A Suan Dusit Poll surveyed 4,238 people between December 10-24 on the 4-month performance of the government. However, BP thought it would be useful to compare with previous polls to get some context about what the scores mean (i.e is 6.5 out of 10 a phenomenally good score or well just average). It is best to compare polls from the same organization and when the same questions are asked. BP has found Suan Dusit polls on the performance of former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, the Cabinet, and his government at the 6-month, 12-month and 24-month stages to provide a point of comparison.

Q1: On the performance of the government out of 10

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Source: 6 and 12 months of AV; 24 months of AV; and 4 months of YS

NOTE: Order is simply how it appeared in one poll. Yellow highlighting is the highest for a category and red font is the lowest (added by BP). AV = Abhisit government. YS = Yingluck government. 4, 6, 12, and 24 refer to the number of months the government had been in office. The full wording of each category along with the original Thai is at the end of this post.*

1.1 For performance of Abhisit as PM , we also have Jan 2011 (5.83), Feb 2011 (5.07), Mar 2011 (5.03), Apr 2011 (5.04). For performance of Yingluck as PM, we have Aug 2011 (6.14), Sep 2011 (6.05), Oct 2011 (5.05), and Nov 2011 (5.29) – see this post of Suan Dusit polls. So Yingluck’s most recent score of 6.49 is her highest rating on her performance (that BP can find) and shows her recovery since the floods. That Yingluck has bounced back so quickly is a little surprising. It is just one poll though. She also has not topped Abhisit’s 6.8 rating back in December 2011.

1.2 To reiterate an old point, Abhisit was really the jewel in the Democrat crown continually outperforming the Cabinet  (by .43, .42, and .61 respectively). See posts about Abhisit being the jewel in the Democrat crown here and here in December 2011. Yingluck outscores the Cabinet although at only about half the rate that Abhisit did (.28). The Yingluck Cabinet rating performs better than Abhisit’s Cabinet so part of the reason is the overall public perception of the Abhisit Cabinet’s performance was not as high compared with that of the Yingluck Cabinet although this doesn’t mean that Abhisit wasn’t the jewel in the Democrat crown as his ratings are significantly higher than either the performance of his Cabinet or other ratings given to his government as well as score being at least 6.33 which is quite high. However, Abhisit’s shine started to wear off – see posts in March 2011 here and here on that – which is shown by the polls on his performance mentioned in 1.1

1.3 The Yingluck Cabinet scores higher than any Abhisit Cabinet on determination and performance; the government higher on sincerity, unity and honesty (makes this article title even more odd) although not on independence given to civil servants (not interefering in their work).

Q2. Performance of the government by Ministry (ผลงานของรัฐบาล จำแนก “รายกระทรวง”). Out of 10 (คะแนนเต็ม 10)

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NOTE: Order is simply how it appeared in one poll. Yellow highlighting is the highest for a category and red font is the lowest (added by BP). AV = Abhisit government. YS = Yingluck government. 4, 6, 12, and 24 refer to the number of months the government had been in office.

2.1 It should be noted that this question is in relation to performance of ministries and not ministers. Hence, the high rating for the Defence Ministry for the Yingluck government is not solely down to the Minister, but also the performance of the ministry (ie the military during the floods) although this is not nearly universal. For example, is the current highest rating for Foreign Affairs because of current high opinion of MFA staff or because of views on better relations with Cambodia/foreign policy of government? BP thinks it is the latter and not the former. Then you also have the individual performance of ministers. Hence, the overall performance of a ministry is not necessarily reflective of a minister.

2.2 The average score for each ministry is 5.97 (after 6 months of the Abhisit government), 5.94 (after 12 months of the Abhisit government), 6.38 (after 24 months of the Abhisit government), and 6.25 (after 4 months of the Yingluck government). Clearly, the weaker ministries for Yingluck are Education and Social Development and Human Security. The Education Minister is one of the ministers who has been talked about being replaced in the likely upcoming reshuffle and the weak performance of the ministry – lack of tablets another possible reason?? – seems more down to him and statements he has made which have embarrassed the government.

NOTE: This average score gives equal weight to each ministry which in reality is not the case – ie doing well for the agriculture ministry (given policies for farmers and how many farmers there are) is more important than for culture – but there is no real objective way to give weighting.

2.3 ICT is the lowest rated government ministry under Yingluck. Perhaps, the stepped up enforcement of blocking lese majeste Web sites is not that popular….

2.4 Interesting that the performance of the Finance and Justice ministries under the Yingluck government is higher than any time during the Abhisit government.

Q3 Government performance by region out of 10 (ถ้าจำแนกตามภูมิภาค ประชาชนให้คะแนนรัฐบาลในภาพรวม โดยคะแนนเต็ม 10)

A. North. 7.29
B. Northeast, 6.81
C. Bangkok, 5.65
D. Central, 5.6
E. South, 5.44

BP: Not too surprising these results that the government does better in the North and the Northeast and worse in the South.

* A. Determination of the performance of the PM (ความตั้งใจในการทำงานของนายกรัฐมนตรี)
B. Performance of the PM (ผลงานของนายกรัฐมนตรี )
C. Determination of the performance of Cabinet (ความตั้งใจในการทำงานของคณะรัฐมนตรีทั้งชุด)
D. Performance of the Cabinet (ผลงานของคณะรัฐมนตรีทั้งชุด)
E. Sincerity in the performance of government (ความจริงใจในการทำงานของรัฐบาล)
F. Independence given to civil servants (doesn’t interfere with work) (การให้อิสระแก่ข้าราชการประจำ (ไม่ก้าวก่ายงาน))
G. Honesty of the government (ความซื่อสัตย์สุจริตของรัฐบาล)
H. Unity of the government (ความสามัคคีของรัฐบาล)

NOTE: Comments are open and will try to enable comments for more posts this year – or at least that is the New Year’s resolution. All comments are moderated sot it may take some time until they appear.