EXECUTIVE
Beyond Leaks and Fixes

Public trust—democracy’s most perishable resource—must be restored

A system that clings to its old feudal instincts will always favour personal equations over public institutions. That is the quiet tragedy behind our present moment: trust has been replaced by transactions, and systems meant to serve have begun to limp under the weight of private influence. 

The remedy doesn’t lie in grand political theories. It lies in the patient, unglamorous work of building mechanisms that citizens can rely on without having to know someone on the inside. 

The recent revelations strike hardest at young aspirants who spend their most fruitful years preparing for government posts. They seek stability; instead, they meet a maze of leaks, fixes, and evasions. Paper leaks have already disfigured examinations. Vote theft has mocked the ballot. Job theft now completes a troubling triad. 

This is the moment for the judiciary to step in. Suo moto interventions, coupled with public-spirited litigation, can force accountability where the executive has faltered. Our Constitution’s framers anticipated such seasons of erosion; that is why they walled the judiciary off from partisan winds. In times like these, public trust—democracy’s most perishable resource—must be restored not by rhetoric, but by rigorous judicial scrutiny. ∎