October 21, 2019
Military expenditure has become a hot button issue in Thailand.
Assistant Professor Noppadon Kannika, director of the Super Poll Research Centre, said 1,069 people were quizzed about the budget for fiscal 2020 currently before the House.
He said 65.9 per cent felt a greater share of the budget should be allocated to health, while 64.9 per cent believe more should go to education, 59.8 per cent to job provision and another 59.8 per cent to security in the quality of life.
Less support was expressed for spending on national security (54.8 per cent), transportation and road repairs (50.8 per cent) and small-medium business promotion (48.2 per cent).
Asked about their political leanings, 67.2 per cent of respondents said they were “in the middle”, feeling that both government and opposition are doing poor jobs.
Nearly 17 per cent support the government and 15.9 per cent support the opposition.
Noppadon called the poll results “interesting”, particularly the fact that support for the government was only 1 per cent higher than that of the opposition and the one-in-five objections to high spending on the military, police and other security agencies.