Scenario 2, former prime minister, the AL chief ,orders the siege of the capital with "logi" and "baitha," casualties 9; the sequel, AL "Brown Shirt" Jubo League chief orders torching of a double-decker bus, casualties 11 passengers burnt alive.

Scenario 3, the outgoing prime minister's son and his buddy had their hands in every pie, running into hundreds of crores of Taka.

Scenario 4, the outgoing prime minister's once personal security staff turned media mogul turned bank owner has a king's fortune in estates, properties, and money at home and abroad.

Scenario 5, prominent businessmen of the power and energy sector (Westmont, Mobil and Unique) lodge extortion cases against the AL chief.

Scenario 6, former FBCCI chief divulges that he funded the "Janatar Mancha" with 4 crores Taka; his piece of the cake, the frigates from South Korea.

Scenario 7, our Chaebol chief (Partex) has so much land in and around the capital that the counting job tires him.

Scenario 8, the nabbed chief conservator of forest plunders the forest resources with gleeful abandon because his trail kept the gods happy.

Scenario 9, thugs of city corporation commissioners send the lawful contractor packing, and lord over Gabtoli terminal, and the DCC Mayor does not know about it.

Scenario 10, The Daily Star photo showing putrefying fish bred illegally in a Wasa sewage lagoon, which were subsequently killed chemically.

These scenarios cover the entire spectrum of our society, from Sahib-Bibis to Gulams. What do we make of them? They are the pestilence of blatant abuse of power and office, of rampant greed and plunder, and of wholesale contempt for the system.

There have never been such hideous disclosures in the nation before. A pestilence is an emergency; removing it demands commitment of the highest order, and is a task that has to be performed with courage and constancy. Any weakness or haste will make the effort open to question, leading to vulnerability.

The task has to be carried out fully. The constituents of the task are setting the goal, clearing the playing field, putting the new rules in place, ensuring that the rules are followed and, finally, doing it in time.

Half-hearted measures, haste, or retreat, will doom the effort. The nosey "constant gardeners" of foreign embassies and international agencies are all around to badger the CTG with sermons of all kinds. Stay the course. And remember Gabbar Singh, "Jo dar gaya woh mar gaya," to be precise take fright and fail.

The goal should never be in doubt. National polls in 2008, to return Bangladesh to a constitutionally elected government. However, the polls should mark a definite qualitative change in politics and governance, ushering in a national renewal. Every nation gets the chance to rebuild its destiny.

This is the time for Bangladesh. The CTG should not let it fall into doubt. There will be icy comments, and acidulous observations about un-elected government and repressive measures. The hard, eyeball to eyeball contest has to be won. It is the duty of the CTG to ensure that the old order of the pestilential time, or "Annus Horribilis," is buried, for the good of the nation.

The next two elements are all about reforms or changes. Leaving aside all the hyperbole of minus two or minus three hundred, they are more about the judicial arraignment and conviction of the wrongdoers, and, most of all, about setting the standard.

The confessional statements that have come to light speak of a devilishly horrible time that reared, patronized, and rewarded remorseless greed and wholesale plunder, and of spiteful crimes. The system plummeted in functional integrity, and governance grovelled in front of partisan interests. Indeed, a crime can always take cover from a mere allegation, unless and until the judicial procedure establishes it as a crime.

The entire process of public representation has been tainted. How can one sensibly restore honour and credibility to it and still retain the maligned tribe in one whole piece?

It is all about a tribe that did not learn the wisdom of dialogue during a period that saw each of the two winning and losing, and yet not trusting each other. The animus and the perfidy in them wrecked the system. Nevertheless, let there be no scruples about the judicial correctness of the accountability process.

One popular realization from the last winter of despair is that the fuming ladies would do well to spare the nation from the scourge of their jawboning contest. They have to be followed by the scheming and venal sultans, the warmongers and the bullies. Let the reckoning go ahead full speed. And, yes, keep raising the marker.

It will be in the interest of the functional health of the political system that the standard should matter, not something to be trashed around. The standard is to test the moral fibre and good breeding. And the screening should certainly be done by the political parties. That is what reforms and changes are about.

It is a fact that the legal framework for functional discipline and transparency in our political parties is far from being respected, as far practice is concerned. In a way it brings a considerable part of the exclusion process back to the surveillance and penal bodies, and certainly to the Election Commission, to apply the guillotine of their marker. And what is to be done has to be done with firmness.

Bangladesh is passing through a time of building faith. The task of the CTG is about restoring the faith of the people in the system and in the political process. The faith that, after all these years of deception and drift, Bangladesh can still turn around.

Indeed, the right to rule has been compromised and feasted on. The decline in the integrity and standard of public office was lamentable. All through this age of despair the potentiality of Bangladesh was never in doubt. The success of the CTG will depend on its ability to restore this faith and renew this hope. Constancy should be the hallmark of its effort. Not fright not haste, but courage and constancy to see the pestilence to the end.

Syed Maqsud Jamil is a freelancer.