The Paradox

Here is the paradox of being a political leader in our country: 

In order to be a politician, you have to be voted into office. In order to be voted, you have to be popular. In order to be popular, you have to entice the voters. In order to entice the voters, you have to offer them something. 

Now this is where it gets tricky. You have 2 options: 

Option 1: You can offer them good ideas, governance, vision, policy, etc. 

Option 2: You can also offer them something more tangible like money, contracts, oversea trips, jobs, rhetoric, etc. 

If you are a budding politician, you'll find it very difficult to only offer option 1. Our society still crave for option 2, hence the below-par leaders we are having right now. 

Option 1 seems to only work on private sector where bright Malaysians eventually end up.