Politicians are there to serve the people. Political parties are created to work for the good of the people they serve. Ideas may differ, and it is healthy that they do, but the ultimate aim is for a country to improve. And all politicians should strive hard to reach this target. They can argue on how and when, and which matter has priority over the rest, but in the end their goal should be the common good.

Most politicians publicly refuse the suggestion that politics is dirty, although in private they may say otherwise. But people who look at politics from the outside, many times are right to conclude that politics could be a dirty game.

And the more an election approaches, the more dirty it becomes, as political parties tend to increase their dose of criticism against the opposing party or parties in a bid to gain more votes.

In a way, this is understandable. Each and every political party, and each and every politician, will try hard to gain ground. Parties do so at the expense of their political opponents; individually, politicians have to fight against their adversaries and at the same time show that they are better than their own colleagues too. Strictly speaking, each politician is combating more against people in his or her own party to win that blessed seat in Parliament.

It is also hard to win popularity, and perhaps harder, to maintain that popularity. Ministers, parliamentary secretaries and opposition spokesmen all get their fair share of media attention. Some talk a lot, and perhaps tend to be “over-exposed” on television stations and in the newspapers, while others keep a lower profile, and perhaps, get more work done.

The closer the election gets, the more politicians tend to become sensitive to what is said about them, and to what the media writes about them. Some take every criticism in their stride, believing that any kind of publicity is positive; others tend to complain all the time that what they are saying is being misreported or not being given the importance it deserves.

This is, after all, the more human aspect of politics. Every politician thinks that what he or she says or does is front-page material and, failing that, many are seen huddling as close as possible to their leader, knowing that there is a better chance of them being seen. They sometimes

conveniently forget that they are there not to be seen, but to do.

Back to the dirty side of politics. It is natural for political parties to attack each other on most issues. In a democracy, this is beneficial because ideas are being proposed, criticised, corrected and implemented in the best interests of the country. But this is healthy as long as the discussion remains based on the message.

Unfortunately, it has happened too often that, rather than the message, it is the messenger that is attacked, sometimes on a personal basis too. This is wrong.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, and everyone has the right to express it. Everyone has the right to criticise that idea too, and say in which areas that idea could be improved. But it is downright unethical for politicians to resort to making remarks that could be described as personal, thinking that they could gain political mileage.

Well, many times it has the opposite effect. This is because people who resort to personal attacks are indirectly saying that they have lost the argument. Politicians would do well to think about this the next time they are about to get personal.