Senator K.D. Knight should apologise for his recent outburst in the Senate in which he repeatedly addressed a fellow Senator as 'liar'. This allegation appeared to be directed at Senator Dorothy Lightbourne, the minister of justice and attorney general.

A liar is someone who repeatedly tells lies. It is a person who believes that lying is an appropriate lifestyle trait and is a prominent feature of the person's character. It is someone who is untrustworthy. This is not a person who occasionally tells a fib, but one who is addicted to lying. A person can tell a lie and is not necessarily a liar. Just as how someone has committed a crime or is convicted of a traffic offence but he or she is not styled as a criminal. A criminal is a person whose livelihood comes from crime and is repeatedly convicted of crime.

Serious allegation

K.D. Knight in the TV clip I saw did not provide any evidence to substantiate his most serious allegation. He should apologise or provide the evidence for the allegation. The charge is serious as it is dangerous and has consequences for governance and credibility. And if evidence is successfully brought to support this contention, then Lightbourne should resign. We cannot have someone in the Senate and Cabinet who is a liar.

In fact, in certain jurisdictions, if a politician tells a lie and is found out, then he or she has to resign. It does not have to be elevated to him or her being a liar, just to tell a lie, which is a deliberate falsehood, and the politician is history.

Impeached because he lied

Bill Clinton, former president of the United States (US), was impeached, not because he had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky but because he lied about the relationship. Mark Sanford, a US governor, is no longer a presidential hopeful, not only because he had an Argentine mistress but because he misled his staff about his whereabouts. Unfortunately, we do not have that culture in Jamaica.

In a February 2005 article 'Minister Dalley should resign', I argued that the minister misled the Parliament in giving the impression that the minimum wage was increased by 20 per cent when the average increase was 16 per cent. In an October 2007 article, 'Audley Shaw should resign', I argued that the minister of finance should resign, not because he was going to break the promise to the nurses to increase their wages by 100 per cent but because he denied making the statement. The issue for me was about lying and not about breaking a promise. Believability is foundational for the proper functioning of a country.

In addition, we should avoid name-calling and, instead, deal with the issues. In other words, it is all right to call a person's arguments idiotic but it is a no-no to call the person an idiot. We can argue that the statement is foolish but we should never classify the person as a fool. Persons who are made in the image of God should be protected from abuse to their personhood.

Stop the name-calling

Therefore, it was unfortunate when Marlene Forte, then president of the Resident Magistrate's Association, called Jamaican lawyers 'hustlers' (Gleaner, June 25, 2008), and distasteful that Bruce Golding, the prime minister, said in Parliament, "the Govern-ment has removed tuition fees, we are not allowing schools to find some other way of extorting, I use strong words" (July 22, 2008). It is unbecoming for schools, led by principals, to be accused of engaging in illegal activity (extorting) without any evidence!

We need to stop the name-calling and deal with the issues or produce the evidence to support those claims.

Devon Dick is pastor of the Boulevard Baptist Church and author of 'Rebellion to Riot: the Church in nation building'. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.