Winston Churchill once said: "Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous."
In war, you can be killed only once, but in politics, many times. It is about power play, manipulation, betrayal, character assassination and ruthless ambition.
We are seeing nasty games being played as we move towards the 15th General Election.
Politics is about power play between political parties and between party leaders in a party. They deploy manipulative tactics to assassinate characters they loathe.
Then, there is betrayal by so-called loyalists of their political masters. Their ruthless ambition is to wrest power from the incumbents.
They resort to character assassination that leads to "political casualties" in the rank and file of a political party and politicians from another party.
Lately, there have been a few character assassinations. One politician keeps harping on the littoral combat ship saga, which, according to many political pundits, is an issue that can determine whether a certain political party wins or loses the coming election.
He viciously attacked certain individuals of a political party.
He even challenged his political nemesis to sue him in court to prove his point.
Churchill was right when he said politicians can be killed many times because in politics, there are no permanent enemies and no permanent friends. We have seen these being played out repeatedly in the Malaysian political landscape.
Politics is also about power and relationships. The power and fragile nature of relationships are the biggest takeaways from our politics.
The narrative of power and relationships shows how relationships can help one politician achieve his goals and also have a negative impact if not managed properly.
Hence, the phrase "no permanent enemies and no permanent friends in politics" becomes evident. A politician can be the victim of character assassination 20 years ago, but because of his alliances, he rises from the "dead".
A "finished" politician can turn from being a liability to an asset and vice versa.
We always think that that's the end for him. But he may rise again when he, too, forges a relationship with political foes who once caused his downfall.
In politics, kingmakers, warlords and power brokers manage the relationship between politicians and political parties.
They influence and mould party members' opinion and action. They also shape public opinion, especially the voters'.
In the Malaysian context, a kingmaker is a person or group that has great influence on political succession, without being perceived as a viable candidate.
Kingmakers may use political, monetary or religious means to influence the succession. A warlord is a person who exerts political control of a parliamentary or party divisional district where he is elected. He wields power and influence that sometimes can make or break a politician or political party in an election.
While a warlord can sometimes be a power broker, the latter can be an individual who influences the decisions of other parties by explicitly lobbying for a particular decision.
If the much-debated political funding bill is approved by Parliament, we may see another class of power brokers emerging — lobbyists who work in the interests of corporations and political parties.
Corporations fund political parties in a viable and transparent way, as they say. But won't the political parties be in a bind when corporations "request for favourable business decisions" after they win the election?
It is essential to hold political parties and politicians accountable, ensure transparency over funds, and prevent misappropriation, bribery, fraud and abuse of power where funding is concerned.
Although some insist on its importance, others see political funding as a euphemism for money politics. Corruption in politics can still happen. Crooked politicians will devise ways and means to find loopholes in whatever provisions introduced in the political funding bill.
As the election draws near, kingmakers, warlords and power brokers are already hard at work — hatching plots, alliances and strategies — all for power and ambition. They will boost their sound bites and rhetoric, and cut through the noise for the next phase of their battle cry.
The writer, a former NST journalist, is a film scriptwriter whose penchant is finding new food haunts
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times
