Anyone but Samak for the next prime minister

COMMENTARY

Anyone but Samak for the next prime minister

VEERA PRATEEPCHAIKUL

By today, the unofficial results of the election should have been released and we should know which parties have won how many seats in the lower house of parliament.

If pre-election polls conducted by the various credible and not-so-credible organisations were to be used as an indicator, there should not be any surprises about who came in first place overall.

The Thai Rak Thai's reincarnation, or the People Power party (PPP), should definitely come first in the election. The only big question mark in the minds of many people is whether the party will get more than 240 seats which will enable the party to form a single-party government.

If it falls short of a majority, the PPP could be left out in the cold, destined to become the opposition.

But a multi-party coalition led by the Democrats would have to overcome an initial hurdle _ the horse trading. Even if that can be worked out, political stability could still pose a problem in the medium- and long-term.

Most observers do not expect a coalition administration to last a full term.

But the prospect of the PPP emerging as the absolute victor with more than 240 seats or becoming the core party in forming the next government is not as troubling as the prospect of PPP leader Samak Sundaravej assuming the premiership.

During the pre-election campaign, the PPP told its supporters to vote for Samak if they loved former premier Thaksin Shinawatra (forgive me, it should now be Shinawatradamrong, an auspicious surname given by a senior monk in Lop Buri which was supposed to bring Thaksin good luck).

The simple message was: Choose Samak, Get Thaksin, which appeared to work magic because many grassroots voters who were not familiar with the veteran Bangkok politician appeared ready to cast ballots for Samak's PPP in the hope that Thaksin would be brought back as their saviour with his generous populist programmes.

But will PPP followers really get Thaksin by choosing Samak? Logic dictates that if you choose a rose apple, you will get a rose apple, not an apple.

So what the PPP supporters are likely to get will be a mix between Samak and Thaksin, that is a Samak with Thaksin's brains, which worked well in the election campaign but may spell doom in national governance.

There was a memorable scene at Government House one fine day, when the possible next premier, with the appearance of Samak and the brains of Thaksin, was overcome by a fit of anger and ranted at a persistent reporter working for a foreign news agency. The reporter kept pestering Samak with annoying questions, so Samak asked him if he had sep methoon (immoral sex) the night before.

And that became a story that went around the world. Imagine our youngsters yelling at one another, using foul language they heard from our future government leader on the airwaves. How would their parents and teachers deal with that?

Like Samak, Thaksin might share the same contempt for the media, especially the critical press. Occasionally, he was heard ranting at members of the media, but never heard asking a reporter whether he had sep methoon the night before, even if he was annoyed by the reporter. Though he was once heard to say: THAI sucks, as he was complaining about poor service on the national flag carrier.

Samak and Thaksin might share some similarities. They both tend to be over-confident and prefer to dictate decisions. But they are different characters. Thaksin is a workaholic and was said to have worked tirelessly during his last four years in office.

But Samak's performance as Bangkok governor before Apirak Kosayodhin was dull and left much to be desired. Once asked by a reporter why he didn't go out to inspect the flood situation in Bangkok, he curtly responded that he didn't want to be seen digging his hand into a clogged drain like his predecessor Bhichit Rattakul.

Rumour had it that Samak preferred to stay home and issue orders to his subordinates from there.

The sight of Samak the politician warring with the media and his political opponents, real or perceived, in the past filled me with dread, as it did, I believe, many fair-minded people.

But the thought of Samak the prime minister behaving in the same fashion as he did in the past is simply unimaginable and too frightening to contemplate.

Please, give me someone else as my future prime minister.

Veera Prateepchaikul is Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Post Publishing Co Ltd.