Dear all,

Every day it becomes more and more apparent to me how the practice of governments lying to citizens is now an accepted part of power politics.

Lying to the people is now habitual and systemic, it’s a practice that is deeply entrenched in the way states function. Yes, of course there is the whole matter of ‘realpolitik’ and pragmatism and seeking to conceal the state’s covert initiatives, but what we see now is just blatant lying. The way politicians and covert agencies lie to citizens about any and everything is just an insult to our intelligence.

The age of the Internet, and the inclusive, democratic nature of social media have exposed many of these lies. WikiLeaks, for example, showed us the complete duplicity at work in international politics and geo-political manoeuvring. Edward Snowden’s revelations exposed the increasing totalitarianism at the heart of the security establishment of the nation that is styled the "leader of the free world", the Panama Papers revealed the deceitful practices adopted by the elite club of the rich and powerful who seek to hide their money from both the tax authorities and the people.

Rich people hiding their money is one thing but rich politicians hiding their wealth is another, because many of these third world politicians are actually in power and pretend they are reforming the taxation system, broadening the tax net and fixing the economy.

Lying means you develop a very thick skin, as seems to be the case with Pakistan’s PM who continues to insist that his family’s London Mayfair flats were purchased with the proceeds from a 2005 sale of a steel mill project, even though so many people have gone on record saying they visited the family at these same flats … in the 1990s!!

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair took the country into the Iraq war despite a resounding ‘NO’ from the people. Over a million people marched in London on February 15, 2003 to signal their opposition to Britain joining the invasion. Blair ignored them and took the country into the war, largely on the basis of what became known as the ‘dodgy dossier’, a compilation of reasons to attack Iraq, reasons that included the fiction of Iraq possessing Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Millions all over the world marched in an attempt to stop this war from happening; yet just a month later the US and allied forces invaded Iraq. The veracity of the dossier that the Blair government compiled was questioned by a scientist and former weapons inspector. His identity as the source for a BBC story was revealed (under intense government pressure), Dr David Kelly was summoned to various parliamentary committees and became the centre of a media frenzy. Days later, he was found dead near his home with his wrists slit.

Dr Kelly’s suicide was apparently a small price to pay for the triumph of the lies about the Iraq war that the Blair government had peddled as reasons to invade. Let’s just recall that, after thirteen years, Iraq is still a country at war, all its once functioning systems have been destroyed and it is ripped apart by a bloody and sectarian civil war: over a million Iraqis were killed, more than 4000 US and over 400 British army personnel were killed and thousands were scarred by the experience of war.

But the Lying is Life award probably must go to us -- to Pakistan for its state response whenever a wanted terrorist is killed in its territory: after the killing of Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mansour in a US drone strike in the Pakistani province of Balochistan, Pakistan first said it was seeking ‘clarification’. Then a whole day later, the theatre of outrage began and farcical protestations about "violation of border sovereignty" began, the US envoy was summoned and ‘reprimanded’, and the narrative of Pakistan’s victimhood was repeated.

It was the same narrative that was peddled after the US planes flew into Abbottabad to take out Osama Bin Laden, just slightly more muted. The whole process was as farcical as it was disturbing.

The lies just go on. And on and on…

Best wishes,