There is a photo of rival politicians sitting on the same table that I saw circulating in the media recently.
The table had Khairy, Azmin Ali, Radzi Jidin, Tengku Zafrul and Syed Saddiq, and they all looked like they were having a really good time.
Looking at them reminded me of how some people claim that the rivalry in politics is all just made up.
It is theatre - a wayang - an act. There is nothing real about it. These politicians just look like they are rivals on the outside, but inside, they are all as thick as thieves.
One person even told me that he saw with his own eyes that as soon as they are done with the parliamentary sitting and were heading to the canteen, the fuming MPs who were at each other's throat when the public's eyes were on them, will be laughing and clapping each other's back, as if they are childhood friends.
This, the person told me, is proof of what fools we all are, to assume the party and the politicians we vote for, are genuinely desirous of standing up for us, against those who stand against us, when they are all in truth, actually in cahoots with each other.
It also reminded me of a story of how after a vicious and mean spirited bout between Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield, where Mike Tyson would even infamously bite off a piece of Evander Holyfield's ear, reporters were stunned to find both of them coming out of the same lift, as if nothing at all had happened.
Reporters were stunned, but they probably shouldn't have been. It really shouldn't be that surprising that those whose life revolves around competing relentlessly to win in the arena, will be quite amicable to each other outside of the arena.
Many of us tend to assume that the primary job of a politician is to run the country or manage the economy , but this is not the case at all.
The ones that truly run the country is the civil service and the ones that truly make the economy of a country tick are its people and entrepreneurs.
The true job of a politician is actually just to win.
In the indian caste designation, politicians would fall under the Khasatriya classification, which puts them in the same category as fighters, sports people and soldiers.
A Khasatriya, or Satria in Malay, is basically just a winner, or someone whose life is dedicated to winning.
Now you might be thinking: " but all of us are dedicated to winning, Nehru, but not all of us are as two faced as the politicians."
Well, to this I will just say that no, not all of us are dedicated to winning like the politician or soldiers or sports people are dedicated to winning.
As a matter of fact, most of us are actually resigned to losing, because to most of
us, there are more important things in life than winning.
To many of us, it is actually family that is the most important thing of all. For the sake of our family, many of us will accept losing regularly, even daily , be it on the roads or in the workplace or in public spaces, just so we can keep our family safe and provided for.
That is why we rarely get into a fight with anyone , and when we do get into a fight, the bad feelings we have against those we fight against don't subside, sometimes even until the end of our lives.
Satria's, however, are not like that.
If you are a satria, winning comes first and at all cost.
You will be willing to sacrifice anything, be it your family, friends or even yourself, in order to win.
But when you are not fighting to win, then you can even be friends with those you fought against.
This is not them being two faced - this is just how winners and fighters lead their lives.
As Satria's come, politicians might be the apex satria's of them all, because other than war, the greatest contest in life occurs in the political arena.
Considering that according to Clausewitz, a war is just politics by another means, we can even conclude that there is no difference between politics and war, and thus there is no other group of people that are as dedicated to winning, as are politicians.
It is for this reason that just because a bunch of rival politicians are able to sit at the same table, while smiling and joking with each other, it doesn't mean that they will not kill each other to win.
In this field, it is not uncommon for a father to kill a son, or a son to kill a father, or brothers to kill brothers, just to win.
Just because we see politicians having a good time outside of the political arena, it doesn't at all mean that they won't try to kill each other when they enter the arena.
I suppose we can think of them as boxers or MMA fighters. Before they step into the ring, they might like each other and even admire each other.
But the minute they step into the arena, be rest assured that they won't think twice to choke or break the bones of their opponent, so that that are the ones that will end up as the ultimate winner.
It is the same with politicians - just because they can have a good time with each other when they are not trying to win, it doesn't mean they won't destroy each other if any one of them gets in the way of them winning.
This is partly the reason why the smartest or most efficient or the one with the most integrity or the most hardworking are never the ones that step into the political arena.
They won't, because people don't vote for someone who they think will just run the country or manage the economy.
Instead , they will only vote for someone who will win for them, even if that person is hardly the smartest, most efficient or most hardworking person in the country.
Maybe you should think about this to realise why our politics tends to attract the sort of people that it does and why we are almost always disappointed by the ones we voted for.
TheRealNehruism (nehru.sathiamoorthy@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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