Responsive and transparent government in promoting fairness and equity at community and ASEAN levels

The Importance of Transparency in Government
We live in an age where government, more and more, appears to be transparent and responsive on social media. It is possible to communicate with public figures through a series of clicks on Twitter or Facebook, and to read moment-by-moment accounts of their comings and goings via the 24/7 news cycle. Yet despite this technological innovation, concerns about the transparency and fairness of government are greater, not less than ever before.
It is important to note that there are many bright spots to increase the knowledge of the public about their governments. For example, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) recently reported upon a policy conference designed to promote awareness of policy and dialogue about the creation of micro enterprises to fuel economic growth, and the need for government support of such emerging economic entities (ASEAN, 2019). The Internet not only offers information about the meeting’s content but also alerts emerging regional enterprises about the possibility to obtain government grants and assistance. Government and solutions to poverty on a macro level are indissolubly linked, and the more people know how information is collected and analyzed by the government regarding social justice issues, the greater the likelihood of arriving at a solution. In the past, it may have been difficult for such small enterprises to learn about such opportunities and to call for more financial backing. The Internet itself has enabled freer disclosure and propagation of voices that might otherwise have gone unheard of in the past.
According to a study conducted by UN Development Programme and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights “people valued governance not only as an enabler of development, but also as a stand-alone objective” and a study by Transparency International indicated a “clear connection between poor governance and poverty” (UN SDG, 2014). People need to become more aware of how policies can help or hurt them on a personal level, particularly if they are poor. Communications via accessible channels such as the Internet are at least a first step in enhancing populist monitoring of government actions, and the actions of organizations with a powerful say in government.
But according to the Open Government Partnership, governments today are also increasingly skilled at creating the illusion of transparency and accountability, without genuinely conferring it (Krastev, 2019). There are still concerns about the freedom and fairness of elections at the very highest level of government even in nations such as the United States with long democratic traditions. While it is far easier for marginalized voices to take their views directly to the people, it is also equally easy for antidemocratic voices to use propaganda online and to create the appearance of being an unbiased source, even while this is not the case. Consumers are often more aware of bias in commercial advertising than they are of potential biases behind the political information they may access on social media, particularly as conventional news channels and sources are less commonly accessed than websites, blogs, Facebook pages, and Twitter (Bookmark This, 2017).
This does not mean that the current information landscape makes transparency in government and the sources of information impossible to discern, but it does require a more critical scrutiny of such sources. Campaign finance, and opaque financing of candidates’ campaigns in a way that may influence decision-making in office, continues to be a particularly difficult issue to monitor and control (Ballotpedia, 2019). The illusion of fairness and openness may be greater, but citizens must be more vigilant in sifting through the information with which they are bombarded to arrive at the truth they seek.

References
ASEAN holds policy dialogue on formalisation of micro enterprises. 2019. Accessed June 30,
2109 at: https://asean.org/asean-holds-policy-dialogue-formalisation-micro-enterprises/
Government transparency. 2019. Ballotpedia. Accessed June 30, 2109 at:
https://ballotpedia.org/Government_transparency
An honest and responsive government. 2014. UN SDG Action. Accessed June 30, 2109 at:
https://sdgactioncampaign.org/2014/10/24/an-honest-and-responsive-government-the- role-of-citizen-voice/
Krastev, T. 2019. Does more transparency mean more trust? Open Government Partnership.
Accessed June 30, 2109 at:
https://www.opengovpartnership.org/trust/does-more-transparency-mean-more-trust/
Transparency in the age of social media influence. 2017. Bookmark This. Accessed June 30,
2109 at:https://bookmarkcontent.com/blog/content/transparency-age-social-media- influence/#