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Published on September 18, 2007

The poll, conducted from Tuesday to Friday of last week to mark tomorrow's first anniversary of the coup, showed that businessmen were most pleased about the junta's performance in national security, giving it 6.27 points out of 10. However, they were least happy about its economic performance, giving it only 5.52 points. The score for political stability was 5.53 points.

Of the 800 business operators who responded to the poll, 60.3 per cent expected the CNS to solve economic problems, 62.6 per cent to solve corruption and 62.6 per cent to solve national-security issues.

Yachai Choovicha, who was in charge of the poll, said the business operators expressed their dissatisfaction with measures launched after the coup. They were displeased with measures to tackle the strong baht, as well as with the continuing violence in the South. They wished the CNS would spend its remaining time on issues of economics, politics and violence, she said. Where it came to the performance of the government, the poll showed business operators were most satisfied with its sufficiency-economy policy, giving it 7.2 points out of 10. This was followed by 6.2 points for the television-ratings system. They were least satisfied with measures to control the strength of the baht and gave only 5.5 points for the government's reconciliation policies.

Businessmen wanted the government to focus most on solving economic problems and the violence in the deep South before a new government was appointed. The poll also surveyed 1,170 members of the general public. Of these respondents, 82.2 per cent said their first demand was that the government solve the violence in the South. This was followed by 79.4 per cent wanting a solution to economic problems and 78.1 per cent wanting an end to national-security problems.

The public respondents gave the government a score of 6.3 points out of 10 for its performance in managing the Kingdom. They gave it 6.9 points for its education and social policies. However, the government's measures to solve the violence in the deep South and its economic measures scored the lowest, 5.5 points and 6.1 points, respectively.

The Nation