Most respondents were satisfied with the military, not the government, when they were asked about their confidence in the ability to protect the country and solve the conflict between Thailand and Cambodia, according to an opinion survey by the National Institute of Development Administration (Nida Poll).
The institute conducted the survey from June 9 to 11 on 1,310 people aged 18 and over who were sampled nationwide. They were asked about the roles of the armed forces, the government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in dealing with the conflict between Thailand and Cambodia.
Asked about their confidence in the institutions’ ability to protect the national interest in the Thai-Cambodian conflict, 62.52% of respondents said they had high confidence in the armed forces, 23.74% said they were fairly confident in the armed forces, 8.85% said they had little confidence in the armed forces and 4.89% had no confidence in the armed forces.
Meanwhile, 37.48% said they had no confidence in the government, 31.68% said they had little confidence in the government, 18.85% said they were fairly confident in the government and 11.99% had high confidence in the government.
When the same question was posed for the role of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 35.42% of respondents said they had little confidence, 30.76% had no confidence, 22.90% said they were fairly confident, 10.46% had high confidence and 0.46% did not answer the question.
When respondents were asked how they rated the performance of the three institutions in solving the Thai-Cambodian conflict,
- for the armed forces, 61.76% of respondents said they were highly satisfied, 23.97% were fairly satisfied, 10.30% were quite dissatisfied and 3.97% were totally dissatisfied;
- for the government, 37.94% said they were completely dissatisfied, 30.99% were fairly dissatisfied, 20.76% were quite satisfied and 10.31% were highly satisfied;
- for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 35.73% said they were quite dissatisfied, 29.00% were totally dissatisfied, 24.96% were fairly satisfied and 10.31% were highly satisfied.
When respondents were asked about the national anthem lyrics reading “Thailand values peace but is never a coward when it comes to battle”, 69.39% of them said they strongly supported the lyrics, 19.24% said they somewhat supported the message, 7.02% said they felt little support, 3.05% said they felt no support and 1.30% did not answer the question.
When respondents were asked if they valued nationalism, 48.24% said they valued it highly, 31.60% said their nationalism depended on the situation, 14.20% said they were quite nationalistic, 3.67% said they were not serious about nationalism and 2.29% said they did not value nationalism.
The opinion survey concerned border disputes after Cambodian troops reportedly invaded Chong Bok area of Thailand's Ubon Ratchathani province and the Cambodian government announced its intention to bring its territorial claims over Thai soil to the International Court of Justice.