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| When there's distrust, there's rejection/antaranews |
In a relationship, distrust costs both sides expensively.
This also happens in a country. When people distrust their leaders, any policy
would fail to take into action, simply because the people would reject it in
the first hand. People don’t believe that their leaders would bring the plan of
the policy into realization.
Distrust will be followed by people’s rejection, which makes
any of leaders’ policy illegitimate. Thus, the government must “buy back”
people’s trust, which can be achieved whether in “smooth way” or “hard way.”
Some situations allow the government to make “bargains” with
the “heads of the clans” who reject the policy. Of course, those bargains will
cost them something. If this method succeeds, the heads of the clans will tell
their people to support the policy.
However, in some other situations, the government feels the must
to take the “hard way.” Hundreds to millions of soldiers are geared up on the
street. The protesters must be treated in “proper way” according to military
standard. This will not only cost a large amount of money, but (might) also death
casualty.
The only way for the government to gain public trust is to
have an “open policy.” Any policy or planning made by the government must be
disclosed to public. The reason behind the policy and the numbers it contains
must be revealed publicly. Any opposing argument must be accepted as
consideration to make the policy better.
But, that “open policy” won’t prevail if the government distrusts
the people. Sadly, this “negative attitude” is found in our government today. The
Indonesian government seems to take “negative step” toward any argument that looks
“dangerous” to the policy. Any opposing argument is treated as an attempt to
weaken the government. Progress is never made when there’s distrust.
So, what we have here in Indonesia is a “doubled” distrust. The
public distrust the government, and the government, on the contrary, distrusts
its people. This kind of distrust surely costs the country very expensively. Therefore,
this country urgently requires two things: trust and sincerity, both from the
public and from the government.
The question is, who will start first?