Who is lying?

By Park Moo-jong

We are living in the days of a pandemic of lies, not to speak of the global coronavirus pandemic.

The problem is that it is hard to figure out who is lying, for the liars tell false statements with a straight face, especially on the floor (of the National Assembly), only for their political and personal interests.

When it comes to a lie, Koreans have "three signature" lies: First, an old man's saying, "When I get gold, I must die"; second, a merchant's claim, "I am selling at a loss"; third, an old maid's complaint, "I won't get married." Nobody believes the three white lies that do not hurt others.

Who's telling the truth? Who's telling lies? The battle is fierce. There are many things indeed we cannot believe these days.

Many people jokingly agree: weather forecasts, women's minds and statistics.

Indeed, the weather office is adding fuel to the fire in this sizzling summer for its repeated "lies," especially about the progress of the recent typhoons, Bavi and Maysak.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), a British politician and writer who twice served as prime minister, reputedly said, "There are three kinds of lies ― lies, damned lies and statistics."

But there are people who put this kind of joke into the shade: politicians who are quite surprised to be taken at their word, since they never believe what they say, according to the late French President Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970).

When it comes to lying, U.S. President Donald Trump appears to be second to none, according to global media outlets.

"It took President Trump 827 days to top 10,000 false and misleading claims in The Fact Checker's database, an average of 12 claims a day," according to a report by The Washington Post, July 13.
"But on July 9, just 440 days later, the president crossed the 20,000 mark ― an average of 23 claims a day over a 14-month period, which included the events leading up to Trump's impeachment trial, the worldwide pandemic that crashed the economy and the eruption of protests over the death of George Floyd in police custody."

In particular, Trump has repeatedly lied about the coronavirus pandemic and the country's preparation for this once-in-a-century crisis, according to numerous news reports. For instance, he claimed on Feb. 27 that the outbreak would be temporary: "It's going to disappear. One day it's like a miracle ― it will disappear."

How about our President Moon Jae-in? In early stages of the pandemic, he used to make similar remarks, expressing his optimistic view. Yet the pandemic is ever raging, forcing the people to stay home without fail.

Our leading politicians are second to none in lying. High-ranking officials are also like them.

Former President Kim Dae-jung (1924-2009) declared after his defeat to Kim Young-sam in the 1992 presidential election: "I, Kim Dae-jung, will not 'do' politics again. I will resign as a National Assemblyman." And he left for Britain in 1993 to study at Cambridge for a year.

In 1997, he made a comeback, ran in the presidential election again and won against Lee Hoi-chang to become the 15th President of the Republic of Korea.

Back in 1961, then Army major general Park Chung-hee seized power through the May 16 coup and promised a transfer of power to an elected government two years later. But he retired as a four-star Army general in 1963, ran in the presidential election that year and won against the previous President Yun Bo-sun.

Moon was no exception. After losing to President Park Geun-hye in the 2012 showdown, he "promised" to withdraw from the political world "without regret" and would not run in the presidential poll. But he did not keep his promise and succeeded in his second bid for the presidency.

The very latest example is the verbal war between Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae and opposition lawmakers over Choo's determination to cover up the suspected crime of her son who allegedly went AWOL in 2017 after not returning from official leave. She has been persistent in denying the allegation against many related soldiers' testimony, claiming, "That's not true. That's fiction." She is suspected of having influenced the affair as the chairwoman of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea.

The ruling camp leaders of both the administration and the party are also stirring up public rage by asserting that housing prices would go down soon, though the reality is quite different. Who is telling a lie?

It is true our society used to be somewhat generous toward the lies of politicians and government officials. Few of them were punished for their false statements. Rather, the people paid the price for their deception. Now, the people, namely voters, have to change.

A remark by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) comes to my mind: "I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you."

History shows that (politicians) losing the public trust is losing everything in the long run. No one can be free from the responsibility for their own lies.

Park Moo-jong (emjei29@gmail.com) is a standing adviser of The Korea Times. He served as the president-publisher of the nation's first English daily newspaper from 2004 to 2014 after working as a reporter since 1974.