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Published on November 13, 2007

His outburst during a press conference last week is another classic example of how the veteran politician can shoot himself in the foot without having a second thought.

But Samak's vulgarity did fire my imagination. It reminded me of another time when some more seasoned journalists took on the outspoken leader and he lost his cool. I remember one who shouted "shut up" into Samak's face when the latter yelled something unpleasant at him during an interview in the aftermath of the bloody pro-democracy uprising in 1992. Samak was a minister in the much detested military-supported Suchinda government and showed no qualms about serving a dictatorship - a major contrast to his current campaign against the military junta.

This is the kind of dialogue I imagine would have taken place had the journalists from those days been present at the press conference with Samak last week.

Samak: I am not duty-bound to answer your questions. Who paid you to ask me such question?

Journalist: If you don't want to answer political questions, go back to your TV food-tasting programme. And we wish someone paid us the way you were paid to be a political nominee.

Samak: If you say you are probing in the public interest, show me the list of these people who want to know the answer.

Journalist: We will send you a telephone directory tomorrow. But answer the question first.

Samak: Now I want to turn the tables on you. Don't say I am being rude. Who did you have sex with last night?

Journalist: This is a press conference, not a sex forum. But if you are really interested in knowing whom I slept with last night, I will send you a video clip by e-mail. But be prepared for a shock once you find out who it was.

Samak: You must be a bastard to ask such questions. You are treading into my private affairs.

Journalist: You have to be a bastard to deal with bastards. And, by the way, since when did the party become your personal property? I don't think your boss-in-exile in London likes the idea of you trying to own his party.

Samak: Are you trying to bring down my party or what? If not, then stop asking these questions.

Journalist: No, it's the people in your own party who are afraid you are bringing it down with the way you are behaving.

Samak: You are from The Nation? But first you have to tell me if it's true that The Nation is so desperate that it is selling off its property.

Journalist: Yes, of course. The property has been jinxed ever since it was besieged by members of the Caravan of the Poor. We are moving to a new place where we will be safe from mob rule.

Samak: How old are you three with your ages combined? Don't kid with me.

Journalist: Age is not an issue. Of course, you know that all the politicians who have been plundering the country are as old as you are.

Samak: I know what the headlines will be tomorrow.

The media will say Samak is a big pest. But it's you people who are the real pest.

Journalist: No, you are wrong. You are not just a pest, but a pest of the first degree.

Samak: Who do you think you are? Are the media the big daddy of society?

Journalist: Thank you, son.

Samak: I will definitely want to amend the Constitution. Go and report that Samak said this Constitution is lousy.

Journalist: You have been in politics long enough to know that lousy politicians deserve lousy constitutions.

Thepchai Yong

The Nation