M. A. Matin
Bangladesh was never created to be a sanctuary for political bandits. This land was not meant to sustain the businesses of corrupt elites. The dream of our independence was built on democracy and justice. Yet today’s Bangladesh betrays that dream, where politics has become synonymous with crime, democracy with deception, and the people with exploitation.
Democracy in Bangladesh is dead. Elections now mean fraud, institutions mean capture, and the people’s voice means silence. Those who claim to be “representatives of the people” are nothing more than guardians of their families, cliques, and syndicates. Democracy here is a cruel farce a disguise for looting and plundering.
What we call politics is in reality a vast criminal empire. Political parties are no longer centers of public service but safe havens for extortionists, land-grabbers, money launderers, and killers. Party affiliation has become a license to loot and a shield for terror. Murder, abduction, enforced disappearances, and intimidation have turned into routine instruments of politics.
Justice, accountability, and service are no longer part of our political dictionary. In their place stand bribery, capture, and fraud. The police, courts, election commission, and parliament have all been hijacked by partisan interests. This moral collapse has delivered the state into the hands of thugs.
Politics in Bangladesh is no longer about service it has become the most profitable business. The investment is violence and corruption; the returns are power, wealth, and influence. Parties operate like corporations where leaders act as chairmen, followers as shareholders, and the people as prey.
Our political stage is filled with the uneducated, the incompetent, the ruthless, and the corrupt. They lack knowledge, vision, and patriotism. They sell the nation while chanting slogans of nationalism. They swear by democracy while destroying it. These are not statesmen but predators in suits the true enemies of the state.
In Bangladesh, even a low-level government clerk requires minimum education. But to become a politician requires no institutional knowledge at all. Instead, the qualifications are lying, looting, thuggery, extortion, murder, bomb-throwing, muscle power, and the ability to terrorize and cheat voters. Politics has been reduced to a criminal skillset.
With limited opportunities elsewhere and corruption infecting every sector, politics has become the easiest path to wealth. No education, no real merit only party allegiance, muscle power, and a willingness to loot. Thus, politics has emerged as the largest business in Bangladesh, requiring no capital yet promising limitless profit.
The bitter truth is undeniable: this rotten political system cannot and will not heal itself. The two major parties along with their like-minded political satellites are equally corrupt and decayed. They cannot reform, because they are the disease itself.
To rescue the nation, what we need is a strong, strict, yet benevolent leader a “people’s dictator” who will govern with an iron hand for the welfare of the people.
- South Korea rose from ruins under Park Chung-hee’s iron leadership.
- Singapore became a global model under Lee Kuan Yew’s relentless anti-corruption drive.
- Even Pakistan under Ayub Khan witnessed flashes of progress amidst chaos.
History has proved time and again: when democracy collapses and criminals rule, only a visionary strong hand can restore order and lay the foundation for development.
Bangladesh stands betrayed. Our democracy has been stolen, our institutions destroyed, and our people deceived. We are ruled by enemies of the state criminals who serve only themselves. If this continues, Bangladesh is destined to collapse into a failed state.
What we need now is a savior someone who will dismantle criminal politics, bury corruption, and return the state to its rightful owners: the people.
Bangladesh cannot remain a hostage to criminals forever. The time has come for a strong hand to rise to crush treachery, restore order, and save the nation.
(The views expressed in this article are of author’s own)
The writer is a political analyst
