What would Yingluck’s four questions be?
Prime Minister Prayut has asked the public four questions to help him decide where we should go. Since they were in fact leading questions, answering them could easily justify another delay to the election date.
“Turnabout is fair play,” goes the American adage. So let’s consider what ex-PM Yingluck might have asked us if she had drafted the questions:
1. Given that none of our 20 coups d’etat has achieved its goals of good governance for long, are you confident that the latest coup will be an exception?
2. Should we continue to support this coup regime if there is little sustained good governance forthcoming?
3. Are coups that fail to take the country’s future, reforms and national strategy into account the right thing?
4. Should military and police officers who behave improperly, including overthrowing a legitimate government they have sworn to serve, get a chance to conduct another coup? Who will deal with them, and how, if problems should recur?
Asking leading questions will not get the unbiased answers and results that we need.
It should be left to a credible pollster, such as Suan Dusit, the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce or NIDA, to do the job.
Burin Kantabutra
