[Opinion] World For Liars

The entire nation is becoming a place to practice lying. The most influential teachers in lying are a president and other high-ranking officials whose conduct is reported daily in the media. A candidate in the presidential election promises impossible election pledges in order to be elected, and a member of the National Assembly often blackmails counter-candidates to win a general election. A person in power who accepts a huge bribe even swears to God saying, “I never took even a penny.” They seem to misunderstand that training the public to lie enhances the power of national competition.

Even elementary school trains students to become liars. A third-grade student in elementary school, K, has two diaries: one is for daily review by a teacher as homework and the other is a true diary containing his own private thoughts. The reason why K prepares two diaries is that the diary regularly checked by a teacher would be open to other students if the diary were selected as a good example. Who can write his or her own true feelings in a diary exposed to anyone?

Preventing perjury in the case of criminal investigations in the courtroom and hearings of the National Assembly are the most important duties in the process of making a judgment. However, defects in our system permit false statements and perjuries that distort truth. During a lawsuit, a witness is able to freely tell a lie without an oath and the fine is only approximately two million won in the case of perjury even after taking an oath. It is rare for a witness who tells a lie to receive actual punishment, although making a false statement as a witness after taking an oath is just one of those common things. A politician who harms a counter-competitor’s honor with dirty blackmail is charged several million won at the most. Members of the nation also lack in considering it an obligation to tell the truth for the sake of a nation as whole. A key witness who does not want to get involved in another’s business tends to avoid testifying. He or she becomes active in telling a lie to assist people having an interest in the matter while he or she is indifferent to another’s being mistreated in the situation.

One uses a lie detector to discover the truth. However, it is useless for a conscienceless individual because the device measures physiological phenomenon aroused by fright and anxiousness due to a lie. Our society becomes a playground of people who are lost to conscience and makes a lie detector useless. Lying in our ordinary lives negatively influences our entire lives, as such a healthy society would collapse unless the tendency to lie stops. Thus, our society requires special treatment in order to jump toward a highly developed country before the national spirit becomes more ill.

Kum-Ja Bae guest editorial writer and attorney baena@chol.com