People in Isaan had an average score of 5.82 out of 10 when asked to rate their happiness following the military coup in May 2014, according to the results of the Rangsit University poll.

The survey was conducted on 3,500 people in all regions of the country during May 9 to 15.

People in the Central region were the happiest with an average score of 7.39 out of 10, director of the university’s Masters of Political Science programme, Chanchai Chitlaoarporn, told a press conference yesterday.

When asked whether they are happy, the average score for those who said “not bad” was 6.65. The scores in relation to their happiness over their physical and mental states were 7.03 and 6.26 respectively.

Asked about how successful ministries have been in returning happiness to the people, most people were happy with the Prime Minister’s Office at 8.25, followed by the Ministry of Defence (8.13) and Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (8.02). Overall, the score for “OK” was 6.28.

The popular ministries were those that work closely with the people. The PM made a connection with the public; the Ministry of Defence orders military personnel to help communities during flood and drought crises; and Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives works with farmers.

Ministries with the lowest scores were the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology at 5.03, 4.97 and 4.52 respectively.

Asked which issue they want the government to solve before the next general election, most said improving their quality of life (21.5 per cent), followed by the economy, trade and investment (18.7 per cent), and agricultural reform and crop prices (15.4 per cent).

In a related development, the Pheu Thai Party decried the coup, saying it had changed people’s lives for the worst and downgraded the democracy people fought for in the ‘Black May’ incident of 1992.

On May 17, 1992, people bravely fought the then-powers that be and did not allow undemocratic principles, namely having a mechanism to select an “outsider PM or an unelected PM” enshrined in constitution, according to the party’s statement.

Pheu Thai said a “double standard” still remained in society in relation to justice being served in some matters.

It said the May 2010 political protest resulted in 99 deaths and justice still had not been served.

The party said offenders had not been sentenced despite, in many cases, the Court of Justice concluding crimes had been committed.