Pinocchio politics

Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts. – Daniel P. Moynihan, former US Senator

If you come into government clean, honest and fair, you should leave that way too. If you come into government crooked and corrupt, you leave that way too. That’s the naked truth.

But, telling the truth is anathema in practical politics because the puppeteers believe that lying may be protected as free speech and expression. Alea iacta est – the die is cast.

To gain stature in politics, novice politicians must assiduously learn from Benjamin Disraeli that “there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”

Another survival tactic for Pinocchio politics is ordained by Napoleon Bonaparte: “I am sometimes a fox and sometimes a lion. The whole secret of government lies in knowing when to be one or the other.”

The lying starts at the hustings, and gets bigger, better and bolder on polling day. If the candidate wins, he or she will go after honing their skills in crass prevarication or sophisticated mendacity. That’s a given in the survival game of gutter politics.

When the going gets tough, the liar is usually caught and is hauled in for questioning. With a seasoned lawyer in tow, courtesy Article 5(3) Federal Constitution (FC), legal prevarication becomes a professional game of wits.

A liar once swore in as…

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