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Published on February 16, 2008

"How can you ask such a question when the government has not even delivered its policy statement yet?" he asked in response to a question about his plans to shore up business confidence.

Samak had agreed to sit down and talk to reporters in Government House every Tuesday and Friday. A major portion of his first session turned out to be a lecture on the way reporters should do their job.

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

"I have never said I am Thaksin's nominee. My exact words were: 'What is wrong with being a nominee?'" he said.

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

"I am a low-cost leader. I only have my face to lose if I cannot get the People Power Party working efficiently," he said.

He also blamed reporters for trying to frame questions for the sake of sensationalism, such as when Finance Minister Surapong Suebwonglee was pushed to answer a leading question about some of the 111 banned Thai Rak Thai members taking up executive positions on the boards of state enterprises.

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

The Nation