The personal image of a political leader often helps him/her to rule his/her authority effectively. It is commonly agreed that being honest is vital for a political leader to be admired. A govenrnor who always tell lies is usually distrusted by the citizens and his/her power may collapsed easily. But to what extent of the issues that should the leaders should reveal to public is controversial. Some voices from society support that political leaders should withhold certain information to public in order to smooth his/her work, while others argue that our right to be fully informed should not be violated. Both opinions make a cogent case, but withholding certain insignificant piece of information may be more desirable in most occasions.
First of all, hiding unnecessary or less important details can relieve social confusions due to excess information. For instance, if the government is going to introduce a water cleaning technology, it does not have to publish all the technical details, as most of the citizens are layman to the field of chemistry and incognizant to the details. If all how the process proceed and what substances are used to neutralise the water, thosse excess information may distract public from understanding the fact the water quality is being improved. In addition, withholding information can avoid public panic caused by wrong interpretation of the misleading information. Let's say the food crops in Africa is hugely decreased owing to natural hazards and the leaders in United States announce this issue to their citizens with vast descriptions, the U.S. public may wrongly interpret that their nation is suffering from food crisis right now and will start panic and cause social unrest, but disregard the fact that they still have steady food supplies from internal agriculture and from other parts of world. Hiding certain information can effectively please the community.
Nonetheless, over-control in information disclose may hinder useful information to flow along different parties and thus harm the social well-beings. To prove this stance, the global coronavirus pandemic shows how Chinese authority conceals the outbreak of diesease and brings catatrosphic consequence to the globe. Public awareness in a community which without transparancy in information flow will be blocked and prompt counter-measures will not be able to implement if needed.
Indeed, although covering essential information may hinder public from knowing the truth, it may also help in shaping the polical leaders' image of power. When the amount of information release is controlled by the leaders, he/she often play the determining role in the society who is able to alter the public reactions towards a specific issue.
All in all, withholding information suitably can make the society operates more smooth. It is unarguably that the public right to be fully informed must not in infringed, but the political leaders should choose what to be revealed and how much to be disclosed wisely in order to achieve the greatest feedback.