Concern over safety of personal data
THOSE, like me, who are in the legal profession are all too familiar with the expression quoted by Johan Jaaffar that, in giving evidence in court, the deponent must swear or affirm to “tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth”, “How secure is my personal data?” (The Star, April 2).
A lie has social and political consequences. Wikipedia refers to Hitler coining the expression “big lie” in Mein Kampf (1925) to describe a lie so colossal that most Germans believed it because no one would believe that the truth could be distorted so infamously.
The traditional court procedure mandating witnesses to tell the truth dates back to over 3,000 years ago. In this ancient tradition, “honesty” is a matter of being truthful and open in one’s dealing with another, so that what is said can be taken by the hearers as reliable and trustworthy.
All classical and religious cultures have a notion like truth. The Islamic tradition puts a premium on truth-telling and avoidance of lying and deception.
In the New Testament (John 8:32), Jesus says “... you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”
In Buddhism, the Four Noble Truths com- prise the essence of Buddha’s teachings and include the truth of suffering, and the truth of the path that leads to the end of suffering.
In ancient Greek and Roman cultures, truth-telling was a risky business linked to the duty to help others. A truth-teller sometimes risked his life and used his freedom to choose frankness instead of persuasion, truth instead of falsehood or silence, the risk of death instead of flattery, and moral duty instead of self-interest and moral apathy.
In many countries including Malaysia, laws have been specially enacted to protect whistleblowers but, sadly, we hear reports of cases where, instead of being commended for helping society, they end up being prosecuted.
Malaysia has the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (PDPA) which, Johan observes, “prohibits data users from collecting, processing and disseminating personal data for any reason at all, especially for commercial use or for use by a third party without the consent of the person involved.” Wishful thinking indeed, Johan concludes of our PDPA, and I support him entirely on this.
On Sept 10, 2015, the Economist ran an article “Post-truth politics: art of the lie” which referred to Donald Trump during his presidential campaign when he claimed that Barack Obama “is the founder of Islamic State”. Despite the obvious lie, duped US citizens voted Trump into power. Now, disgruntled Americans patiently await the year 2020 to boot him out of the White House.
Democracy, Johan indicates, is at stake in our country. Fortunately, we do not have to wait until 2020 to see whether the concept of democracy as advocated by our founding fathers will remain steadfast. GE14 will also determine whether or not the PDPA has served its purpose. .
The following quote on truths by German poly-mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716), I believe, sums up Johan’s concern over security of personal data: “There are two kinds of truths, those of reasoning and those of fact. The truths of reason are necessary and their opposite is impossible; the truths of fact are contingent and their opposite is possible. When a truth is necessary, its reason can be found by analysis, resolving it into simpler ideas and simpler truths...”