Trust is the building block of any relationship. We build connections with each other on the basis of trust. We build friendships, marriages, business partnerships, and elect our institutional representatives based on trust. All human actions are based on trust, when in the absence of that trust no relationship can last, and institutions ultimately fall.
We have now reached a point in history when, unfortunately, there is an enormous deficit of this fundamental element in human relationships. We are in constant doubt every time we face a new situation, second-guessing everything we read or hear about. Is the person talking to me trustworthy? Can I trust this person or this institution with my money, my vote, my safety?
It’s quite the quandary.
The state of mind that I am describing has become very relevant when a majority of our public institutions have fallen in public esteem and faith over time. The gamut of institutions in questions ranges from political parties to government agencies and even educational institutes. This loss of trust occurred not just because of internal ineffectiveness of the institutions or even corruption, but also because of a public display of lack of proper supervision and guidance of the institutions by the leadership of the country.
People lose trust in an institution when it fails to stand firm on its promise, when it is visibly ridden by corruption, guided by political motivation, or is perceived to be staffed by unqualified people who were chosen not based on skills or merit but by their political affiliation.
As we look back at the history of our not-so-young nation, we can witness how charges of ineffectiveness within many of our prized institutions -- be they in politics, government, or education -- rear their ugly heads time and again. Unfortunately, we have little control over our political institutions since these self-managed organizations run by their own rules and ideologies. But we have shown little progress in resuscitating faith in other public institutions such as the Election Commission, our bureaucracy, law enforcement agencies, public universities, and other government-created public bodies.
A major irony in the development of our country that occurred in the last 50 years is that, while we have been on an upward trend economically, most of our public institutions have been on a downward spiral at the same time. Along with declining efficiencies of these institutions, we have witnessed burgeoning corruption, massive politicization, corrosion of moral values, and, most importantly, the evaporation of public trust in these organizations.
Our political parties do not stand up to their public utterances, our government agencies are undergoing fading public trust, and our educational institutions have failed to serve their main assets: The students. The public view, in short, is that all these bodies have become tools in the hands of political powers-that-be. They are not doing what they are supposed to, that is to serve people.
Building back public trust would, therefore, be an uphill task for the government as the next elections loom large before the nation. Setting up a new Election Commission is a relatively simpler task compared to removing the trust deficit that has been fomenting in the country over so many years. Theoretically, we have an Election Commission that has constitutionally guaranteed independence, and perhaps this independence has been observed nominally over the years by each government. But the public perception has been particularly badly hit during the last two decades. Sometimes, the commission has not been viewed as being completely impartial despite the non-political nature of the body.
This has happened either because the commission has been seen as ineffective in fully discharging its neutral role or in its inability to override the bureaucratic or political overtures. This inability may have been wrongly conflated with politicization of the entity. But is that a correct perception?
There is no simple or short process to reestablish public trust in any agency where the erosion itself has been long and storied. It is a long process which starts with building trust through visible actions that go beyond one particular agency. This begins with tangible and transparent actions by government leaders with reforms in institutions starting by staffing agencies with personnel who are not dragged by baggage of past misdeeds. Accountability is key. Rebuilding trust begins with a fresh commitment by the leaders to make the institutions free from political influence and manipulation.
Our Election Commission has an onerous task. It has a constitutionally-given responsibility to hold a free and fair election process to the country’s parliament and local government bodies from districts to towns to villages. It also ratifies presidential elections. It is as important an institution as the Judiciary. In some ways it acts like a guardian of the democratic system itself. If people lose trust in such a body, it's natural that they would lose faith in the electoral process, and therefore, democracy itself.
An oft-cited example of a politically-independent and effective election commission is the Indian Election Commission. There have been notable examples of a few chief election commissioners in that country, though a hallmark of this august body is not just its constitutionally guaranteed independence but also its ability to command resources including law enforcement agencies when holding the elections.
Of course, an important pre-condition of its ability to work independently is the willingness of the governments, both central and state, to not interfere with the working of the commission. To date, there has been no political confrontation in any Indian state within the commission. The Indian electorate also has no trust deficit with this agency that we know of.
We may not be able to emulate the Indian example overnight, but we can make great strides if we commit ourselves to a truly politically-independent Election Commission. A search commission to find the next election commissioners and have a new Election Commission is only a start. This act alone will not help remove some of the gap in trust.
Actually rebuilding that trust will only occur when people see an Election Commission empowered enough to act as guaranteed by the Constitution, independent of political intervention, with the ability to conduct a truly fair election with the resources necessary. An Election Commission that bends to political overtures without real power cannot fulfill that role. Such an agency will only work to maintain the status quo.
Ziauddin Choudhury has worked in the higher civil service of Bangladesh early in his career, and later for the World Bank in the US.
