PM lectures reporters on how to do their job

"How can you as such a question when the government has not even deliver its policy statement yet?" he asked right back at a question about his plans to shore up the business confidence.

Samak agreed to sit down and talk to reporters on Government House beat twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays. A major portion of his first session turned out to be a lecture on the way reporters raised questions.

In regard to the issue of being perceived as a nominee of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, he challenged reporters to check the transcription of his taped interview in the leadup to the December 23 election.

"I have never said I am a Thaksin's nominee - my exact words are What is wrong about being a nominee?," he said.

He admitted that he was installed as leader of the People Power Party without a power base of his own, hence he deemed it necessary to rally the public support to back his stand within the party. He said this in reference to his intervention for the party to review its shortlist of controversial candidates for the job as ministerial secretaries and advisers.

"I am a lowcost leader. No problem as I will only lose my face if I can not ensure the People Power Party in a good working order," he said.

He also blamed reporters for trying to frame questions for the sake of sensationalism. For example, Finance Minister Surapong Suebwonglee was forced to answer a leading question about the appointment of 111 banned party executives to sit on the boards of state enterprises, he said.

He insisted his government had no plans to reward the 111 with plum assignments.

The Nation