Former Thai PM Anand is interviewed by Haseenah Koyakutty in Asia Times. There are some interesting tidbits from the interview, but the below excerpt

ATol: On the future of the Chakri dynasty:

AP: In more peaceful times, the monarchy has been adapting quite consistently. The monarchical system in Thailand is deeply rooted in pomp and circumstance, in rites and rituals, in grandiose ceremonies, just like in Japan, just like in England 100 or 200 years ago. England had better opportunities in evolutionizing itself [with] the monarchy in the past 20 years.

But when you shorten the time period, you have to be fair to us, sometimes we cannot go faster than what the people want. And there is a deep affection and deep loyalty towards our King and our constitution by an overwhelming majority of the people. That overwhelming majority, up to 95% of the people as a whole, can that level be maintained? I think realistically, it cannot be maintained.

I think if you took a poll in England and asked the people whether they wanted a monarchy or not, perhaps the [yes] percentage would be about 42%. I’m sure in this country it is still 80% to 90%. And in this 80% or 90% there are some very, very loyal real monarchists or real royalists, perhaps 40-50-60%. The rest don’t see any disadvantages in living under the monarchy.

Googling around the most recent poll that BP can find is from April 2006. Key poll questions

Q1 Would you favour Britain becoming a republic or remaining a monarchy?
     
Republic     18%
Monarchy     72%
Don’t know     10%
…
Q5 Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way the Queen is doing her job as Monarch?
     
Satisfied     85%
Dissatisfied     8%
Don’t know     7%

BP: You can see that the monarchy is not viewed as unfavourably in the UK as Anand suggests it is. As a seminar at Chulalongkorn in December, Ambassadors from 4 countries pointed to opinion polls showing strong popular support in each country for the monarchy. From this article:

He said that 82 percent of the Japanese people support the Emperor’s status as symbol of the nation, with similar approval ratings for monarchs in the three European countries under discussion.

BP: Of course there will never be such a poll in Thailand as it would likely be deemed lese majeste, but what if there was?

btw, interesting he says that Chavalit and Panlop are the credible figures…This interview was obviously conducted last week as this week, Chavalit, Chaturon, Chaiyasit and a number of others have now appeared on the red stage.