The Privy Council is set to address TV commentator Samak Sundaravej’s controversial criticism of its president and statesman General Prem Tinsulanonda during its weekly meeting tomorrow.

A source revealed yesterday that privy councillors plan to raise the comments made by the former politician. The remarks have already caused uproar with the pressure on Samak heating up since he made his opinions known last week.

The armed forces yesterday demanded that Samak and his co-host Dusit Siriwan take responsibility for criticising Prem on air.

 “On behalf of the Thai armed forces, we call on them to come to the realisation that their criticism was inappropriate and shows irresponsibility,” the Defence Ministry’s spokesman Lt-General Palangkoon Klaharn said. He added that he was relaying the message from Supreme Commander General Ruengroj Mahasaranond.

Palangkoon, who also heads the Office of Supreme Commander’s Directorate of Joint Civil Affairs, said the TV commentators had hit on an extremely sensitive issue.

“Thai armed forces and its military members are concerned,” Palangkoon said. However, he declined to say how Samak and Dusit could rectify the matter.

During the “This Morning in Thailand” TV programme on Channel 5 last week, Samak criticised Prem for choosing to address the topic of public administration at an event held at Suan Dusit Rajabhat University. Prem’s talk was about ethics and public policy management in line with His Majesty the King’s initiative.

Samak commented that Prem shouldn’t have chosen to lecture on public administration at this juncture, because such a move could be construed as an indirect attack on Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra – who is facing calls to step down from a number of parties.

Palangkoon said Samak’s criticism of Prem affected all Thais, including military officers, because Prem was a respectable figure who has made great contributions to the country.

“On top of that, his lecture concerned references to His Majesty the King’s speech,” Palangkoon said.

In a related development, more than 200 Songkhla residents arrived at Channel 5 yesterday afternoon to demand that the station take “This Morning in Thailand” off air. The one-hour programme is broadcast between 6am and 7am from Monday to Friday.

Maj-General Premsin Nitisiri of the Royal Thai Army, which owns the Channel 5 station, received the letter containing the demands.

“We thank you for your comments,” Premsin said. He added that the station did not support Samak’s criticisms, but it was beyond the station’s control to prevent such statements being made, because “This Morning in Thailand” is a live programme.

He added that Channel 5 had already issued a warning to the company that leases air time for the programme from the station, as well as issuing warnings to the programme’s producer and its two presenters on Friday.

He said the station also issued a separate letter to Samak yesterday morning to demand that Samak apologise to Prem on air during the programme. “If he doesn’t do so, we will ask our air time lessee to change the commentators,” Premsin said.

He said if similar comments were made during the programme again, the station would cancel its contract with this company.

Asked whether Samak would be given a deadline to apologise, Premsin said: “He should do it promptly because he and his co-host should be aware of the social sentiment”.

“This Morning in Thailand” will be broadcast tomorrow as usual.

Pol Maj-General Suntorn Saikwan, who heads the Southern Resident Association, said southern residents wished to offer Prem their support and to see Samak take responsibility.

“Samak is a mature person. He should be aware that he should urgently do something to relieve the public concern caused by his inappropriate references,” Suntorn said.

In a related development, Dusit said that Channel 5 and the company that produced the TV programme had yet to contact him.

“Probably because there was no cell-phone signal,” Dusit said.

He said he had been on holiday in Chiang Mai over the past two days and added that he had not seen any news or talked to Samak since Friday’s programme.