Samak highlights his pipe dream on megaprojects

Samak instructed the bureaucrats to accord him due respects and protocals at official functions but not in an excessive manner as if he and other Cabinet members were the royalty.

"Officials should not form a line to greet me and other ministers as this is reserved only for the revered institution of monarchy," he said.

On policy priorities, he said his government would focus on expanding the mass transit system within three years, noting that the underground train network in Bangkok would increase from some 20 kilometers to more than 100 kilometers.

The government was planning to take over the concession for the underground train in order to convert it into a state-run operation and facilitate the expansion, he said.

The Finance Minister would be in charge of the financial scheme to finance the mass transit construction which could be a combination of foreign loans and the issuing of six-year treasury bonds, he said.

The prime minister asked for full cooperation from authorities concerned to implement his megaprojects relating to the construction of dual train tracks nationwide and the water tunnel project to divert water from Mekong for farming in the Northeast.

He said his government would emulate on the exchange rate regime as practiced in Malaysia, Japan and China in order to cope with the baht appreciation.

He told the bureaucrats to assist his government in dispelling doubts about the silence killings prompted by the anti-drug campaign.

"The government should not be made accountable for silence killings committed by drug traffickers," he said.

In the first war on drug during the Thaksin administration, there were only 59 cases of extrajudical killings that policemen had to be held accountable in a judicial review but critics tried to pin the blame on the government for deaths committed by traffickers trying to silence one another, he said.

He insisted his government would proceed with the anti-drug campaign which should not be construed as a condone on drug-related killings.

The Nation