The secretary-general of the Campaign for Popular Demo-cracy, Suriyasai Katasila, said remarks he made about Privy Council President Prem Tinsula-nonda were not said to "attack or destroy his legitimacy", but only in reference to the September 19 coup.

Whether Prem was involved in the coup was up to "the people to decide", as the Council for National Security and the government said that he was not, Suriyasai said.

"The more important question is why there had to be a military coup and why the September 19 coup was welcomed by the people," he said.

Suriyasai said an interview he gave was different from other people who claimed they were for democracy but had tried to destroy Prem's credibility.

Suriyasai said his interview was quotable, but people using it must quote it completely and accurately - and not with an intention to distort.

Matichon newspaper published Suriyasai's interview yesterday, saying it was published in Image magazine and quoted by PTV, an anti-coup group. It said:

"Prem is a symbol of the aristocratic system. Actually, this system has never disappeared from Thailand even though we had the 1997 [People's] Constitution. If we look at Prem's roles we can see that clearly. But the size of the system has been narrowed to some extent as civic space grows and directly challenges the system. At the same time, the aristocracy has been challenged by a new capitalist group, which brought [former prime minister] Thaksin to power.

"We might say that feudalism borrowed people's power to topple Thaksin's regime or the new capitalist group. But I think Prem isn't the symbol of the existence of 'half democracy'. It doesn't mean that without Prem, our country will be fully democratic. But he's a symbol of authoritarianism or the aristocracy, which still holds some space in Thai society.

"Today, it's practically clear that Prem exercised that power through the Council for Democratic Reform [now the Council for National Security]. He sat controlling things at Si Sao Thewes House [his house] and nobody would have thought he would dare to. At least, nobody would have thought that when the 1997 Constitution was drafted that a privy councillor would be involved or take part in this publicly," Suriyasai told the magazine.

The interview was published in October Magazine and www.onopen.com, not Image magazine, as claimed by anti-coup groups and Matichon, Suriyasai said yesterday.