Trust Issues

What worries me most when learning about the recent state of media in Egypt and Tunisia is the prior and now current lack of trust. Although this could be viewed as ignorant, with large amounts of people losing their lives and many more being jailed during this time period, I believe the lack of trust in the government and media is more detrimental to both societies in the long term than both the latter are in the short term.  

The first reason for this is that it is borderline impossible to mend trust between a government and its people. For instance, it could be suggested that taking all the people that were in power out, or replacing all those currently holding office will solve this problem. In theory with starting over, trust would be established as those that were deemed untrustworthy are no longer in a position to be. However in reality this would almost never be the case. The face of an oppressive regime almost always falls on one man (Stalin, Hitler, Castro, Saddam, Etc). Due to this, the fall of a single person is often representative of the entire regime. Therefore, even if a dictator is overthrown, an incredibly challenging feat in itself, the entire government would not likely follow. 

Furthermore, another suggestion that could be made in order to mend trust would be that the government grants freedom to the press. In theory, with people being free to write what they wish, people would be able to trust the government as their actions would be accounted for. However, in reality this also does not work as well. The first problem is news stations putting out sensationalism laced stories in order to gain viewers. With the ability to say anything, media is able to release extremely bias and even sometimes false stories. With this kind of media available to the public, trust is not able to become established. Another reason this does not work is because it is not possible for a country to come to a complete consensus on all issues, leading to conflict. Take the United States for instance with its freedom of the press amendment. During the 2008 election season, our current President was accused of being a muslim born in Kenya. Despite this claim having no evidence, it grew a large following that believed the claim was true. Such a large number of people believing a claim such as this shows a clear lack of trust when that man was then elected into office. This is why freedom of the press does not work in mending the trust between the government and its people. 

Putting an elected official in power by a fair nationwide vote could also seem to have the potential of mending this failed relationship. By holding an election, the people could decide for themselves who they wish to be ruled by. However, as history has shown us many times before, the state of a country following the falling of a oppressive leader often struggles and in some cases does not improve. This is because following a dictator's downfall, the country is almost always in a very delicate state. This state not only makes it easier for a well sounding leader to take advantage of the desperate citizens, but also is under a tremendous amount of pressure to success immediately. When success can not be meet in a short amount of time, citizens are prone to negatively response which can lead them right back to where they started with the prior leader. This is why nationwide elections would, in most cases, also not mend a failed relationship between a government and it’s people.