Bangkok Post

AMPA SANTIMATANEDOL

"An overwhelming 97.6% of Bangkok residents want the next prime minister to be honest and dedicated to moral integrity, an Abac opinion survey has found.

Rating individually the desired qualities of the new prime minister, most agreed that honesty must come first, followed by strong leadership and decisiveness, and patience.

The survey found that 96.9% preferred a leader who is ready to make sacrifices while 96.6% wanted a well-rounded leader who is adept in economic, political, legal and social issues.

However, only 24% said they wanted a wealthy, successful businessman to become prime minister.

The pollsters took a random sample from 1,550 residents in Bangkok and suburban areas on Friday and Saturday.

Questioned on how they felt witnessing the concentration of troops stationed to keep the peace in Bangkok after the coup, 92.1% said they believed soldiers were dependable.

Also 89.1% said the presence of soldiers made them feel safe and secure.

However 24.9% said the presence of troops worried them, whereas 19.7% said they were shocked at the sight of the troops and 6.5% feared the soldiers.

Meanwhile, former senator Sophon Supapong said the new prime minister must possess true moral courage.

He said that in the past five years or so, the country has been set back by a crisis related to moral integrity, and the new leader must be capable of restoring it.

The economy does not present an urgent problem and so the new prime minister does not necessarily need a strong economic background.

"The new prime minister must re-institute justice and righteousness that people can rely on. The person must be well-received by society," the former senator said.

The Thai Journalists Association and the Thai Broadcast Journalists Association yesterday issued a joint statement calling on the military junta to return power to the people as quickly as possible.

The two ethics regulatory bodies also urged the ruling council to guarantee freedom of expression for both the public and the media and allow people to participate in the drafting of a new charter. It must not try to meddle with the interim government to be set up, they said.

The Campaign for Popular Democracy called on the junta to urgently seize the assets of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra and any ex-ministers found to have been involved in graft while in office."

Question. Would you like an honest Prime Minister or a crook.

The 97.6% wanting an honest guy is not surprising. The 2.4% worry me as does the dedication to moral integrity.

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