When two Perak state exco members were called by the Anti Corruption Agency on Wednesday, one will remember the Pakatan Rakyat’s call for a “clean and fair government”.

Clean, as always mentioned in their ceramahs, means a government which is free from corruption and abuse power.

However, to borrow a quote from John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, an historian and moralist, in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887 "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.

It was reported that the two state excos were questioned due to allegations that they were involved in expediting approval for a RM180 million housing project in Seri Iskandar.

In an ACA media statement released in Putrajaya, the agency confirmed that it had arrested six people including two state government excos, in connection with receiveing RM105,000 in pay-off for the project.

The six, aged between 45 to 57 years-old were arrested at 6pm on Tuesday and one of the excos was arrested at 10am Wednesday.

In their defence; Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin said that “they are innocent until proven guilty”.

“This is a different tune, as when they refer to cases against any Barisan Nasional leaders the saying are always that they are guilty until proven otherwise,” said a legal practitioner in referring to Nizar’s statement.

A senior UMNO leader once mentioned that once the oppositions are in power their perspective on life would be different.

“When you are chauffeured around, greeted and treated like a VIP, you tend to lose sight of your principles.”

“If you are not focus in upholding your principles, you will be swept away by the delusions of power, and this is what is happening to the newly elected state governments,” the politician added.

Maybe the challenges for opposition leaders had begun. Being in power is not a walk in the park, and the nectar of power can be as poisonous as cobra’s venoms.