Bakom stresses tangible benefits to maintain public trust

Jakarta (ANTARA) – Fithra Faisal Hastiadi, an expert adviser to the Government of Indonesia’s Communications Agency (Bakom), said the Government is working to ensure that development achievements deliver tangible benefits that people can experience in their daily lives.

He said the success of flagship programmes run by President Prabowo Subianto and Vice-President Gibran Rakabuming Raka was not enough on its own to sustain public trust. Confidence in the Government, he said, is built on two complementary dimensions: policy performance and public experience.

“Success in flagship programmes is certainly an important asset in building public trust, but we understand that it is not enough,” Fithra told ANTARA in Jakarta on Tuesday.

He said the Government’s efforts to achieve food self-sufficiency, for example, should be judged not only by production levels but also by whether households can afford staple foods.

Similarly, high investment figures would mean more to the public if investment created jobs, including positions suited to university graduates’ skills.

He added that investment in education and healthcare facilities also needed to be matched by improvements in service quality, so people could directly benefit.

From the perspective of institutional economics, Fithra said, trust is a form of social capital that plays an important role in supporting development.

The Government is therefore promoting transparency, open communication, and mechanisms for policy evaluation and improvement.

He also said public criticism should be seen as part of the process of improving how development is carried out, rather than simply as a judgement of the Government’s performance.

Public expectations would continue to rise alongside the Government’s achievements, he said. Success in programmes therefore needed to be accompanied by consistent implementation and a fairer distribution of development benefits.

“Ultimately, public trust cannot be maintained solely through announced successes; it must be renewed through benefits that people genuinely experience,” he added.