There is no magic lamp that can get you this much wealth

The parliament members who have accumulated a huge amount of assets; [the assets] don't really match up with the salary and benefits they get from their employment. Even if they possess some assets, those should not exceed this much. 

So, obviously, a question arises: where did they get this much [asset] then? And it is very clear that they use their power and position, there is no other magic lamp that can get you this much wealth.

It is not illegal to use power, but where and how you are using it - that matters, almost like the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. (To obey the letter of the law is to follow the literal reading of the words of the law, whereas following the spirit of the law is to follow the intention of why the law was enforced.)

Maybe there are illegal ways for them [to accumulate wealth]. They might establish a power plant or a media house, get tenders and contracts from the government for some development projects etc. These are all speculations. 

The single criteria by which we can say that a democratic state is functioning is accountability. There should be a system of accountability and its enforcement. This situation proves that we, as a democratic state, don't have this system. 

Otherwise, how is it possible that as an election candidate, when a person is submitting her/his income statement, there is no scrutiny or investigation on how s/he accumulated this much wealth? No one is asking them any question on this, except for the media. And if they avoid your question, you have nothing to do. 

That is what it says about us - you can do almost anything here, if you can get away with it, no one will ask you anything. Because you are void of any discipline, compliance, ethical beliefs, social and legal norms. 

This is not alien to human society. Corruption is the second oldest profession in human civilisation. But in democratically functioning states, the media is very powerful, you cannot just get away with your crimes. 

If anything against a legislator comes out, the institutions of integrity like the tax department, the anti corruption team etc will scrutinise those, ask them questions on the person's taxation, income sources, etc.

Even in China, which is not a democracy, if a party member is accused of corruption like loan defaulting, or anything illegal, they take actions against that member. This is clearly missing in our country, because there is no operational independence of any of the autonomous institutions. 

This situation is like cancer - it starts off as a small problem, attacking a small part of a system and then slowly it emcompases the entire body. At that stage you need the harshest treatment to fight it - chemotherapy or surgical extraction. 

A revolutionary change is needed there. Also a system of institutional check and balance, inclusive development ideas, accountability - both horizontal (peer to peer) and vertical (hierarchical) is necessary here.  

Zahid Hussain, former lead economist at the World Bank, Dhaka Office