Reflection on power
Wise men have said the most difficult thing about power is to know when to let it go and to whom to hand it over to. History records many rulers who went out disgracefully simply because they failed to recognize the right time to relinquish power, continuing to cling onto it blindly until it was too late.
Power is intoxicating. Like a drug, it is capable of inducing anyone to become addicted and dependent. And instead of being its master, one all too easily becomes a slave to power and is led to commit unimaginable acts, just for the sake of maintaining it. As Lord Acton said: "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely". Power, when unaccompanied by wisdom, can destroy one's soul, ultimately turning its addicts into monsters.
Many an absolute ruler has committed horrendous acts. The longer such rulers stay in power, the more arrogant, ignorant and ruthless they tend to become. Many have accumulated enormous family fortunes, granted sweeping privileges to their cronies, clamped down on their critics and surrounded themselves with a closed circle of "loyal" followers.
Ferdinand E. Marcos is a case in point. After he was elected president of the Philippines in 1965, he built roads, airports and schools, and oversaw a tenfold increase in rice productivity. In order to circumvent the constitutional limit of eight consecutive years for a president to serve in office, Marcos called a convention to establish a parliamentary form of government. As prime minister under this system, he could rule indefinitely.
During his reign, Marcos muzzled the press, amassed enormous personal wealth, reinforced his political power through crony capitalism and manipulated election ballots by fraud and intimidation. In August 1983, Senator Benigno Aquino, Marcos' leading opponent, was assassinated as he stepped off a plane in Manila upon returning home from exile in the United States. Fed up with his rule, the people of the Philippines invoked a people's power movement and ousted Marcos from office in 1986.
From the world of sports, Muhammad Ali is an example of those drunk with power. In 1979, at the age of 37, he announced his retirement from boxing, but lured by money, promoters and possibly also more fame, he attempted a comeback. He was defeated by Larry Holmes in October 1980, and again by Trevor Berbick in December 1981, after which he again retired. Had he relinquished his lust for power in time, he might not be the shell of a man he is today, hobbled by Parkinson's disease.
There are many more examples: Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, Habib Bourguiba and, most recently and more pertinently for Indonesia, Soeharto, are among them. All of them forgot that it was the people who entrusted them with their power and put them in their positions. When they overstayed their time and transgressed the borderlines of honesty and integrity -- the fundamental values for anyone in power -- the people took back their trust.