Courtesy New Age 3/12/10
I MUST agree with everything Gopal Sengupta said in his recent letter (New Age, November 30). I would help my learned friend by easing some of his disappointment. Our disappointment at the failure of our current crop of lawmakers, on all sides, to reform their traditional practice is misguided. We cannot reasonably expect the same people, on all sides, to come to power and change their conduct when they feel no need to do so. They do not understand what they should change and what they should become. Rather, this very expectation lies at the root of our problems.
In fact, our disappointment should be directed at our failure as an electorate to physically replace these very same people. Alas, the law abiding electorate can only vote for those who are put on the ballot by those who abuse the same laws. What good is the well-intentioned and respectful chastisement of our politicians, on all sides, when these same politicians provide shelter under which rapists, murderers and extortionists thrive?
Our politicians do not mock our complaints for they do not even register them in the first place. My friend and I both admire Winston Churchill and I shall twist the great man's words to make a point regarding our political parties and partisan members of our bureaucracy, police, armed forces and intellectual commentators: `Never in the course of human history has so little been owed by so many to so few.' Why look for auspicious signs when we have no reason to expect any?
Ezajur Rahman
Kuwait
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