TRUST is fundamental in society as it binds members together. We trust our friends to get along and our colleagues to work together.
At a higher level, employees trust their management to take care of their welfare and ensure a safe workplace environment.
Citizens place their trust in the police to protect them from personal threats.
We trust that our political leaders will fulfil the promises they made when campaigning for election. We hope that when they cannot deliver, they will tell us why so that we can understand the problems they face.
At a more personal level, we trust our parents and siblings as people to go to for support and reassurance.
Trust is important in our multiracial society as it enables us to work together effectively despite our differences.
Trust is a relationship of expectations. We expect trust to derive from the person or institution we relate to.
For example, we trust the media to provide credible information to guide our decisions.
We trust our banks to look after our money and protect us from scammers.
We lose confidence in the person or institution when trust is not provided.
But it could also be perceptual. We could perceive that our colleagues are not helpful, so we lose trust in them.
Trust becomes significantly important in times of uncertainty because of the confidence placed in institutions. The uncertain situation is a test of our faith. If people have faith in their government, they can expect assistance from the government to resolve the problems they face.
They trust their government to provide them with the correct information on the true situation of the country.
To learn more about our institutions, we conducted three surveys, asking ordinary Malaysians about their trust level in their social and political institutions.
We noted that other agencies occasionally ask Malaysians, as part of their global survey, how much trust they have in certain institutions.
Edelman Trust Barometer, Gallup Polls, and Pew International occasionally or annually survey people's trust in specific institutions.
Academics in their study associate trust with other factors in their findings.
Generally, the trust level has been low over the years, and in some institutions, they are getting lower. Seldom do institutions record an increase in their trust levels over the years. International agencies with the ability to pool resources have conducted surveys on trust covering several periods and in different countries, which provide them with longitudinal data on the changes in the trust level. Such changes provide some underlying reasons for what was happening to these institutions during those periods.
The Edelman Trust Barometer 2024 shows changes in trust in some countries. The trust index increased in Malaysia, from 62 points in 2023 to 68 in 2024 (+6), while trust decreased in the United Kingdom from 43 to 39 (-4).
The present findings are from three face-to-face nationwide interviews with 1,093 respondents in December 2023 and 1,638 in October 2022, while an earlier study with 1,102 respondents was completed in 2019.
Respondents were asked to rate their trust in some institutions. We changed some of the institutions throughout the years. For example, we did not always ask the question of trust in several institutions (siblings, neighbours), but instead, we asked respondents in 2023 and 2024 about trust in their doctors and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency (MACC).
Generally, Malaysians had more trust in institutions in 2023 than in previous years (see graphic).
It should come as no surprise that the top institution Malaysians placed their trust in was their parents, but the percentages in 2022 (80%) and 2023 (80%) were lower than in 2019 (91%).
Religious teachers came close to being the institution Malaysians highly trusted.
Malaysians also trust the medical and teaching professions. Doctors and teachers are placed in the high trust level (over 70%), followed by the police (72%) and military (70%).
The other institutions scored above 60% to 70%, which qualified them to be placed in the medium trust level in December 2023.
Big companies, the civil service and Parliament, were among some of the institutions at the medium trust level. Moving up from October 2022 were Parliament (from 59% to 65%) and MACC (57% to 64%) in 2023.
Political leaders and political parties that scored low in 2019 moved up the trust level in 2023. Trust in political leaders was 57% in 2019, but this increased to 59% in 2022 and 62% in 2023. It was likewise for political parties (54% in 2019 to 65% in 2023) and police (65% from 2019 to 72% in 2023).
However, trust declined for some institutions. Trust for teachers (dropped from 79% in 2019 to 71% in December 2023, judiciary (66% in 2019 to 62% in 2023), military from 76% in 2019 to 70% in 2023, and civil service (67% to 65%).
Taking the mean of four institutions (government, mass media, big companies and judiciary), the general trust would be 63% in 2019 and 65% in 2022 and 2023. Hence, there was an increase in trust of +2 from 2019 to 2022 and 2023.
Increased confidence in political institutions needs more attention as many events unfolded after 2018, leading to the appointment of three prime ministers. The events in 2019 and 2020, which saw rapid changes in the government, had given way to a more stable government in 2023, but this requires closer examination.
Malaysians voted in November 2022, and the situation of a hung parliament was resolved with the setting up of the unity government.
The trust in institutions provides the confidence Malaysians need for a stable society, but any uncertainty might influence the level of trust.
SYED ARABI IDID
Department of Communication,
International Islamic University Malaysia
