A Carnival of Lies

Musāvādā veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi. I undertake the training rule to abstain from false speech. The Fourth Buddhist Precept- Once a while, you'd probably wonder: When do people break it? In a Buddhist forum, I came across someone lamenting that his dear ones keep on lying to him. I had thought that most probably they were lies to protect the person unless of course, the dear ones themselves do not hold dear the person who was lamenting. Maybe perhaps, there ought to be some laws to keep the precept from being broken. In Seri Kembangan, Malaysia,the former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamed (inset) had said that the repeal of the draconian Internal Security Act (ISA) in Malaysia has fostered a carnival of lies. The lack of possible punishment, he said, made it free for people to tell lies and do all kinds of nasty things. The Internal Security Act 1960 (ISA) at one time, is a preventive detention law in force in Malaysia. It was first implemented by the British colonists in the country in 1948 to combat the armed insurgency of the Malayan Communist Party during the Malayan Emergency. and enacted after Malaysia gained independence from Britain in 1957. The ISA allows for detention without trial or criminal charges under limited, legally defined circumstances.  Isn't it good to force people to do good?