The Laksamana - official blog of M. Shahrim
or how do you want to be remembered
25 Dec 2025
I remembered vividly. It was raining cats and dogs. Sibu town is drenched. Flood is imminent and already is in certain area. It could be worst, or unprecedented like Bintulu.
It's only January-February and nature just said "hello" menacingly.
That's power. The power of nature. Real and barely measurable.
There's another power to be reckoned with. Artificial, less frightening than flood, and requires a team of enablers to be realized.
It's called politics.
In workplace, we call it "office politics".
Although it often goes hand in hand with formal authority, it's not necessarily bounded by it. I've seen a person with rank advantage but never exercise political influence at all.
In fact, there are those from the bottom of pyramid but with leader complex, and they enjoy dominating the office. Watch out for the popular guy.
What's with populism? because unlike earthquake or flood, politicians need enablers to be and stay powerful.
We used to have a simpler political climate. Some of those at the top are 'politicians' de jure. Their authority overshadowed their political motives if any. Whatever they do simply means whatever their designation are permitted to do.
How did they got on top in the first place? Well, standards are quite low back in the day. For instance, you can become a teacher with just SPM.
Basically, if you are a goodtalker, you are an asset, and because you are an asset, you get promotions. Thirty years ago, academic certs are the last thing they ask. If they ever ask.
If your speechcraft is impressive, that's all it takes. This is an open secret.
The ones left unpromoted at the lower rungs are usually those with lesser oratory skills, or troublemakers. Some do get promotions though, out of benefits of having connections with people in power. The power to dictate who gets what and how.
Time change. Seven different actors have portrayed James Bond up-to-date. New faces hop in. They don't just hop in to work here, they came with hope. Hoping to secure positions and career advancements.
The new generations are mostly university graduates or SPM holders at the very least. Demographically, they may not as significant in numbers, but their mere presence managed to cause inflation on how we evaluate qualifications for promotions.
Back in the day, the ability to converse will give you an edge. But these days, speaking well is expected. Flaunt your Degree and you shall get yourself a junior executive title. These are common phenomena in many workplaces, where some of the new hires outdo and outrank the seniors and veterans (in terms of entry requirements).
While many of these new gens left after just barely warming the bench, those that stay learn and earn so as to make a good living. It's what really matters actually.
At this point, the landscape of office politics changed.
To rise and stay in power, you have to keep talking. In real politics, people don't appreciate silent YBs or YBs that work in silent for that may be taken as "sleeping on the job". Especially when you consider the double-edged sword impact of social media on your reputation.
Office politics naturally follows the same rhythm, except there are no repercussion or pressure from the public. But there are pressures coming from within.
Now that the new gens happen to possess legitimate qualifications and demands, and the policy that HR curated not too long ago says "if you have X, you can become Y", how shall you handle it?
You do have to pick a handful of competent and bright individuals, with clean record, and most importantly an innate leader or polishable as one. Forgo selecting the goodtalkers because almost everyone in the room now is a goodtalker. Promote wisely, as these people will take the helm of the organizations.
This is quite a dilemma. You either champion their interest, or risk losing them. But if you allow people to rise and get near your league, you are enabling your own competitors.
The trick to win this game is by monopoly. You promote only the enablers. In this context, enablers are what I call the people who encourage, support or actively unopposed to the running of office politics.
In addition, to thwart future threat to your political supremacy, you 'improve' the policy of promotions so as to make gatekeeping more to your taste. What this mean is promotions or succession are no longer policy. It is now a matter of political interest.
When I study this narration, it reminds me about a cyber security practice: system hardening. Your typical computer or Windows operating system is always insecure out of the box. Banks for instance, will hardens their systems via many configurations and customizations, disable unused features, block unused ports, so as to reduce vulnerability, before approving it for deployments. Most seasoned politicians do 'system hardening'.
Despite all the commotion, I'm actually so glad to have written my thoughts. Personally, I think 2025 has been the most eventful year and functioning times. We had a rough start but we ended the year with many good lessons, and tore down some of bad cultures.
Regarding office politics, I'm not supposed to describe things in too detail. Maybe put it this way: people are more than ever aware of office politics and how it has changed over the years. Ironically, there are new contenders who seems to be unaware that they are in fact playing the politics and popularity contest that they despises so much in the first place. They won't admit they're doing it, but they go around paying lip service about what could be done for the betterment of all. That's what politicians do.
For me, these people steal the fun of working and the spirit of productivity. If you're anything like me, I try to look for meaning and satisfaction in my work. The workplace is also a medium for people to build connections, professionalism and self-actualizations.
Won't you prefer to be remembered as "expert" on your job? Nobody put "office politics master strategist" on their resume.
Mohamad Shahrim
author of The Laksamana
