Power Game (1): How to be Hero Even If You're Not

Think about a hypothetical country (do it at your own risk) whose top leaders (incumbents, oppositions, and former losers) are all in trouble because a former, dismissed minister just leaked out to the press that these VIPs used illegal money from the state budget for their campaign funding in the last election.

Suppose the ruling president and his vice president plan to run for the next presidential election to be held less than three years from now, either together as a team like before, or separately as competitors. Suppose that another hopeful who also ran in the last election is still high on the polls’ lists. But this third person just confessed that he did accept the dirty money and that he would be happy to stay in prison for that – as long as he takes the others with him (he thought he knew too well that those others were equally guilty).

The confessor, long known as a heroic reformist and a strong xenophobic, is gaining a good momentum. The public, instead of feeling betrayed by his misusing their tax money, regard him as none but a braveheart. His interviews in TVs offering himself to the prison and his famous nationalistic tones are as heroic as Evo Morales of Bolivia in confiscating foreign-owned properties or Hugo Chavez of Venezuela in building his own World Bank of the South. Even the head of the country’s Honorable Assembly is doped – he calls for the public not to take the respected national icon to jail, because he is, well, a respected national icon. A respected law professor even claims that he gives enlightenment to the study of law. Media editorials praise him not less. Chances are, the confessor will run again (and the odds are good). His confession turns out to be just great. By admitting his wrongdoing, and by admitting it in the right time, he might as well get a very generous ‘punishment’: freedom (plus overwhelming votes may be). Or, at worst, say an only one year in prison – just enough not to completely ridicule the whole judicial system.

So what happens to the president and the vice president?

(To be continued...)