Edelman survey 2013 : Only 23% of Sinkies trust what PAP leaders say

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Tue, May 28, 2013
The Straits Times

SINGAPORE - The year 2012 will be remembered by many in Singapore for its high-profile scandals involving those in public institutions and organisations.

It was last year that former high-ranking civil servants Ng Boon Gay (above in photo) and Peter Lim were charged, and the sex-for-grades case came to light. It was also the year that Pastor Kong Hee and five others from City Harvest Church were arrested.

Yet, when an annual survey of trust in institutions was published by public relations firm Edelman, Singapore's ranking actually went up. It moved up one spot into second place, lagging behind only China.

As a matter of fact, with trust in government at 72 per cent, Singapore had the highest trust in government of any country in the world.

But how could trust actually go up amid months of talk of scandals?

Edelman country manager for Singapore Amanda Goh wrote in her report that the reasons for that might be found in another indicator of the survey: Trust in the leaders of those institutions.

Only 19 per cent of respondents said they trusted business leaders to tell the truth in a difficult situation compared to the 60 per cent of those who trusted businesses overall. Similarly, only 23 per cent of the Singaporeans polled said they trusted government leaders to tell the truth, versus the 72 per cent who said they trusted the Government to do what is right as an institution.

Ms Goh said the large gap might come down to the strong record of institutions here.

"Individual leaders are not getting the credit for the stability and strength of their institutions, which are perhaps already deemed stable, but do take the blame when things go wrong," she said.

Otherwise, Singapore's increase in trust seems to buck global trends. Trust has generally been on the decline in developed countries. Polls in Europe have been sliding as people lose confidence in their governments to deal with financial problems.

The decline is perhaps most noticeable in the United States, where a 2011 Gallup survey found that less than 10 per cent of people trust Congress, making the law-making body the least-trusted public institution. More Americans trust banks and big businesses than Congress.


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