Political shenanigans

re: "Policy issues behind Move Forward's failure to form govt: poll" (BP, July 30, 2023)

Dear editor,

The latest Nida poll (July 30) reports that 42.98% of respondents believe that Move Forward was prevented from forming a popular government with Pita Limjaroenrat as prime minister because the party "refused to drop some of its policies in exchange for more support." That figure is perfectly credible. If the poll was conducted on a randomly chosen sample of it, then that percentage also accurately represents the opinion of the Thai people. Equally credible is that "30.46% did not think the MFP had made any mistakes," and that a further "27.56% said the MFP was defeated in a political game in parliament."

What is not credible, or perhaps all too credible, is that Nida would deem it a "mistake" to stand by decent principles. Did Nida really word their questionnaire that way? What is "mistaken" about having sound, popular policies that won massive voter support and then standing by those flagship policies? Is the correct and commendable course of action supposed to be what the Democrats did in 2019 and before, and what Pheu Thai now appears to be doing; namely, to promptly ditch any and every principle for the sake of winning power? 

The salient truth remains unaltered since May 14: Move Forward had and continues to have the most popular raft of policies of any party that stood in the election. The very popularity of those policies has plainly upset the traditional, conservative elements opposed to the very notion that the Thai people should choose the form of their own government. That is why the senate and other bodies have put themselves and all they stand for in direct conflict with the will of the Thai people, who decisively voted for democracy and against the old ways.

A far more useful poll would have been to ask what the electorate now thinks of each of Move Forward's popular flagship policies. That is something that really is worth knowing to a percentage point. Has support for those policies, and Move Forward's principled stand, so alien to Thai political custom, fallen or perhaps risen yet higher since May 14? 

Thanks to Pita's masterful leading of the conservatives against progress into publicly exposing themselves for what they are, my guess (only a guess until substantiated or rebutted by the necessary polls) is that both Move Forward and every one of its major reform policies are even more popular today than they were two and a half months ago. What is known from the last Nida poll (July 16) is that 63% wanted Pita re-nominated for the position of prime minister to serve the nation, which is suggestive. My guess might, of course, be totally wrong: run the polls and find out. 

 Felix Qui 

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The above letter to the editor is the text as submitted by Felix Qui to the Bangkok Post.

The text as edited was published in PostBag on August 5, 2023, under the title "Political shenanigans" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2623951/political-shenanigans