An Analysis of People's Perceptions of National Reform to Determine Issues for Public Relations

Abstract

This study aims 1) to study and do comparative analysis of people's perceptions of national reform, and 2) to determine issues for public relations according to the perceptions of the people. The research sample consisted of 10,000 people from every part of Thailand.  The questionnaire was employed as a research instrument to evaluate the levels of people’s perceptions on public relations concerning the reform of the country in 11 aspects: 1) the political aspect, 2) the public administration aspect, 3) the legal aspect, 4) the judicial process aspect, 5) the economic aspect, 6) the natural resources and environment aspect, 7) the public health aspect, 8) the information technology and mass media aspect, 9) the social aspect, 10) the energy aspect, and 11) the prevention and suppression of corruption aspect.  The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics: mean and standard deviation.  The comparative analysis was conducted using the dependent sample t-test.

The research findings showed that 1) people perceived the national reforms in two problem areas: legal aspect and social aspect, 2) the legal public relations issues included 2.1) the development of information technology to support the people to contact law enforcement officials more conveniently in order to reduce their expenditure and eliminate the channels for corruption, and 2.2) building a mechanism to promote more effective law enforcement, and 3) the social public relations issues included 3.1) the improvement of information on tax collection via the return of the added value tax to reduce the disparity and help the target group appropriately and justifiably, 3.2) capacity building for the elderly to work by extending the retirement and 3.3) creation of civil state mechanisms for local development, community organizations, non-governmental organizations and other government agencies.