Back off Michelle Leslie - time for honesty about lying

Poor Michelle Leslie - luckless beauty princess one day, cunning opportunist the next. Leslie reportedly lied about the fact that she did not use ecstasy and did not know that the pills were in her bag. She also falsely accused a friend (model Siti Nameera Azman) of putting the tablets in her bag and over overstated the strength of her religious convictions.

While she was in jail it is alleged that hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes were paid to officials to reduce the charges to avoid a possible 15-year jail term. The charge was ultimately reduced to the minor offence of receiving ecstasy as a user.

Should we judge Leslie harshly for the deceit she engaged in to try to reduce her time in jail or be relieved that Indonesia’s draconian drug laws have not crushed the life of another Australian?

Definitely the latter.

Time to get some perspective and back off Leslie. Lying (and even bribery - which she did not personally engage in) is bad, but nowhere near as bad as forcing people to rot away in third world jails for possessing a couple of pills.

There is no doubt that lying is normally morally undesirable. In order for us to plan, co-ordinate and structure our activities it is necessary to have an accurate understanding of the state of affairs in the world that impact on us and the cause and effect systems in the world. Absent this our plans and projects would be constantly frustrated. Lies undermine our capacity to effectively and efficiently achieve our goals and projects. This is so whether they relate to the traits and characteristics of people or the operation of systems and processes in the world. We could bypass the opportunity to form mutually advantageous friendships and associations with people if they have been unfairly maligned by others. Our plans to catch the morning train, attend important appointments and meet work and other deadlines could be derailed by misrepresentations regarding these matters. If things are not the way they have been portrayed, our goals would be constantly frustrated. Despite this, sometimes it is OK to lie.

You see the truth about lying is that we all do it. Much more than most of us care to admit and in many cases it is justifiable. A recent survey by psychologist Jeff Hancock, of Cornell University, showed that respondents lied during a quarter of their social interactions. A University of Massachusetts study showed that most people lie in normal conversation when they are trying to appear competent and likeable. According to the study, 60 per cent of people lied at least once during the course of a ten-minute conversation

Lying is morally permissible in three circumstances. First it is permissible to lie in order to protect unjust attacks on higher order interests, such as the right to life, liberty and physical integrity. To this end, parallels can be drawn with the right to self defence. This entails that lies are only justifiable where the threat is relatively imminent and there is no other lawful means to readily neutralise the risk.

The Leslie scenario fits within this exception. She risked being imprisoned for 15 years for possessing the drugs. Had this occurred it would have constituted a grave violation of her right to liberty and devastated her life.

The fact that this violation would have occurred as result of the ordinary running of the Indonesian criminal “justice” system and hence would have been lawful does not mean that Leslie was prevented from lying to land the “get out of jail” card.

This is because the Indonesian drug sentencing regime is itself immoral. The most important sentencing principle is the proportionality thesis, which prescribes that the punishment must fit the crime.

While the principle of proportionality might be grey at the edges, it is sufficiently precise to inform us that several years in a third world jail grossly outweighs the self-regarding act of popping a few ecstasy tablets on the dance floor.

The proportionality principle applies to all governments across all cultures. By its very nature, punishment hurts and if you want to deliberately hurt another person you need a justification. This applies no less in Indonesia than it does in Australia.

The notion of national sovereignty cannot be used to justify draconian laws. This principle has been beaten down by the twin forces of globalisation and the human rights movement so that it is now, rightly, only a shadow of its old self. The fact that a government manages to conquer a territory does not mean that it has the right to treat as it wishes the unfortunate people who find themselves within its borders.

So rather than paying out on Leslie for lying to get out of jail, we should be commending her for her ingenuity in getting out of a tight squeeze. Desperate circumstances often force difficult choices up us. She made the right choice.

So what are the other two circumstances in which we can fib? The second exception to the general prohibition against lying is where it is necessary to achieve important social goods which cannot be secured (at all or at least not very effectively) through transparent means. Thus, covert law enforcement practices and investigative journalism are sound practices.

Finally, you get to tell the occasional white lie. They’re OK where the topic of the lie cannot be readily avoided and it is done with the principal motivation to spare a person’s feelings. Thus, when your partner asks you “Does my bum look big in this new dress?” or “Is my new haircut nice?” you get to say no and yes, respectively. This is irrespective of how many kilograms they have piled on recently or how ill-suiting the hair style actually is. But it is not desirable to make the same remark if it has not been promoted by our partner - instead compliment them on their great personality.

White lies are also permissible where they act as social lubricants, obviating the need to engage in drawn out character evaluations and explanations. Better to say you can’t make it to dinner because you’re busy rather than because you find the person revolting. Character appraisals rarely work - it only leads to hostility and defensiveness.

So what about people who claim to never lie? Either they are telling the “mother of all lies” or they should do us all a favour and drop the occasional fib.