Holistically, politics is not all about power. The ugly part of it - which more often than not overshadows the positive force of it - lies somewhere between the stereotype that has been indoctrinated and thereafter generalised as long as as I can ever remember since I read for the first time the much controversial piece of work by George Orwell (the Animal Farm) and smeared further by Shahnon Ahmad's Taik: that, politics is dirty. In fact, that is actually the issue/question raised by many the moment I had my first meeting either with students or people in workshops/courses that I frequently ran. It occurs each and every academic semester where I would be normally asked whether or not politics is indeed dirty. It came to my mind then - while driving along the North-South hiway, heading towards Taiping, with the auto-cruise navigation on; hence I got plenty of time thinking! - wondering the reasons why many people think or at least thought that way. It must be the personalities more than anything else. A day before, I was talking to a professor from a foreign country. We were looking at possibilities of having more linkages not confined to joint-seminar alone; applied research and faculty exchange could be one. In the middle of the conversation, we arrived to a conclusion that politics is actually a game of minds - healthy and unhealthy minds. A proposition offered by one perhaps very much relevant here. Kotter suggested two category of people, or to put it simply, two groups of people with distinctive minds: the "Scattered: and "abundant" minds. The former always look for negativity while the later opt for 'U win, I win'. This is what I have in mind now, the Hulu Selangor's by-election. It is ugly, yes. In the meantime, I opt to look at it using my car rear mirror - moving ahead while appreciating history.
