Bangladesh, Jan. 30 -- Bangladesh today resembles a house divided not by ideology but by inheritance. Its politics is no longer driven by arguments over policy or competing visions of the future; it is consumed instead by the unresolved ambitions of political heirs and the strategic miscalculations of those who still claim to be indispensable. The result is a republic caught between two prodigal sons—each emblematic of a deeper failure of judgment at the very top.

Consider first Tarique Rahman, the acting head of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). Recently, Time magazine described him with a series of unflattering adjectives—hardly a novelty in international journalism. What was novel was Rahmans decision to share the ar...