The Malaysian Insight

MALAYSIANS are showing a higher level of trust towards the government compared to last year, according to a recent international online survey.

The 19th annual Edelman Trust Barometer, an online global trust survey conducted in 27 countries late last year, found that the trust index for the Malaysian government had moved from “distrusted” (46) the year before, to “trusted” (60).

An index of 1 to 46 is classified as “distrusted”, while rankings from 60 to 100 denote “trusted”.

The survey was conducted between October 19 and November 16 last year and involved over 33,000 respondents in 27 countries.

The general election in May last year saw Malaysia change its federal government for the first time in more than 60 years, removing Barisan Nasional from power and putting the Dr Mahathir Mohamad-led Pakatan Harapan pact in power.

Despite the rise in trust levels, Malaysia still trailed behind its Southeast Asian neighbours Singapore (67) and Indonesia (75).

However, Malaysia’s government scored better than many of its more developed counterparts like France (32), Ireland (38), Japan (39), Germany (40), the US (40), Australia (42), the UK (42) and South Korea (48).

Edelman said the reason for conducting the survey was because trust is a “valuable asset” for all institutions.

Trust would predict whether stakeholders would find organisations credible, embrace their new innovations, and support or defend them, it said.

“In modern society, we delegate important aspects of our well-being to the four institutions of business (economic well-being), government (national security and public policy), media (information and knowledge) and civil society groups (social causes and issues).

“In order to feel safe delegating important aspects of our lives and well-being to others, we need to trust them to act with integrity and with our best interests in mind.

“Trust-building should be one of the most important strategic priorities of all organisations,” said the US-based public relations and marketing consultancy firm.

It found a “modest” rise in trust levels towards non-governmental bodies, businesses, governments and the media globally. However, governments and the media scored the worst among respondents.

In Malaysia, the media remains the least trusted institution although Malaysians noted a slight increase in trust levels to reach a neutral score at 52 this year – five points better than the year before.

The media in Russia and Turkey fared the worse, scoring 26 and 27, while trust in the media is the highest in Indonesia and China, at 70 and 76 points.

For businesses and civil society groups in Malaysia, the trust levels were at 61 and 63 points, respectively.

Malaysian respondents were more optimistic of the future, compared to others in more developed countries.

Asked about the economic prospects for themselves and their families in five years’ time, the mass population gave a score of 69 while the informed public recorded 72.

The trust score was lower for Japan (16 and 38), France (21 and 37), Germany (26 and 38), the UK (28 and 43) and the US (48 and 62). Respondents in China were even more optimistic than Malaysians, recording scores of 71 and 86.

Most respondents worldwide were also found to trust their employers, except in South Korea and Japan, where respondents gave employers neutral scores.

Malaysian employers scored 76 points on that front – a three-point increase from last year. Although Malaysia scored slightly higher than Singapore, it is way behind neighbouring Indonesia’s 89 points. – March 4, 2019.