PATTAYA – With few Pattaya-area residents bothering to answer Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s much-maligned “four questions”, Banglamung officials went to Walking Street to solicit more responses.
District Chief Naris Niramaiwong manned a booth set up from 9 p.m. to midnight June 20 to have vendors and other nighttime workers complete the prime minister’s questionnaire on politics and the future of Thailand.
He said only 700 people had come into the Banglamung Complaint Center since May 26 to answer the queries. Response rates have been very low across the country with Chonburi adding only a few thousand responses.
Prayut has since downplayed the importance of his initiative, saying the questions were “no big deal”.
The questions ask the public what it thinks about the chances of success of next-year’s promised elections.
Critics believe the exercise is a ruse aimed at gauging public reaction to a possible postponement of general elections and prolonging the junta’s hold on power.
The “four questions”, which actually total five, are:
- Do you think the next election will bring a government with good governance?
- What should be done if it fails to do so?
- Elections are an important element of democracy. Is it right to (give importance to) elections alone without consideration for the country’s future such as national strategy and reform?
- Do you think political groups with inappropriate behavior deserve a chance to run in elections? If they are elected, who should solve the problem and how?
