LettersHong Kong’s turmoil, Iran’s troubles and the Italian connection

1-MIN READ1-MIN

An Iranian cleric walks past a poster remembering the victims of a Ukrainian passenger jet accidentally shot down in Tehran on January 8. Photo: AFP

Published: 11:35am, 19 Jan 2020Updated: 11:35am, 19 Jan 2020

Is politics a dirty game? In his notorious book The Prince, Italian Renaissance politician and philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli wrote that immoral behaviour, such as the use of deceit and the murder of innocents, was normal and effective in politics.

A ruler must be unvirtuous to maintain his administration, Machiavelli emphasised.

The Italian politician Cesare Borgia, an exemplary hero in the eyes of the author and an inspiration for his book, was a political animal whose tactics – deceit, lure and assassination – were entirely compatible with the theories of The Prince.

In the second world war, German fascist Adolf Hitler notoriously implemented a policy of genocide of European Jews and unilaterally broke the country’s non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union, starting Operation Barbarossa and invading Soviet territory.

In the 1960s, Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution led to the death of a number of his political antagonists, even his comrades, strengthening his authoritarian government.

Paramount leader Deng Xiaoping famously said that it does not matter if a cat is black or white; as long as it catches mice, it is a good cat – underscoring that nothing was more important than economic achievements in the capitalist market.