My latest indulgence on Netflix is “Servant of the
People,” a Ukrainian political satire about how a simple school teacher gets
propelled into the presidency after one of his students films him ranting about
the corruption in politics. The show stars Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who would interestingly enough, become
President of Ukraine.
One of the most
interesting scenes comes at the start of the second episode, when the ancient Greek
philosophers, “Plutarch” and “Herodotus” are discussing the main character’s
plight in his dreams. One of them states that he’s become president and he
should be happy because he and his children and children’s children will be
rich. The other says “he’s an honest man” and the reply to that is “Ah, that
could be a problem.”
This exchange sums
up what makes the show so addictive – namely the fact that it touches on a very
universal theme – the corrupting influence of power. The main character of the
show is what you could call someone who is too nice for his own good. He’s
pushed around by everyone, including his 18-year-old niece who won’t let him use
the toilet in the morning. However, once he becomes president, everyone becomes
exceedingly nice and miracles happen. He’s told by the bank manager that his
loan was written off in a miraculous lottery. He's not the only one to strike
it lucky with his propulsion to the presidency. His parent’s home gets
miraculously renovated and when they think they need to spend the father’s
savings on new dresses, the shop keepers insist on giving them more than what
they wanted.
The story of otherwise
normal people being corrupted by overnight power and money isn’t new. The world
is filled with lottery winners who went broke in a matter of months or the
number of child stars who are now working ordinary jobs because they couldn’t
handle overnight success.
Whilst I don’t
believe that people are intrinsically dishonest, it takes a pretty strong
character not to b affected by power and wealth and because the temptations of
power are particularly strong and addictive, you’ll find that the discussions
on power and preventing abuses of power tend to be focused on the individuals
in that particular position. The hidden oligarchs in the show make the point
that they should let the main character be president because even honest men
start to enjoy the perks of being head of state. Being an honest man who genuinely
wants to reform things is tough.
When you discuss
things like abuse of power, you’ll find that the laws are focused on the individual
in position of power. In presidential systems, the office holder can be impeached.
In parliamentary systems there no confidence votes. There are also courts of
law and courts of public opinion (formed by the free press), which are meant to
keep office holders on their toes. In Singapore, where we take great pride in
being “transparent,” we have a system of high rewards for office holders (so that
there’s no temptation) with harsh penalties (God help you if your hands are
caught in the cookie jar).
However, as is
seen on the show, the affects of power aren’t limited to the individual but also
to the people around them. The “conventional” wisdom being that it pays to be
nice to the president is also applied to the people around the said president.
With probably
the exception of perhaps the Trump siblings, people who are related to the people
in power, tend to lie low. Would anyone know who Hunter Bidden was, had his
name not been brought up by Donald Trump?
There is a
reason for this, which is the fact that influence tends to be used behind the
scenes are than overtly. Overt use tends to lead to embarrassment of the person
in power, which in turn leads to the diminishing the brand name. Think of “Roger
Clinton” who was given the code name “headache” by the Secret Service during
his brother’s administration.
Somehow, relatives of the well to do or
powerful, seem to do pretty well for themselves. One only has to think of the
Suharto Children in Indonesia and managed to accumulate the best bits of the
Indonesian economy for themselves when Daddy was president. Nobody needed to
pay the president a bribe as long as they were business with one of his children
or friends.
The Suharto’s
are just an example of people around benefiting of someone else’s power in an obvious
way. Here in Singapore, we are officially far more transparent than our larger
neighbour and handing over envelopes with cash to public officials is a sure
way to end up in jail. As a current senior minister once said “What you see is
what you get.”
However, that
does not necessarily mean that those related to office holders are not using it
to their advantage. If anything, this is merely institutionalised in Singapore.
As anyone who has been through national service can tell you – there is a white
horse system, where sons of anyone prominent are marked out and identified for
certain purposes (which there are officially two versions – one being from a
former Ministry official claiming that it was to prevent special treatment). No
bribes are paid but certain people seem to get certain jobs.
Quite often, it’s
the people closes to us who have the power to screw us up. Let’s look at what
happened when Lee Kuan Yew died. The siblings started slinging mud at each
other. The late Mr. Lee held on to keep his children and the family from the
things that rip families apart and given the influence the family has on the
nation, his family troubles would have inevitably affected the nation.
Sure, its
important to keep people in power honest. However, being an honest individual in
a position of power is not enough. You have to ensure that the people around
you remain honest too.
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