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Published on February 8, 2008

In an interview with Government House reporters, Samak said Thaksin had phoned to congratulate him after the royal endorsement of his premiership.

Asked how he would deal with the strong public perception that he is Thaksin's nominee, Samak said: "Thaksin has called it quits politically. He will stand in court for trial on charges against him, and he wants to live in Thailand.

"So he will have to come back, but I personally do not know when he will return. That's not my business. More importantly, I'm Mr Samak, not Mr Thaksin."

During his campaign for Thaksin's allies in the People Power Party for the election, Samak publicly admitted he was a proxy for Thaksin who had been barred from active politics by the Constitution Tribunal for five years.

Since then Samak has become more defiantly independent, even though he remains sympathetic to the former premier, ousted by the military coup on September 19, 2006.

Thaksin is facing a criminal charge in the Supreme Court for allegedly abusing his power while in office over a multi-million-baht land transaction.

He also faces another charge from the Department of Special Investigation of failing to disclose his assets according to the securities law.

On these issues, Samak said the former premier would have to deal with them through the justice system.

"I intend to serve the country and the public interest. The new Cabinet and I won't have any honeymoon period. We'll start working right away and will try to manage several of the most important issues and projects simultaneously especially the economy and mega-infrastructures, as well as the prolonged unrest in the South.

"As a coalition government of six parties, we will try to do our best to avoid political squabbles and frequent Cabinet reshuffles every six months or so. Yet, a lot will depend on karma," he said.

Critics have pointed out Thaksin and his allies will pull the strings behind the Samak administration, leaving little room for the prim minister to manoeuvre, as evidenced by the choice of Cabinet members.

Throughout his decades-long political career, Samak has always put a high priority on pushing for mega-investment projects.

Besides the six mass transit train projects for Bangkok as proposed by previous governments, the premier is touting his new pet scheme aimed at diverting fresh water from the Mekong River bordering Laos and Vietnam into the country's north-eastern provinces.

"We've done some preliminary surveys on this scheme in which tunnels will also be drilled to lay down large water pipes along the routes into the Northeast, covering several hundred kilometres.

"We'll also have to build a number of giant reservoirs or dams to store the water, the amount of which is estimated to be an annual 3.5 billion cubic metres," Samak said.

On the investment outlay, the premier said he had no figures yet, but noted the cost could be three times that of Pasak Jalasit Dam (about Bt3 billion altogether), plus other facilities.

The Nation