Undeniably, many politicians did start with lofty ambitions. But politics is realistic and cruel. Thus, some ended up suffering from disillusionment and gave up politics while some others mounted the peak and enjoyed a meteoric rise but at the same time, abandoned their initial great ideals.

Power is indeed terrible. It may confuse and change a person's mind. Once they gain power, politicians always fail to escape from the curse of being corrupted by power.

Absolute power brings absolute corruption. It is indeed an absolute truth.

However, those who are holding absolute power will absolutely not believe the truth. Instead, keeping the absolute power becomes the absolute truth for them.

We can see from the world's history that politicians tried to use every conceivable means in order to keep their power and interests. Under the absolute corrupt power, they could do nothing or anything.

Imprisoned former Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian, who embraced the dream of independent Taiwan, was fancied by some Taiwanese who desired for liberal democracy. They believed that only Chen could make their dream come true!

Former President of the United States George W. Bush was even better. He fabricated the false accusation of “Iraq possesses mass destruction weapons” in order to achieve his objective of sending troops to Iraq.

Chen used a dream to consolidate his power and filled his own pockets during his term of office as the President of Taiwan.

Bush used a lie to rationalise his act. In fact, he took the advantage of the Iraq War to stimulate the international crude oil prices which surged by six times. He then let US oil companies to take over most of the Iraqi petroleum mining licenses, bringing great wealth to the United States and his own family.

However, Chen and Bush have either forgotten or do not know about a Chinese old saying: the water that bears the boat is the same that swallows it. They thought that they could control the water current speed and direction. But they neglected that just like flowing water, once public opinion was overly manipulated, it could lead to a rebound or they could even be drown by the back-flow floods.

Therefore, Chen deserves his imprisonment while Bush ends up being called a “liar”. It is an unalterable fact that their bad reputations will be long remembered.

I do not know whether there is such thing as karma, but I firmly believe that no matter how politicians ignore the principles of integrity and honesty, the principles and their substance will always exist.

Chen and Bush are mentioned here as I'm trying to say that: The merits and demerits of those who are in great power will never escape from the trials of history! (By LIM MUN FAH/ Translated by SOONG PHUI JEE/ Sin Chew Daily)