Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 23): People from democratic countries are always more sceptical of their governments, an Umno Youth leader said, after the Edelman 2016 Trust Barometer Malaysia Report found a drop in Malaysians' trust towards Putrajaya.

Shahril Hamdan, chairman of Umno Youth's Young Professionals Bureau, told a forum organised by Edelman today that democratic countries had more "cynical" citizens who distrusted their government, regardless of how it performed.

"As a democracy matures, the cynicism level of the people towards the government goes up. Regardless of how the government communicates and performs, people put less trust in the government and leaders.

"They look to non-governmental organisations and whatever third party as more attractive and appealing," Shahril told the forum, shortly after the presentation of the report.

He said Malaysia, like the UK and US, valued democracy more than Singapore and China did.

Edelman's global trust index said Malaysia had scored 50 points, the US trailed with 45 points and UK earned 40 points, based on the average trust the mass population had towards four major institutions: the government, NGOs, business and media.

Singapore and China fared better, each scoring 62 and 71 points respectively.

Iain Twine, the CEO of Edelman Southeast Asia and Australasia, told the forum that while trust towards Malaysian institutions was dropping, the country was still among the most trusted countries, according to their index.

"So you have to look at it within that context," he said.

Dr Oh Ei Sun, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, said trust towards Putrajaya remained high because people distinguished between the government as an institution and the politicians who lead it.

"Politicians are perhaps like actors on a stage, and on the other hand the government institution is perceived as more of a service provider.

"If you specifically asked people whether they trusted politicians, the results would be different," said Oh, a fellow panellist at the forum.

He said the government must institutionalise the perception that it was a service provider if it wanted to gain the public's trust.

Shahril said the government could win the population's trust by providing tangible results, rather than assuming trust came with their position of authority.

Edelman's report, which was unveiled today, found that the drop in trust towards the government among the informed public category was by 11% from the previous year's survey, when it was 45%. The drop was not as big in the general population category, which fell 7%.

Edelman, which conducted its survey between Oct 13 and Nov 16 last year, defines "informed public" as university graduates between the ages of 25 to 64 and who earn in the top 25% of household incomes for their age group.

They consumed significant amount of news media, including business news, and are considered 15% of the population.

People also rated peer figures more credible than company CEOs, NGO representatives and elected officials, in findings that showed that the most influential people in society were also the least trusting of authority figures.

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