Obama v Thaksin: an illuminating comparison

When asked who they had the most confidence in – Obama, Yingluck or Abhisit – 43 per cent of the respondents chose Obama, 33 per cent Yingluck and 24 per cent Abhisit. Assuming that those respondents who prefer Obama prefer a leader with Obama’s specific qualities, integrity, sensitivity and courage, we might ask ourselves, who is more like President Obama – Yingluck Shinawatra or Abhisit Vejjajiva? Then we might have an indication of how many of Obama’s 43 per cent would have chosen Yingluck over Abhisit if they were given a choice between just the two of them.

Pollsters in Thailand steer away from the real Godzilla question: Who would the Thai people have more confidence in as a person, Thaksin Shinawatra or Abhisit Vejjajiva? It’s an issue simply too fraught, and too many eggs might end up getting broken including in the gentle pollster’s own basket.

Taking a less perilous route to illumination, I would like pollsters to find out how many Thais would support Obama’s sustainable and compassionate community-development model as opposed to Thaksin’s unregulated, family-run, stock-market obsessed, give-away-gifts-to-the-poor model. And I mean as a model for the world!

Lung Kip

Chiang Mai