The Malaysian Insider
20 January 2015

Malaysians remain suspicious of Putrajaya, with a survey showing that less than half of the country’s citizens trusting the government this year.

The 2015 Edelman Trust Barometer survey by global public relations firm Edelman found that only 45% of Malaysians trusted the government, down from last year’s 54%.

In contrast, neighbouring Singapore and Indonesia garnered higher level of trusts from their people, registering 70% and 72% respectively this year.

The island republic saw only a 5% decline in trust from last year’s 75%, while Indonesians’ trust in their government jumped by 19% from 53% last year.

However, the survey acknowledged the lack of trust in leaders was not unique to Malaysia.

“There has been a startling decrease in trust across all institutions driven by the unpredictable and unimaginable events of 2014,” said Edelman president and CEO Richard Edelman in a press release.

“The spread of Ebola in West Africa; the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight 370, plus two subsequent air disasters; the arrests of top Chinese government officials; the foreign exchange rate rigging by six global banks; and numerous data breaches, most recently at Sony Pictures by a sovereign nation, have shaken confidence.”

The disappearance of MH370 last March en route to Beijing, China, with 239 people on board, saw contradicting statements being made by various Malaysian authorities.

An ongoing international search in the Indian Ocean, where the plane is believed to have ended, has yet to yield any finds.

Interestingly, the survey found that Malaysians slightly trusted local governments more than the federal government headed by the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, with 51% less suspicious of local governments compared with the 48% garnered by the federal government.

Besides a lack of trust in government, Malaysian trust in businesses, media and NGOs all recorded a downtrend this year from 2014.

The Edelman survey found that trust in NGOs recorded an eight percentage point dip, from 75% last year to 67% this year.

Similarly, trust in media plunged to 46% this year, from 2014’s 59%, while businesses also suffered the same fate with trust slipped by five percentage points to 67% this year from last year’s 72%.

Overall, the survey found that trust in governments, businesses, media and NGOs in the general population is below 50% in two-thirds of countries, including the US, UK, Germany and Japan.

The 2015 Edelman Trust Barometer survey was conducted between November 13 and November 24 last year in 27 countries, sampling 27,000 general respondents and an oversample of 6,000 informed public aged from 25 to 64. – January 20, 2015.