With confidence in his government sagging after four months in office, Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont yesterday sought to revive his leadership by promising to get things done and letting the results speak for themselves.

In an interview with Nation Group group editor Thepchai Yong on Modernine TV (Channel 9) during prime time last night, Surayud spoke candidly for the first time about the performance of his government, which has been rated poorly by the public as well as business executives and local and foreign investors.

Throughout the one-hour interview, Surayud appeared calm as he urged the public to judge the performance of his government by the eventual results, although for the time being the way the government was running the country looked very confusing.

This stemmed from the mystery surrounding the bombings in Bangkok on New Years' Eve, ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's PR blitz against the government, not to mention the government's controversial capital controls, ineffective handling of the remnants of the Thaksin regime, amendments to the foreign business law, the plan to re-open Don Muang Airport and the corruption investigation at Suvarnabhumi Airport. All of these have created confusion rather than a clear direction as to where the government was heading.

But Surayud said his Cabinet had passed the test, for it operated with transparency. He insisted he would not tolerate corruption.

To prepare for the TV interview, Surayud was briefed for about four hours by aides at Government House. The interview was considered timely as business and consumer confidence had dipped considerably and Surayud's advisers felt he needed to boost his leadership to revive the government.

He said he was not worried about Thaksin gallivanting around the region to discredit his government and the National Security Council as the more the ousted premier spoke, the more he hurt his own cause.

"The more interviews Thaksin gives the more people will learn about his way of thinking. They can use their own judgement," he said.

Asked to compare the performance of his government and that of the Thaksin administration, Surayud said Thaksin's tenure might have looked good from the outside, but in fact it was plagued by problems ranging from power centralisation to poor governance.

He said if the Thaksin government was really that good, it would not have been opposed in street demonstrations.

Asked why he could not exercise decisive leadership, especially considering how much power he had to resolve problems, Surayud said his government relied on the rule of law, which should be allowed to run its course.

He emphasised that the powers of the administration and that of the Assets Examination Committee, or the National Counter Corruption Commission, which are now going after the assets of the family members of Thaksin and politicians associated with his regime, were separate.

Surayud denied saying he would resign if he could not work. "I have to achieve the goals, but if I cannot there are two choices: they sack me or I resign. I have not considered that point [of resigning] and do not see the possibility in the future," he said.

On capital controls, Surayud said he would like the results to become clearer as to whether they are really good for the country. Although the measure hurt the capital market, it helped the export sector, particularly farm exports, by reining in appreciation of the baht.

On the government's attempt to revise the foreign business law, Surayud said it was needed to deal with the "nominee" problem stemming from the "last straw" that broke the back of the previous government. The Temasek-Shin Corp deal had forced the government to come up with a clearer definition of foreign ownership, making the law more transparent.

Surayud said Don Muang might re-open for both domestic and international flight operations, which would ease traffic at Suvarnabhumi Airport so that any repairs to its taxiways and parts of the runways could be carried out.

He said low-cost airlines might find Don Muang attractive as their hub.

Asked whether the military rulers might try to hang on to power after the election, Surayud assured there would not be any attempt to do so. "Only a few of them might not listen to me," he said.

He did not believe the military rulers would want or would have money to go into politics. He noted that it was rare for military top brass to be successful in the political arena.

Full interview with PM