While a politician needs to be honest, at the same time they need to be careful when it comes to sharing information to public. They must be aware of any opponent taking advantage of them. In many cases, they might be deceitful in their own personal lives. For a politician, information sharing should be kept minimum at times so that their chance of winning election is not thwarted.
Adding on to that, when a country has to defend itself from terrorist attacks, a politician would better remain silent as disclosing those plans may have serious consequences. However, when it comes to issues like budget spending on public health, education, gender issues, infrastructure, children welfare and so forth, a politician is desired to share information to public.
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When their opponents are watching a politician’s every step closely, it is difficult for them to freely share information as the opponents may use it to create problems for the politician. Similarly, it is likely that many politicians have some bad record which they would not like to share. To share these to the public means their chances of winning election is nullified. Therefore, being too honest might hamper the politicians themselves.
For issues of critical national interest, it is not good to share information as it may weaken the nation’s mission. For example, nations should keep secret their plans of raiding the hideouts of terrorist outfits. Because if you announce such plans, it will not only scare the masses, but may make the entire mission unsuccessful. Thus a politician needs to be very careful about which information should be shared and which should be kept secret.
Nevertheless, when it comes to issues such as government plans on education, public health, infrastructure, child welfare, gender equity and so forth, politicians should give information to the public in a transparent way. By being transparent on public service issues, the politicians only serve the people better. And their chance of winning the next election increases. In autocratic systems where a single person or group holds complete power, it is likely that such public information is hidden to in order to protect the corrupt officials.
To conclude, a politician should share information depending on the severity of issue -- if the issue is big such as fighting terrorism, they should remain silent. Similarly, concerning their opponent’s activities as well as their own personal scandals, it would be better if they remain silent. Nevertheless, information on issues like budget spent on public facilities should be disseminated so that public can decide who they should vote.
