The crisis has passed, but the meltdown remains: the lesson of Alnazarova’s case

Minister of Health Akmaral Alnazarova did a good deed, she helped a passenger with a hypertensive crisis right during the flight. A video of an eyewitness, in which only the minister is visible, was posted on a social network. But not everyone believed that the situation was real and not staged. "What's wrong with you?" - every now and then, impatient supporters of the Ministry of Health ask reproachfully about fellow citizens. Let's try to figure it out.

Chronic diseases

The plot from the plane is almost cinematic. The passenger became ill, and the only doctor on board was the Minister of Health, who immediately rushes to help and saves the patient. It would seem that this is the kindness that we so often miss in our busy social networks. But no. Not everyone is ready to believe in the good.

Recall that a month ago, a scandal broke out over the luxury wardrobe of Akmaral Alnazarova. The degree of public discontent was heating up against the background of problems related to compulsory medical insurance and a wave of public indignation among emergency medical personnel who criticized the ministry for low salaries and difficult working conditions.

The video with the rescue of the passenger plane came out when the scandal seemed to have subsided. But the problem is that this reputational crisis has not been "closed", the society has not received an explanation for why the head of the department demonstrates expensive wardrobe items when medicine in the country does not have adequate funding. That is why the audience perceived the "rescue operation" as a poorly staged production, suspicion of which obviously reinforces the continuing low level of public trust in institutions in the country.

The minister's detachment from the situation also played in favor of the versions about the staging of the rescue on the plane. A calm comment, a short explanation, gratitude to the crew, and human emotions could have been a natural end to the story and relieved tension, but Alnazarova's comment followed only after a wave of skepticism on social media and was rather dry.

At some point journalist Gulmira Abykai had to enter the information field. As it turned out she was the passenger who was rescued by the minister. This seemed to remove questions about the facts, but it did not change the emotional inertia of the audience.

The paradox is that if we consider the incident on the plane as a hypothetical PR technique, then the staging would be so technically weak that it would not withstand even minimal criticism.

The lesson of the case

The distrust of citizens is not at all related to the video or its quality, but to the current situation, accumulated irritation, an uncovered reputational crisis and thus a background in which any act of an official is perceived as manipulation. It is naive to believe that the crisis can be "covered up" by one random or successful episode, a beautiful story, even if it is true. It can be solved only through system-wide transparent communications. It just so happened that you have to prove the truth every day. And it's not a figure of speech.