must be a clear definition of the role of the members of parliament (lawmakers), otherwise there will be confusion between Upazila Chairman and the local MP.