The Era of the New Politician

Once upon a time, politics was a respected profession. Not too long ago, a politician in Malaysia garnered respect and awe at their position and acts on behalf of the welfare of the nation. Today, politicians are ridiculed and distrusted, and generally expected to be acting on their personal benefit rather than the benefit of the nation, buying Rolls-Royces and luxury cars, charging 'business trips' to taxpayer dollars and living in luxury while the country's poor suffer.

What happens, then, when something new happens? I smell a change in the air.

From BBC: Extreme makeunder in the Maldives:

The island used to be the exclusive preserve of President Gayoom and his guests. But the new administration wants to open everything up. There's already talk of turning Arah into a marine research facility or even a writer's retreat.

In the capital Male, the presidential palace stands empty. Mr Nasheed says it is too big - he's happier in more humble surroundings.

So there are suggestions that the palace could become a museum, or the country's first university.

But some Maldivians aren't impressed. You can't, they argue, be a political activist for ever. Once you've been elected president, you have to start acting like one.

"I think he should move here," said a man wandering down the street outside. "I want to see him waving from this gate. Like the Queen does at Buckingham Palace." But President Nasheed has other ideas.

"It's all a bit extravagant for me," he said.

He showed me the old president's office, including his gold-plated toilet.

The new man has moved in down the corridor, sharing an office with his secretary.

"When we started this administration, the presidency was costing more than $150m (£105m) a year," he said. "This is something we simply can't afford. We've brought it down to $4m."

"I don't feel the cut, and we can use the rest of the money for old age pensioners, for schools, for housing and very many things we need now."

Perhaps I looked surprised, because he was quick to add a rider.

"No one should be concerned about my niceties and my comfort," he said. "I'm fine, I'm happy."

From Houston Chronicle: Does Oval Office have dress code?:

WASHINGTON — The clucking could be heard clear across the capital when resident
Barack Obama first showed up in the Oval Office without a suit coat.

“There should be a dress code of respect,” Andy Card, a chief of staff to former President George W. Bush, declared last week. “I wish that (Obama) would wear a suit coat and tie.”

It’s a matter of propriety and the dignity of the office, Card maintained.

They had taken that dress code pretty seriously under old “43,” a longtime aide and former counselor to Bush told the New York Times.

What happens when people want to concentrate less on 'image' and more on the actual work to be done?

In today's day and age of a more socialist point of view, where the world's population is concerned with the global environment and the suffering of those in other parts of the world, maybe these are the kinds of leaders we need: ones who put the people before themselves.

Do we really need leaders who pay themselves bonuses that are more than a basic employee's annual paycheck, when more people are going hungry?