Don't expect too much
Call us pessimists; we don't anticipate much change in quality governance when a new government takes over from the caretakers following elections next December. It would be the return of either of the two Begums, dramatically freed of all accusations much to our dismay, honing now to make up for the 'lost time.'
Democracy, often with its limitations as the pundits would say, is the best form of government. We too had our trysts with military regimes, democracy, and the caretaker system. Surely none could be perfect, but a 'democratically elected government' serves best our politicians. This is the one in which a prime minister can get allotted for herself and her siblings government properties under security pretexts for life and let relatives and cronies profit millions out of 'deals'; this is the system that lets a prime minister do away with unpaid taxes and disregard pointers of kick-backs involving her own children; this is the one that lets offspring of ministers and parliamentarians grab government lands and go scot-free for other vices; and democracy is at its best when fake certificates turn one into a Judge! While some of these are factual and proven, we don't expect our leaders to come forward boldly and demand investigation on the rest, even if they happen to be mere conjectures. If they do, they will make history.
To those over-enthusiastic arm-chair pundits and talk-show experts who are out to 're-usher' democracy in the country, we are afraid that they suffer from vainglorious mediocrity. Indeed, they too are part of the self-serving politico-military-judiciary nexus. They are comfortably silent, or animatedly agitated, depending on the situation that serves their interests. Why don't they exercise their democratic right of questioning the two Begums if they could assure us that if voted to power they would not replicate what they have been accused of; that there will be no exception or exemption for even family members if caught up in wrongdoings; that they would flush out rogue elements from their parties; that, in plain language, it would not be a democracy for the goons?
Ironically, we are onlookers of an episode from a South East Asian country that is being re-played in our current political landscape. A court in that country dropped five corruption charges over a single day.
With the likely return of one of the two Begums to power, and judging by the perceived lack of their basic honesty, we don't truly expect much qualitative change in governance, if any at all. Can anyone explain why we would still vote them to power? Just remember Shaw: “We learn from history that we do not learn from history.”
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