Youth looks to loyalty to the King in their ideal PM

Most Thai teenagers want a new prime minister who is sincerely loyal to His Majesty the King, a survey has found.

Among the qualities required for a new government leader, sincere loyalty to His Majesty was ranked first, with 98.5 per cent of support from those surveyed, according to results of the Abac Poll released yesterday.

That quality was followed by high responsibility (97.7 per cent), decisiveness (97.7 per cent), tolerance (97.6 per cent), political conscience (97.5 per cent), honesty (97.5 per cent), and capability (97.4 per cent), among others. The respondents were allowed to choose more than one answer.

Slightly more than 67 per cent of the respondents wanted ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra to stop his political campaigns from overseas while the remaining 32.9 per cent disagreed.

It was also found that almost 62 per cent of those surveyed said they still had confidence in Thai democracy, compared to almost 20 per cent who said they did not. The remainder had no comment on this matter.

Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva led the list of who the respondents thought should be the next PM, in this survey of 1,925 teenagers aged 15 to 18, sampled by Abac Poll on December 3 and 4.

The list is followed by former PM Anand Panyarachun at 33.5 per cent, followed closely by former premier Chuan Leekpai at 32.4 per cent. Mingkwan Sangsuwan gets 27.9 per cent support from respondents, with 27.3 per cent for General Chetta Thanajaro, leader of Ruam Jai Thai Chart Pattana.

More than 88 per cent of teenage respondents said they wanted adults to stop fighting, and 87.5 per cent said they wanted to see Thais love one another "forever".

Eighty-four per cent want permanent peace, and 70 per cent hope to see corrupt politicians prosecuted. Some 70 per cent supported the People's Alliance for Democracy's idea of "New Politics" and strong people politics but want it achieved in a non-violent manner.

Eighty-nine per cent said they wanted to see Thais express their loyalty to His Majesty the King so the King would be happy.