Politicians' Lies: Between Admission and Walking Away

21-10-2018

-       I was struck, while following — as many other Arabs were — by the story of the official Saudi narrative regarding the announcement of the death of the Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. They said it happened during a physical scuffle between him and a sarriyya (a detachment) of Saudi security men and assassination experts, composed of fifteen men who had come from Saudi Arabia. And that as a result of that scuffle inside the consulate, Khashoggi died, and the body was handed over to a local collaborator in Istanbul by the Saudi consul’s driver, who is Turkish. Although the Saudi Crown Prince had denied, in an interview with Bloomberg, that Khashoggi was in the consulate, saying that he entered the consulate and left it a few minutes later, and that he does not know anything about his fate after that!!!... It is obvious from the naïve wording of the statement that there are other matters being kept secret!!!!

-       I went back to March of 1977, when I read a story in the American press saying that when Yitzhak Rabin, who was Prime Minister of Israel at the time, was meeting with former US President Jimmy Carter, Mrs. Leah, Yitzhak Rabin’s wife, was observed leaving a bank in Washington, the capital. She had withdrawn funds from a dollar account that was a joint bank account in their two names, Yitzhak and Leah Rabin. At that time it was illegal for Israeli citizens to open bank accounts abroad unless exceptional circumstances arose. This account had originally been opened when Yitzhak Rabin was Israel’s ambassador to the United States between 1968–1973, and according to the procedures the bank account should have been closed as soon as he left that post. Which is what Margalit — a correspondent from Washington for an Israeli newspaper, believed to be Haaretz — noticed when she saw Leah Rabin leaving the bank. She rushed to the bank concerned and asked the teller about her; he told her that the Rabin family had an account with them.

-       This political scandal led to Yitzhak Rabin and his wife Leah being questioned by a judge of the Supreme Court of Israel. But he resigned from the government before the matter was decided, which resulted in the case being dropped.

-       Yitzhak Rabin did not deny it when he was Prime Minister that year, yet he felt the error and resigned from the head of government before the matter was adjudicated...... In doing so they set an example for future generations and for Israelis of commitment to responsibility and obedience to the law regardless of a person’s rank, thereby strengthening a culture of responsibility and respect for the law with complete transparency... that no one is above the law. Thus there is oversight, and there is a responsible press. That journalist who noticed Leah Rabin leaving the bank could have informed the Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, to gain favor with him, and the political scandal would have been avoided — but this journalist acted professionally and with integrity!

-       No one among them lied, but when Yitzhak Rabin, while Prime Minister, felt that he had erred, he did not continue in his duties or press this or that person to intervene and avoid the scandal; rather he acted with a high sense of responsibility and did not lie or justify or.... For this reason one can only respect such a culture and its construction in society from the highest governmental authority. Despite being an occupying state, I respect such responsibility and transparency from government officials, and I wish our Arab politicians had them!!
Foreigners and Westerners in general have a public sense of responsibility. If a commercial airplane crashes and lives are lost, the minister of transport and communications in that country will promptly submit his resignation because he feels he failed to prevent the accident!! As for us, in most Arab countries, politicians sacrifice a scapegoat — often low-level employees or officials in the end — while they themselves remain.
There was another event in the United States that indicates that lying is forbidden for politicians in democracies before their people: President Clinton was questioned when the two houses of Congress, according to reports they received, felt that President Clinton had lied and had not told the truth regarding his relationship with Monica — the White House intern. When he was questioned for five hours before the world in a glass room, it so happened that an international conference was taking place at the United Nations at the same time, attended by many presidents and international politicians, but the American investigators did not care: their investigation took priority in building their society correctly. President Clinton felt that he had erred, so he apologized and acknowledged that he had lied regarding his relationship with Monica, the White House intern, and he spoke at length and in detail that we watched on global television at the time.
The principle of accountability and transparency in the West and in democratic governments cannot be bypassed or delayed in holding an official to account. They have built a culture that when the president takes the oath to obey and respect the American Constitution and values, he must be honest. As soon as the people’s representatives in the House and Senate sense there has been a breach of the Constitution and that the president is lying, he is impeached. If it is proven that he is guilty and he insists on not admitting guilt despite the evidence, the president is removed immediately to preserve American society and protect its rights and to uphold the American Constitution and American values. They build a culture of responsibility in the generations. There is no mediation for them, and no consideration of a person’s status if an overstep has occurred; they have no tribalism. Their politicians do not lie to their peoples!

-       We hope that most of our Arab politicians will have such a culture and be keen on building it for future generations. The truth is that most of them are authoritarian.... they do not esteem or value their peoples. Some of these politicians kill and describe their opponents without any hesitation or fear of oversight. They open secret accounts in foreign banks in Switzerland and elsewhere and transfer funds to these personal accounts without the knowledge of any administrative oversight bodies. What happened in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and elsewhere — the existence of hundreds of millions of dollars in secret accounts opened in the names of politicians and their families and entourages — from Zine El Abidine, Hosni Mubarak and Muammar Gaddafi... and negotiations are still ongoing between these countries and the Swiss authorities to try to retrieve these stolen funds...... These politicians do not fear state institutions or a constitution; they bend and employ and amend constitutional articles to serve them — to remain in power forever. There is a difference between us and them. When politicians in democratic countries admit that they lied or opened a secret account or killed an opponent or... they step aside by resigning in a scene that respects the people and fears them and respects the constitution and values in society... and what can we do but respect them for their respect of their peoples, praying to God Almighty to guide our politicians to good governance.

-       By God, intentions are judged by outcomes!!