Trust deficit and consequences

Three components of political order, namely the state, rule of law and accountability are complementary and to be effective they must exist in a state of healthy tension but complementing each other. States use legitimate power to achieve their political ends by the rule of law and that elicits voluntary compliance. When governments are accountable and transparent, they invite active participation and win electors’ trust.

The decline of trust in governments over the past few decades is due to several factors. Acting outside mandates and, often, totally disregarding the major platforms on which public support was canvassed create huge trust deficits. The issue of the abolition of executive presidency is a promise that was never kept. It speaks volumes for the lack of integrity in the political parties and party leaders. But our electors unlike in other modern democracies keep making the same mistake. Reprehensible behaviour in political institutions, the vilification of fellow politicians, sexism, deceit do not give voters hope and engender trust in our democracy. Some elected members have lost public credibility so much so that since declaring Sri Lanka bankrupt many have not made public appearances.

The current attempt made by the President and some Members of Parliament of the government to intimidate the judiciary by falsely claiming that Supreme Court has violated the privileges of the Members of Parliament is disconcerting. Preventing the conduct of the constitutionally-mandated local government elections and meddling with constitutionally guaranteed independence of election commissions and the like will only weaken democracy. Leadership demands a high level of responsible conduct in building public confidence in our democracy. We request the decent members of Parliament not to lower the reputation of democratic governance any further for there is no ot alternative yet invented to replace it.

Dr D. Chandraratna