Politicians’ lying

Ironically, Adolf Hitler produced many golden sayings about lying of politicians. ‘It is not truth that matters, but victory.’ ‘Success is the sole earthly judge of right and wrong.’ ‘People more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie.’ Hitler was known as a follower of Machiavelli, the Italian diplomat and historian. Machiavelli said, “A ruler sometimes needs to bend virtues of his personal level.” However, there is a difference between the ruler that Machiavelli described and Hitler: Machiavelli’s ruler pursues interests of community whether it is true or false.

Late former President Park Jung-hee broke his promise to transfer power to civil government and became the president after military coup on May 16. Personally, I clearly remember that the late former President Kim Dae-jung (DJ) shed tears during announcement of his retirement from politics after defeat in the 1992 presidential election. However, DJ was elected in the 1997 presidential election. Some while later, a reporter asked DJ the reason why he lied. DJ’s answer was sophistry but a masterpiece at the same time. “I never lied. I just failed to keep the promise.”

On the day when ex-Prime Minister Lee Wan-gu appeared before prosecutors saying, “Nothing beats the truth,” former PM Kim Jong-pil (JP) told reporters, “A politician may change his words. But he must not tell a lie.” If I were there at that moment, I would have asked the difference between changing words and lying. But the reporters didn’t. Does it mean that JP has only changed his words, as long as it was not a lie? Like DJ’s answer, JP’s comment also seems ambiguous.

It is interesting to see the relationship between JP and ex-PM Lee, who was once called as ‘the next JP.’ They are from the same region, Chungcheong Province. But Lee’s leaving from the JP-led United Liberal Democrats (ULD) to then-Grand National Party (now Saenuri party) resulted in collapse of the ULD. Lee has grown as the next JP in the Saenuri party. JP is next to none when it comes to knowing about the cold reality of political funds. JP’s words sounded as if he were saying, “I know you, Lee, and I know the late Keangnam Enterprises Chairman Sung Wan-jong…” The public may turn a blind eye to a big lie, such as retirement from politics, but they will never forgive small lies such as denying of taking bribes or refusing to admit a child out of wedlock.

pisong@donga.com