Archarn Terry welcomes the 300 participants who attended the Bangkok Post's seminar at Rajabhat Loei.

Two weeks ago, Archarn Sunee and I paid a weekend visit to the Loei and Khon Kaen Campuses of Rajabhat Loei. Over the two busy days, we conducted seminars for over 400 participants consisting of regular Rajabhat students and weekend students studying for an advanced degree.

In our seminars, we tried to give the participants a good overall picture of what the Bangkok Post contains. To do this, we used a whole week’s worth of newspapers. We divided the participants into groups of seven with each member having a different day’s newspaper. We then looked at the contents of each section of the newspaper, noticing what was the same each day and what was not.

As a result of this activity, the participants saw clearly that the Bangkok Post contains much more than news. In fact, there really is something for just about everyone. Apart from general news, sports news and business news, the Bangkok Post includes comics, horoscopes, features on fashion, music, books, movies, celebrities of every type, cooking, health, fitness – just to name a few of the more prominent subject areas.

We want to give a big thank you to the staff of the Rajabhat Loei, particularly the hard-working Archarn Urairat who was with us every step of the way, making sure we had an enjoyable and productive time. We did. Thank you.

This week I am featuring one of the activities we did on our trip to the Northeast. Since I knew we would be working with a very large number of people, I thought it was a good opportunity to do an opinion survey. There have been many controversial stories in the news recently and I chose two of them for our activity.

In the real world, researchers who carry out opinion surveys are looking for more than just the opinions themselves. They are also looking for factors which might influence these opinions. For that reason, they usually begin their surveys by asking for background information. They know, for example, that women often hold different opinions than men and the younger people tend to view the world differently from their parents.

You will notice that my survey included such background information. Look to see if the categories I chose appeared to have any influence on the way the participants answered the questions.

One of the problems researchers have in analysing the results of their surveys is that can’t be completely sure the respondents have understood the questions. This is especially true of surveys like mine in which the language used is not the respondents native language.

As you take the survey, consider whether or not you think the questions are clear. Are you sure you understand each question? Is it possible that you or someone else might misunderstand them? How reliable do you think are the results I obtained from my seminar participants?

It is always important to consider such questions when you read about the survey results in the newspaper. Not all surveys are reliable.

The seminar was attended by two very different groups of students. Did they have different opinions as well?

About a month ago, the Thai newspapers were again full of stories about Ms Chittiporn Apibarnpoowanart, better known as Tim Kanbintahi, and her rather strange and ambigious relationship with Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai. People can’t seem to make up their minds whether this is just a case of a woman is attracted to famous politicians or if there really has been some kind of relationship in the past. Since Ms Chittiporn became a candidate for Bangkok governor, it has been easier for her to make news. She made a lot of news when she took her campaign to Government House. Here is a Bangkok Post story that resulted from that visit. Bewildered Chuan steers clear of Tim Yuwadee Tunyasiri Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai yesterday denied having any relationship with city governor candidate Chittiporn Apibarnpoowanart. Mr Chuan said he only had empathy for Ms Chittiporn, better known as Tim Kanbinthai, because in a scandal like this it was not his but her reputation that was at stake. "I don’t know what it is…but there has never been a relationship. I've never done anything to disgrace her. Fortunately, I am not an opportunist or it could have been messy," he said. Mr Chuan said he had kept silent so far for her own good, adding there was nothing he could do about Ms Chittiporn’s attraction to politicians. Ms Chittiporn, whose political debut failed in the March 4 senate election, has made it known she is a big admirer of the prime minister. On several occasions, she has done or said things which incited public interest in her ambiguous relations with Mr Chuan. The woman made her latest move on Tuesday by paying a surprise visit to Government House where she challenged Mr Chuan’s common law wife, Pakdiporn Sucharitkul, to produce divorce papers to prove that she is no longer married to another man. Mr Chuan said no legal action would be taken against Ms Chittiporn. "Lately, several reports have been cooked up [about their relationship]. I don’t know where she lives and have never been to her house as reported. I’d like everyone to understand that," Mr Chuan said. ambiguous unclear steer clear of to avoid; to stay away from empathy an understanding of other people’s feelings and problems disgrace to cause someone to lose the respect of other people; to cause someone to be ashamed opportunist a person who take advantage of a situation, often for doing something bad messy unpleasant debut the first time someone does something incited caused common law wife a woman who has had a relationship with a man long enough to be considered to be married to be even though they have never been officially married cooked up (of a story) invented – and therefore not true Certainly one of the most controversial political decisions of the past several years came last month when most of the New Aspiration Party members of parliament agreed to resign en masse (altogether as a group). Here are two stories from the Bangkok Post about that decision. In the first, find out the reasons NAP leader Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh gave for resigning. In the story, read to find out how Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai reacted to the move. Chavalit plays last card Wut Nontarit The New Aspiration Party yesterday resolved to resign en masse from parliament to pressure the government into dissolving the House, but it was unclear how many of its 116 MPs would actually follow the call of their executive committee. After a four-hour meeting of the committee, NAP leader Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh read out a statement saying his party wanted to return power to the people. It could not effectively perform its duty in parliament and resigning was the only way to stop the government from further damaging the country, he said. Accusing the government of inefficient and corrupt administration, Gen Chavalit said it pursued only partisan and vested interests with no respect for the law or the constitution. It failed to deliver on political reform and had brought the country to its lowest point ever, with the people facing hardship and society torn by widening conflict. partisan favouring only one side vested interests groups which benefit from the current situation Chuan not rattled by NAP move Post Reporters Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai said yesterday his government would not become a parliamentary dictatorship by staying in power to push through key legislation. Mr Chuan said the government would continue to work on important affairs of state in the Lower House and insisted that his coalition should not be blamed for the political games being played by the opposition. "We have not forced them to carry out their mass resignations. It’s their own decision not to undertake its responsibilities in the Lower House. We just can’t help it," Mr Chuan said. He said he had no idea how many opposition MPs would actually join New Aspiration in resigning but was confident there would be enough members left to carry out their duties in the Lower House. Opposition members who remain will be given every opportunity to monitor and debate the government’s work in the chamber, he said. rattled bothered or disturbed dictatorship a system in which one leader or political group has all power legislation laws monitor ato watch and examine closely What do you think? You all have the right to hold your own opinions. This is particularly true for what your read, hear or see in the news media. You will notice that good news organisation try to present the news in a straightforward, unbiased manner. They try to give the facts of the story, so that you can form your own opinions about what is right and wrong. And when they do give opinions, they make it clear that they are doing so. The Bangkok Post clearly labels its opinion pages, for example. When you fill out the survey, make sure you only answer each question once. Some questions have more than one choice and make sure you mark only one of them. The final question is optional – you don’t have to answer it, but it is probably the most interesting of them all. PERSONAL INFORMATION Please do NOT write your name. 1. ____ Male ____ Female 2. Age (circle): 15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55 or above 3. Occupation: ___Student ___Teacher ___Other (please indicate __________) 4. Province where you live: _________________ OPINIONS 5. Before today, have you read, watched or listened to stories about Ms Chittiporn Apibarnpoowanart and her interest in Prime Minster Chuan Leekpai? ____ Yes ____ No 6. Does today’s story interest you? ____ Yes ____ No 7. Should the news media report this kind of story? (Choose only one answer from the following.) ____ No, because it is a private matter ____ No, because it is not important. ____ Yes, because it is interesting to the public. ____ Yes, because it involves a famous and important person. 8. Do you agree with the decision of the New Aspiration Party leadership to have its parliamentary members resign? ____ Yes ____ No 9. Do you agree with the reasons given by Gen Chavilit for the mass resignation? ____ Yes ____ No 10. Do you think the Government should now resign? ____Yes, the Government should resign immediately because it is not right to stay in power when there is no real opposition. ____ No, the Government should amend the election law and then resign. ____ No, the Government should amend the election law and pass the budget before resigning. ____ No, the Government should stay until the end of its term in November. Extra: Whom would you like to be the next prime minister? ___Chuan ___Thaksin ___Chavalit ___Korn

How they answered In both Loei and Khonkaen, the surveys were taken late in the day after some of the participants had gone home. Thus, after discarding some of the surveys which were filled out incorrectly, I had 277 forms for analysis. Before we look at the results, here is some information about the group itself. First it was heavily female – almost 85 percent. The largest group among the participants (171) consisted of students. In addition, there were 36 teachers and 70 from various other occupations who were doing advanced study. As you might expect from such a group, it was quite young with about 70 percent of the participants under the age of 25. 130 participants were natives of Loei and 100 came from Khon Kaen. The rest came from 10 other northeastern provinces, with Nong Bua Lumpoo and Udon Thani having the largest groups with 12 and 9 respectively. Looking at the 277 participants as a whole, almost 75 percent were familiar with news report about Ms Chittiporn. More than 80 percent found the story to be both interesting and newsworthy, i.e., they thought the news media should report it. They were evenly divided as to the reason, with 112 choosing option 3 and 117 option 4 Their answers to the political questions are likely to give present government leaders some comfort – and a little discomfort as well. Almost 60 percent of the participants disagreed with the NAP’s mass resignation and almost 70 percent rejected the Gen Chavalit’s reasons for the resignation. Interestingly, about a third of the participants thought the government should finish out its full term and a slightly larger proportion favoured its immediate resignation. The remaining third felt the government should stay on temporarily. Thaksin Shinawatra was the group’s top choice for prime minister, but not by much. He was selected by 131 while 103 opted for the present prime minister Chuan Leepkai. Korn Dabbaransri was a distant third, followed by former prime minister Chavalit Yongchaiyuhd who was selected by only 9 participants. The next step was to analyse the data more closely, taking into consideration the background information submitted by the participants. Interestingly, in most cases the groups were remarkably consistent, indicating that gender, age, occupation, and place of residence had little influence on the answers. This was particularly true of the answers relating to the story about Ms Chittaporn. In regards to the mass resignation of opposition deputies, females and students (many of whom were the same people) were somewhat harsher in their disapproval than were males, teachers and those with other occupations. It was in the choice of prime minister, however, that the differences were most striking. Interestingly, Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai was most popular among the younger participants, winning a majority among those under 20 years of age and almost breaking even (50 –50) with Mr Thaksin among those under 25. Conversely, Mr Thaksin was selected by almost 70 percent of the participants above 25 years of age. Looking at the choices on a province by province basis was also interesting. Mr Thaksin was by far the most popular choice among participants from Khon Kaen and more then 60 percent of Loei residents opted for him as well. In the other provinces, Mr Chuan was well ahead, outpolling Mr Thaksin by 8 to 1 in Udon Thani and 7 to 1 in Nong Bua Lumpoo. Elsewhere his lead was 12 to 9. Is this significant? That’s for you to decide. TEACHER'S NOTE This lesson has two purposes. First, it will give your students a chance to express their opinions on controversial subjects using a survey. Secondly, it will give your students some background to help them to read about the many surveys that are likely to be conducted this year regarding the upcoming elections. As your students take the survey and read about the results of the participants from my recent seminars, they should consider how reliable and representative it might be. By reliable, I mean can they answers be trusted? Is there a possibility, for example, that some of the questions might be understood. In this case, I think that was quite possible since the survey was in English. By representative, I mean how well it gives a true picture of the group that participated. And is this group likely to be representative of a larger group, e.g. northeastern voters as whole. (Almost certainly not.) Many of the polls conducted in Thailand are likely to be far more scientific than mine. This is especially true of polls like the Dusit poll. But there is still a problem in how to correctly interpret the data. I find students tend to make far stronger conclusions that the data really allows. Perhaps this lesson will make them more careful. The background information section is not likely to be very useful if you use this survey with a single class. Each member of the group will likely be too similar. It is best therefore to use several classes and several age groups. It would be even better if you could share information with other schools. The Internet makes this very possible. Have you everything thought of doing something like that? Go back to the top