Daily Times

Governance is a business of helping people recognize their potentials to develop a prosperous society. A government has the responsibility to help people in achieving this potential. A democracy can only function through the participation of an informed public into the decision making process. Empowerment is the process of participation in decision making. While governments are busy providing the basic amenities of life in developing world societies they very often neglect the process of informed decision making. Or even if they do think about it, they consider the vertical communication models led through a chain of command process to be sufficient for public information. This, indeed, is the very opposite of what a people need to convert a traditional society into a democratic one, where an empowered people check every decision of the government and also bring forth alternatives, if the decisions are deemed unfit. This is an imperative to ensure the needed change in the society.

The very basic premise of an information system within a government is based on the principle of public service. Public service in the communication sphere is equipping people with the needed information about the utilities government is offering, or planning to offer.

In case the government has bettered the health system, it is important to inform people through the information system what the new benefits are, how are these better than the earlier ones, and how could these be utilized? Presupposing the awareness among the target beneficiaries of benefits offered by government on their own, is wrong. This is falsely assuming that each and everyone is sick and visiting hospitals, or they are always knowing what is going on in the health sector. People don’t know about developments, until they need certain amenities. And they are least aware of things that are not part of their daily routines.

To develop a good public information system there is need for conceptual clarity, first and foremost. The government has to take two things into consideration. First, the role of strategic communication in a good governance structure. And secondly, to develop a people focused information and communication system. The easiest definition of such a system is that it helps people in informed decision making through sharing of relevant information. And it also takes the feedback from the people in an organized manner, and also documents the feedback in a manner that it is helpful in policy making and implementation.

This is a two-way, horizontal process. A two-way process means that it informs and also accepts feedback. While being horizontal implicates the absence of a chain of command structure. It gives and collects information on the basis of equality between the people and the government. The present structure is based on a military discipline structure. It gives information to people for the very purpose of their compliance with the commands of the authority. And it takes the feedback as an optional process outcome. Information is shared with the people about what the government is doing. The idea behind it is to keep people informed about the government’s actions that could make things better for the common people. But most of this publicity is focused on individuals within the government. A full fledged ministry of information exists at the provincial level while the Press Information Department (PID) runs to highlight the federal government’s achievements. The question that comes to the mind is that whether spending taxpayers’ money on promoting actions of individuals is right? Moreover, is there any positive benefit in terms of publicity for the sitting government or the publicity campaign headed by media advertising not bringing any fruits? Even if the second benefit is there, one could accept the status quo in the information system. But this doesn’t help. Most of the strategic communication campaigns are simply advertising campaigns. They don’t even allow any room for publicity, which is a measure of winning popularity without paying for it. The problem with heavy advertising campaigns is that the government gets credit only during the time when advertising flows into the media (or other) outlets. This creates a cruelly money dependent working relationship between the government and the media, where nothing moves without payments.

The real image of the government and the real performance of the individuals and institutions never reaches the people. The huge public relations structure, full of public relations professionals in every district and with each minister and ministry, strive to get news items of their respective persons or institutions. The news items are seldom read, though. But the public is at a loss in the whole process. Even if they read or get informed through any source about the performance of individual actions, they can not develop a holistic image of the performance of the government. They are not even aware of the specific facilities the government has been able to secure for them; and how to make good use of the facilities. In short, they are not informed. And if they are not informed, how could we expect to get an informed feedback or opinion from the general public that would enable the government to see its actions in the light of public utility through peoples’ feedback. Thus, a democratic process based on trust between the people and their government never takes place. And if this doesn’t happen, the trust deficit increases, creating severe working problems for the government. This, actually, is the dilemma of governance in the country. This is why incumbency is such a difficult thing to manage, even if the best efforts are made to do things better. We should always keep in mind that even the best possible effort will fall short of what the needs of the people are. But to remain credible, a government has to develop a credible information system through which it remains in a constant dialogue through sharing of information and acceptance of public opinion. Unless this proactive relationship is ensured there is no hope that people and government could bridge the gap and settle the differences.

It is imperative to make good use of the available information and public relations structures within the government. The bridge could be filled and there is every possibility of a healthy and helpful relationship between the people and the government. After all, the people are the government and it is for their sake that the government exists. We just need to find the right way to express and regulate this relationship.

The writer is a professor of journalism at University of Peshawar, having a PhD from a German University