CJ's important observations

The CJ's remarks stand out for two reasons. Apart from echoing the sentiments of the people he has done us the favour of pointing out the very repository of corruption in Bangladesh - the politicians and those residing in the highest social hierarchy, both surviving on a very intimate nexus in the crime. He has also suggested several means and ways to combat the disease, which deserves dilation.

One cannot agree more that it is political will and political will only that can stem this debilitating social cancer, which unfortunately has come to be accepted as the norm rather than the exception. However, the political will must come from the political leaders, but the entire political system regrettably, starting with the electoral process, is so besmirched with corruption that a systemic cleansing is called for. Those who should lead the way in our fight against corruption, the people's representatives, resort to corruption in various ways to get elected, and have to continue in the corrupt ways for getting elected.

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Not only that, the bastion of political power in the country is so inexorably immersed in corruption that the idea has taken an institutional form in our country. Nothing gets done, and no business deal gets through unless routed through a certain channel, so it is said. The CJ's call for social resistance against corruption strikes a responsive chord. This can be achieved only when the public is aware enough to elect only those that are without blemish and can lead the nation through personal examples.

That is a tall order indeed but nonetheless achievable if government transparency and right of the public to information can be ensured.

Purging corruption may not be possible without weeding out the corrupt. It is perhaps time to adopt concrete actions to root out the evils of corruption from the society, once and for all.