Yingluck Govt Still Fails In Latest Opinion Survey

[webfact]

POLL

Yingluck govt still fails in latest opinion survey

The Nation

The Yingluck government is still failing in is performance according the latest opinion survey by Bangkok University.

BANGKOK: -- In the Bangkok Poll announced Wednesday, the government of prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra scored 4.94 on a scale of one to 10 for public satisfaction in the government's performance.

However, that showed a performance point increase of 0.16 from a survey conducted on the government's three-month anniversary.

The survey was conducted among 1,151 people aged 18 and over from January 31 to February 3.

When Yingluck was evaluated individually as the prime minister, she barely passed, getting just 5.29 out of 10 points.

Her performance point increased by 0.31 point compared with the earlier survey.

Respondents gave Yingluck 6.06 points for devotion to tackling the country's problems but they only 4.64 points for her decisiveness.

The government got the highest score - 5.16 points - for its performance in foreign affairs while its management and law enforcement score was the lowest at 4,81 points.

Asked to name the achievement they were most impressed with, 35.4 per cent of the respondents cited drug suppression and 21.6 per cent cited the increase of pay for government officials with bachelor's degree to Bt15,000.

The respondents gave the coalition-leader Pheu Thai 5.42 points of dissatisfaction while coalition partners got 4.39 points and the opposition Democrat Party got 3.88 points. Other opposition parties received 3.80 points out of ten.

-- The Nation 2012-02-08

[Reasonableman]

More approval ratings for things that haven't happened yet, and may never happen. Shouldn't the government be rated on its performance (demonstrable, quantitative, qualitative) to date rather than its promises for the future?

On a more technical note, WTH are "5.42 points of dissatisfaction"???

[rixalex]

More approval ratings for things that haven't happened yet, and may never happen. Shouldn't the government be rated on its performance (demonstrable, quantitative, qualitative) to date rather than its promises for the future?

One can only assume there is confusion in the way the questions are being asked. I mean, how can anyone cite the 15,000 baht minimum wage for grads as being an impressive achievement, when it has yet to be achieved? Seems more likely that people being polled are giving the thumbs up to the idea of that wage, (and who wouldn't?), rather than a thumbs up for an achievement. Misleading questioning, leading to misleading poll results. Nothing new then...

[Reasonableman]

Supposedly it is a poll about "public satisfaction in [sic] the government's performance", which I understand as achievement's, not plans, policies, announcements, dreams, or carrots

More approval ratings for things that haven't happened yet, and may never happen. Shouldn't the government be rated on its performance (demonstrable, quantitative, qualitative) to date rather than its promises for the future?

One can only assume there is confusion in the way the questions are being asked. I mean, how can anyone cite the 15,000 baht minimum wage for grads as being an impressive achievement, when it has yet to be achieved? Seems more likely that people being polled are giving the thumbs up to the idea of that wage, (and who wouldn't?), rather than a thumbs up for an achievement. Misleading questioning, leading to misleading poll results. Nothing new then...

Edited February 8, 2012 by Reasonableman

[Gone]

More approval ratings for things that haven't happened yet, and may never happen. Shouldn't the government be rated on its performance (demonstrable, quantitative, qualitative) to date rather than its promises for the future?

One can only assume there is confusion in the way the questions are being asked. I mean, how can anyone cite the 15,000 baht minimum wage for grads as being an impressive achievement, when it has yet to be achieved? Seems more likely that people being polled are giving the thumbs up to the idea of that wage, (and who wouldn't?), rather than a thumbs up for an achievement. Misleading questioning, leading to misleading poll results. Nothing new then...

21.6 per cent cited the increase of pay for government officials with bachelor's degree to Bt15,000.

They cited the governments wage increase NOT the increase of a salary of 15,000 baht for graduates.

The survey was conducted among 1,151 people aged 18 and over from January 31 to February 3.

Go figure. They ask 1,500 18 year olds in "Bangkok" (City of the elite) and can form an opinion?

[Reasonableman]

More approval ratings for things that haven't happened yet, and may never happen. Shouldn't the government be rated on its performance (demonstrable, quantitative, qualitative) to date rather than its promises for the future?

One can only assume there is confusion in the way the questions are being asked. I mean, how can anyone cite the 15,000 baht minimum wage for grads as being an impressive achievement, when it has yet to be achieved? Seems more likely that people being polled are giving the thumbs up to the idea of that wage, (and who wouldn't?), rather than a thumbs up for an achievement. Misleading questioning, leading to misleading poll results. Nothing new then...

21.6 per cent cited the increase of pay for government officials with bachelor's degree to Bt15,000.

They cited the governments wage increase NOT the increase of a salary of 15,000 baht for graduates.

The survey was conducted among 1,151 people aged 18 and over from January 31 to February 3.

Go figure. They ask 1,500 18 year olds in "Bangkok" (City of the elite) and can form an opinion?

I don't know the age breakdown of the sample, how/where the sample was taken, nor how "Bangkok" may have been defined. They did say 18 years AND OVER, so I guess they weren't all just aged 18 years.

BTW, please don't join the divisive bandwagon that paints all Bangkokians as a privileged elite. It just ain't true.

[rixalex]

One can only assume there is confusion in the way the questions are being asked. I mean, how can anyone cite the 15,000 baht minimum wage for grads as being an impressive achievement, when it has yet to be achieved? Seems more likely that people being polled are giving the thumbs up to the idea of that wage, (and who wouldn't?), rather than a thumbs up for an achievement. Misleading questioning, leading to misleading poll results. Nothing new then...

21.6 per cent cited the increase of pay for government officials with bachelor's degree to Bt15,000.

They cited the governments wage increase NOT the increase of a salary of 15,000 baht for graduates.

Come again?

[Orac]

Yet another dubious poll with the obligatory negative spin from The Nation.

To look at it another way you could say that, according to the poll, the majority people are satisfied with the PMs performance.

[Gone]

One can only assume there is confusion in the way the questions are being asked. I mean, how can anyone cite the 15,000 baht minimum wage for grads as being an impressive achievement, when it has yet to be achieved? Seems more likely that people being polled are giving the thumbs up to the idea of that wage, (and who wouldn't?), rather than a thumbs up for an achievement. Misleading questioning, leading to misleading poll results. Nothing new then...

21.6 per cent cited the increase of pay for government officials with bachelor's degree to Bt15,000.

They cited the governments wage increase NOT the increase of a salary of 15,000 baht for graduates.

Come again?

Come again in what way?

rixalex thought that it was regarding something about that Thai graduates would get a minimum salary of 15k per month. I just pointed out his mistake by copy and pasting the fact that it was to do with any "Government Officer with a Bachelors Degree" would get the 15k NOTHING to do with grads.

[Reasonableman]

One can only assume there is confusion in the way the questions are being asked. I mean, how can anyone cite the 15,000 baht minimum wage for grads as being an impressive achievement, when it has yet to be achieved? Seems more likely that people being polled are giving the thumbs up to the idea of that wage, (and who wouldn't?), rather than a thumbs up for an achievement. Misleading questioning, leading to misleading poll results. Nothing new then...

21.6 per cent cited the increase of pay for government officials with bachelor's degree to Bt15,000.

They cited the governments wage increase NOT the increase of a salary of 15,000 baht for graduates.

Come again?

I think that means it did not apply to private-sector workers, as a minimum wage might do. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

[Gone]

What it means is that the Government has proposed a wage increase to 15k per month for any Government worker who holds a Bachelors Degree.

Durring the pole the students were asked to name the achievement they were most impressed with. 21.6 per cent cited the increase of pay for government officials with bachelor's degree to Bt15,000.

[Moruya]

These polls are almost all very poorly thought out.

Happiness Coefficient for Gawd's sake

[rixalex]

What it means is that the Government has proposed a wage increase to 15k per month for any Government worker who holds a Bachelors Degree.

Durring the pole the students were asked to name the achievement they were most impressed with. 21.6 per cent cited the increase of pay for government officials with bachelor's degree to Bt15,000.

In the first paragraph you call it a proposal and in the second you refer to it as an achievement.

Thanks for explaining the distinction that i missed though, about it referring to government workers with degrees, not grads. I was confused because of the pledge they made during campaigning. Silly me for thinking they were delivering what they said they would.

[oldsailor35]

More approval ratings for things that haven't happened yet, and may never happen. Shouldn't the government be rated on its performance (demonstrable, quantitative, qualitative) to date rather than its promises for the future?

One can only assume there is confusion in the way the questions are being asked. I mean, how can anyone cite the 15,000 baht minimum wage for grads as being an impressive achievement, when it has yet to be achieved? Seems more likely that people being polled are giving the thumbs up to the idea of that wage, (and who wouldn't?), rather than a thumbs up for an achievement. Misleading questioning, leading to misleading poll results. Nothing new then...

21.6 per cent cited the increase of pay for government officials with bachelor's degree to Bt15,000.

They cited the governments wage increase NOT the increase of a salary of 15,000 baht for graduates.

The survey was conducted among 1,151 people aged 18 and over from January 31 to February 3.

Go figure. They ask 1,500 18 year olds in "Bangkok" (City of the elite) and can form an opinion?

I don't know the age breakdown of the sample, how/where the sample was taken, nor how "Bangkok" may have been defined. They did say 18 years AND OVER, so I guess they weren't all just aged 18 years.

BTW, please don't join the divisive bandwagon that paints all Bangkokians as a privileged elite. It just ain't true.

Maybe not, but they are the ones who control things in Bangkok. Why are these surveys carried out in Bangkok, considered to be the wishes of the rest of Thailand ?

[ginjag]

Is it normal for most new governments to be sky high in the polls ?? with fabulous verve and enthusiasm. I do not see this reflected, looks like doom rather than yippee. Rixalex is correct, this is a change of pre election promise-the 15,000 bht to only Government B.D.  as is the other countless E. promises that have gone haywire-tablets (Samsung) to near all kids--300 bht to all farm workers and the others we do not have to mention again.  A college person I know is convinced the 15,000 is for all uni-grads.

[jayboy]

Yet another dubious poll with the obligatory negative spin from The Nation.

To look at it another way you could say that, according to the poll, the majority people are satisfied with the PMs performance.

A slovenly and poorly written article even by the Nation's low standards.I have no reason to doubt however the methodology and findings of the poll itself (although typically the Nation doesn't bother to name the polling organisation).On the basis of the article itself one would have to concentrate hard to see the finding that the government is easily trouncing the opposition - but that doesn't fit in with the required narrative does it?

[geriatrickid]

A media source less hostile to the government would have used the headline;

Government Approval Increases Slightly or,

Government Approval Rating Holds Steady

After all, the Nation admits Her performance point increased by 0.31 point compared with the earlier survey.

(sic)

Negative people will see negative things. Positive people will see positive things.

This farang sees same same. Seems to me that with the all the attacks and criticism of the government, that the government is resilient and teflon coated. Based upon the media reports and the experts in this thread, we should have seen reduced ratings, not a slight increase.

Edited February 8, 2012 by geriatrickid

[Reasonableman]

You actually think the ruminations of a bunch of old farang farts has any impact on the Thai Government's actions? Get real, please. and as previously suggested, get your own bleedin slippers.

Edited February 8, 2012 by Reasonableman

[waza]

Yingluck said to give her cabinet of millionaires 6 months before judging their performance. Well its been longer than that and Thaskin, the convicted criminal and fugitive from justice, has replaced half of them, 8 are charged with corruption, 2 with terrorism and one is on a US blacklist. Yingluck has shown no leadership, shirks her official duties except photo ops and the Yingluck government is still failing in is performance. If this continues the voting public will be giving them a mandate to go.

[gemini81]

Yingluck said to give her cabinet of millionaires 6 months before judging their performance. Well its been longer than that and Thaskin, the convicted criminal and fugitive from justice, has replaced half of them, 8 are charged with corruption, 2 with terrorism and one is on a US blacklist. Yingluck has shown no leadership, shirks her official duties except photo ops and the Yingluck government is still failing in is performance. If this continues the voting public will be giving them a mandate to go.

One would hope the public would not support them next time around, yet for the shortsightedness not to forsee this, along with others reasons they voted for her due to last name sake...makes me wonder if they will begin to learn their lessons. It's a forgiving place here, which is good, but a place in which people are inclined to forget quickly. T

hey haven't delivered much on promises yet, only as far as officials who followed what was delegated to them. The rest have/are being replaced already who don't comply...minister of finance and so on. Gov't officials can be booted every 6 months due to K.P.I. and other factors...wish that applied to Yingluck, who has passed her "give me 6 months" point in time.

[rubl]

Yet another dubious poll with the obligatory negative spin from The Nation.

To look at it another way you could say that, according to the poll, the majority people are satisfied with the PMs performance.

A slovenly and poorly written article even by the Nation's low standards.I have no reason to doubt however the methodology and findings of the poll itself (although typically the Nation doesn't bother to name the polling organisation).On the basis of the article itself one would have to concentrate hard to see the finding that the government is easily trouncing the opposition - but that doesn't fit in with the required narrative does it?

'easily trouncing the opposition'? You tried too hard to concentrate, methinks. Be careful, headache, double vision, and wishful thinking can be the result.

[hellodolly]

Seems like nothing changes. They still have less than 50% of the peoples approval.

They got less than 50% of the vote. So why would any one expect the approval rate to change.

A competent Government would have increased it by more than a fraction of one percent. Properly handled the flood relief would have given them a huge boost. I might have even entertained the Idea that Yingluck was going to put the country first.

But that impresses GK Of course he is easily impressed by any thing that makes His leader in Dubai look good.

[David48]

Yingluck said to give her cabinet of millionaires 6 months before judging their performance. Well its been longer than that and Thaskin, the convicted criminal and fugitive from justice, has replaced half of them, 8 are charged with corruption, 2 with terrorism and one is on a US blacklist. Yingluck has shown no leadership, shirks her official duties except photo ops and the Yingluck government is still failing in is performance. If this continues the voting public will be giving them a mandate to go.

I try and stay away from the Thai Political scene and commentary as it seems to be both too comical and too farcical concurrently ... BUT ... I would like to know who are the '8 are charged with corruption, 2 with terrorism' ... I've read about the one on the US blacklist.

And what about the Democrats, isn't one being investigated for murder or have I misunderstood?

Edit ... my bad spelling

Edited February 9, 2012 by David48

[jayboy]

'easily trouncing the opposition'? You tried too hard to concentrate, methinks. Be careful, headache, double vision, and wishful thinking can be the result.

You clearly haven't digested the poll (or the other recent polls which show roughly the same picture).Most people would consider a lead of +/- 20 points a substantial one.

Incidentally I don't see The Nation as politically biased (as it once was).It contains too much diversity of opinion now for that to be a valid charge.The problem is journalistic incompetence and insufficient editorial vetting of substandard pieces.

Edited February 9, 2012 by jayboy

[Orac]

Seems like nothing changes. They still have less than 50% of the peoples approval.

They got less than 50% of the vote. So why would any one expect the approval rate to change.

A competent Government would have increased it by more than a fraction of one percent. Properly handled the flood relief would have given them a huge boost. I might have even entertained the Idea that Yingluck was going to put the country first.

But that impresses GK Of course he is easily impressed by any thing that makes His leader in Dubai look good.

Using this argument you would expect the approval rating to fall if the goverment was viewed as incompetent though, to be fair, you seem to have missed the point that this is a coalition government but only compared it to PTs results at the last election.

This would not apply to the PMs approval/satisfaction rating which is surprisingly high still and hugely important in this age of 'personality' politics and certainly shows a huge variance from the general opinions expressed on TV.

Of course this is all pretty irrelevant without something to compare it to as the future of this government and stability of Thailand itself must depend on there being a viable popular alternative and the Dems have a huge catching up job to do.

[geriatrickid]

Seems like nothing changes. They still have less than 50% of the peoples approval.

They got less than 50% of the vote. So why would any one expect the approval rate to change.

A competent Government would have increased it by more than a fraction of one percent. Properly handled the flood relief would have given them a huge boost. I might have even entertained the Idea that Yingluck was going to put the country first.

But that impresses GK Of course he is easily impressed by any thing that makes His leader in Dubai look good.

And where did I state I was impressed? Why do you even drag me into your nonsensical post? It is nonsensical because of your reference to a leader in Dubai. The fact of the matter is that there was a small increase in the rating. Try as you might, the fact remains that the increase indicates an improvement and nothing negative compared to the previous point of measurement.

I suggest you also consider a basic course in statistics. Some of the material covered is how to understand incremental change and how to compare results.

[scorecard]

A media source less hostile to the government would have used the headline;

Government Approval Increases Slightly or,

Government Approval Rating Holds Steady

After all, the Nation admits Her performance point increased by 0.31 point compared with the earlier survey.

(sic)

Negative people will see negative things. Positive people will see positive things.

This farang sees same same. Seems to me that with the all the attacks and criticism of the government, that the government is resilient and teflon coated. Based upon the media reports and the experts in this thread, we should have seen reduced ratings, not a slight increase.

So I guess you think 4.94 / 10 is all positive stuff?

[scorecard]

Seems like nothing changes. They still have less than 50% of the peoples approval.

They got less than 50% of the vote. So why would any one expect the approval rate to change.

A competent Government would have increased it by more than a fraction of one percent. Properly handled the flood relief would have given them a huge boost. I might have even entertained the Idea that Yingluck was going to put the country first.

But that impresses GK Of course he is easily impressed by any thing that makes His leader in Dubai look good.

And where did I state I was impressed? Why do you even drag me into your nonsensical post? It is nonsensical because of your reference to a leader in Dubai. The fact of the matter is that there was a small increase in the rating. Try as you might, the fact remains that the increase indicates an improvement and nothing negative compared to the previous point of measurement.

I suggest you also consider a basic course in statistics. Some of the material covered is how to understand incremental change and how to compare results.

Be as pedantic as you like g'kid, 4.94 / 10 is a poor rating however you look at it.

[Orac]

Seems like nothing changes. They still have less than 50% of the peoples approval.

They got less than 50% of the vote. So why would any one expect the approval rate to change.

A competent Government would have increased it by more than a fraction of one percent. Properly handled the flood relief would have given them a huge boost. I might have even entertained the Idea that Yingluck was going to put the country first.

But that impresses GK Of course he is easily impressed by any thing that makes His leader in Dubai look good.

And where did I state I was impressed? Why do you even drag me into your nonsensical post? It is nonsensical because of your reference to a leader in Dubai. The fact of the matter is that there was a small increase in the rating. Try as you might, the fact remains that the increase indicates an improvement and nothing negative compared to the previous point of measurement.

I suggest you also consider a basic course in statistics. Some of the material covered is how to understand incremental change and how to compare results.

Be as pedantic as you like g'kid, 4.94 / 10 is a poor rating however you look at it.

It is very nearly an absolute majority, especially if you take into consideration the margin of error that would need to be applied to survey on such a small, regional representation of the populace.

edit to add: does anybody know if it was national survey or just in Bangkok - it is not clear from the OP and Bangkok Poll looks like an organisation rather than region surveyed.

Edited February 9, 2012 by Orac

[scorecard]

'easily trouncing the opposition'? You tried too hard to concentrate, methinks. Be careful, headache, double vision, and wishful thinking can be the result.

You clearly haven't digested the poll (or the other recent polls which show roughly the same picture).Most people would consider a lead of +/- 20 points a substantial one.

Incidentally I don't see The Nation as politically biased (as it once was).It contains too much diversity of opinion now for that to be a valid charge.The problem is journalistic incompetence and insufficient editorial vetting of substandard pieces.

I will agree on one point - journalistic incompetence and I have an example.

Several years back my old organization had talks with one of the two English dailies (I won't say which one). The talks centered around my company providing weekly contributions (with the company name appearing) for the Business Section. No charge to my company, free valuable content for the newspaper to help fill their Business Section.

In the discussions we suggested that we provide the weekly content on soft file and we would ensure that each piece was within the total dictated character count etc etc.

The newspaper concerned said absolutely no. Their business reporter would come to our office each week, we would explain the content then the journalist would go away and write the article.

We then said the obvious "So we will get a draft copy to check vocabulary etc etc etc?" The newspaper staff went berserk, and said they were highly insulted at any suggestion that they could make any mistake. They made a really big deal about the 'insulting' angle.

I wanted to abandon the whole idea, but I was overruled by a management vote. The first article went through the process: reporter came, listened, refused to take away any printed materials, article appeared and was totally misconstrued, totally lacking in any clear meaning let alone showing something of high value, and some words / phrases used had double meanings and were in fact impolite.

We asked several times to discuss the matter further with the Business Editor. No response whatever, not even simple acknowledgement of our request for a discussion. We sent a registered letter to advise of our withdrawal from the arrangement, also not acknowledged.