Officials' 'slip of the tongue' and people's trust in the government

The unqualified statements of civil servants make the gap between the government and the people increasingly widen.

Public opinion still remembers stories about inappropriate statements by some officials in recent times.

Commenting on this issue, Associate Professor Dr. Pham Ngoc Trung, former Head of the Department of Culture and Development (Academy of Journalism and Communication), said that the reason for the unqualified statements of some state officials and civil servants is primarily due to their awareness.

In addition, there is no standard or system in the training and development process. In particular, the daily training of individuals is not regular; the management and leadership at the grassroots level where those individuals live, work and study is not strict and effective.

When civil servants come into contact and speak to the people, they represent the State's public authority and the State's laws, so they have a very important and necessary position. The above incidents of some civil servants are not only a loophole in their speech and words, but also show that the viewpoints, perspectives, behavioral guidelines, and working methods of a group of civil servants are very worrying.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Ngoc Trung

If one official and hundreds, thousands of people behave like that towards the people in such an authoritarian and arrogant manner, the distance between officials and public authorities and the people will grow longer and longer, and the people's trust and support for public authorities will decrease more and more.

There are also opinions that there is a reason why these civil servants give themselves the right to "stand above others" in their behavior. Although political schools or the training system always guide and remind future civil servants of the State or already civil servants to behave modestly, politely, and properly, there are people, and at times they think that they are in an important position, so they have the mindset of giving favors to others, of being authoritarian and arrogant.

This is also a very regrettable reality, civil servants should not have such wrong thinking and behavior. If each civil servant does not have the right awareness and self-cultivation, training, and at the same time, with the attention of the organization and unit, it will be difficult to avoid this reality.

According to Associate Professor Dr. Pham Ngoc Trung, many countries in the world have specific regulations for civil servants and public employees when interacting with people. The voice must be moderate, not too loud or low; when laughing, the mouth must not be opened too wide, nor must one smile; when reaching out to receive documents, the hand must be closed, not reaching or grabbing the paper from the person's hand... Each gesture is very specifically regulated and each cadre and public employee must perform it skillfully before performing the task of receiving people.

When feeling that there is an inappropriate attitude, words, gestures, or behavior towards the people, an apology to the people is a very normal thing to do, it also creates more friendliness and closeness between state officials and the people. However, an apology is to correct, overcome and must be trained in awareness and skills so that in all situations, one can find a way to apply it to solve the people's work well, that is the right function of the public authority.

Civil servants are representatives of public agencies and people, but if they behave inappropriately, it will cause unpredictable consequences. Not being close to, understanding and helping people achieve their thoughts and aspirations will cause the relationship between the government and the people, even though the government here is just an individual representative, to lose trust. Not to mention that if people are treated with an arrogant attitude, people will increasingly distance themselves, causing conflicts to gradually accumulate and at some point will erupt.

At the recent 6th Central Conference, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong emphasized this issue: If people lose trust, they will lose everything. Therefore, each cadre and party member must be responsible for building that trust among the people, strengthening the relationship between state officials and the people, only then can we create the strength of great national unity./.

According to VOV