ABAC Poll: Consumers distrust government regarding rice controversy
By English News



BANGKOK, July 22 – Sixty-one per cent of Thais lack confidence in the government’s crackdown on corruption in the rice pledging scheme, according to a university survey.

Questioning 2,438 participants, the ABAC Poll – the survey centre of Assumption University – said 61.6 per cent expressed doubts on the government’s investigation in the highly-criticised rice purchase programme while 58 per cent said they felt disillusioned on learning that a senior official was treated unfairly by the government after revealing corruption in the scheme.

Regarding their awareness on the investigation of corruption, 88.8 per cent of participants said they knew about the probe while 11.2 per cent said they were unaware of it.

On the discovery of chemical residues in packaged rice, 42.9 per cent said they trusted the information given by non-government agencies such as the Consumers Foundation and the media on the safety of packaged rice, while 32.9 per cent said they have faith in the government’s information and 24.2 per cent said they did not believe any party.

Most participants said they were disappointed with the performance of the government and the opposition party and said they did not feel more confident on the safety of Thai rice after having seen Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and some cabinet members eating cooked rice at a private company’s rice mill last week.

The participants showed negative reactions towards the government and rice traders and called for all parties concerned to act for the sake of Thailand's consumers instead of merely thinking of their profits. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2013-07-22

Gosh!

About the rice pledging scheme, i have been reading about competition laws and if the people in charge of this scheme had been working for a private organization and not the government, this looks like it would have been illegal.

Distrust abut the rice scheme ? The government are getting off lightly

"... and said they did not feel more confident on the safety of Thai rice after having seen Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and some cabinet members eating cooked rice at a private company’s rice mill last week."

Well, gosh. That's a sign of relief that they are not so easily duped.

Only 32 per cent trust the government? That means even a large percentage of their own supporters don't believe their lies any more.

All polls such as this are pointless as the wording of the questions tend to give the answers the pollsters are looking for. However in this case I'm prepared to suspend my scepticism as the stream of contradictory statements issued by this govt over the last week has been confusing and the root cause of a lot of distrust about the quality of Thai rice. Is it safe to eat, it might be but nothing this govt has said this week leads me to draw that conclusion.

Learning through experience?

39.4% said either they trust the government or do not know. It is just a poll. Where the problem list is with the 11.2% that were unaware of the problem. If this is like everything else it will be news foe a while, and than something else will come up next month and everyone will forget about it.

Good luck with that last statement in the article.

Learning through experience?

"Where has the good rice gone?"

"When will they ever learn"

can't blame them there, the real figures are probably higher.

How can people now trust the PTP

Such a great bunch pf public servants

and who would have expected anything else other than mistrust by the silent masses, in a country run purely by corruption????????

Any country where over 70% of the people polled said that they don't mind corruption if it benefits themselves, get what they deserve.

....maybe there is hope for Thailand...

...... maybe there is no hope for Thailand ............

...... maybe there is no hope for Thailand ............

I think they need to have a poll asking whether Thais would be willing to do something rather than complain, or feel disillusioned about corruption, nepotism, cronyism and so on. My guess is a big fat 100% would choose to do nothing.

I think they need to have a poll asking whether Thais would be willing to do something rather than complain, or feel disillusioned about corruption, nepotism, cronyism and so on. My guess is a big fat 100% would choose to do nothing.

No.......they would vote for a committee to look into the problem.

I think it's time for the rice mill owners to start a defamation suit against the Thai people for voicing doubt about the quality of the rice.

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