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Published on March 18, 2008

Much of their activity has been confined to controversial transfers of senior officials to tighten their grip on power. A few tried to raise their profiles and make their presence felt and recognised by civil servants usually eager to please and serve politicians who can influence career advancement.

The rush to show some results happened to be counterproductive. Their style of bullying has quickly eroded their image, which had not been respectable in the first place. Not even caring to improve this image, they continue to terrify officials perceived to have been loyal to non-Thaksin groups. Each Cabinet member comes from different coalition partners and is focused on his or her own agenda. Some continue their crash courses on their tasks within the sphere of responsibility. Their silence means concentration and avoiding unfriendly attention.

Public Health Minister Chaiya Sasomsap initially paid dearly for his brash style in engaging top ministry officials in a turf war. His transfer of the chief of the Food and Drug Administration triggered widespread antagonism, so much so that rural doctors performed an ancient rite to debase him.

After a brief power play over compulsory-licensing, Chaiya finally gave up his push to abandon it after facing a serious threat of impeachment by those who consider him unfit to run the ministry.

Cowered and having grudgingly conceded that it is not his day, Chaiya now has to lie low, lick his wounded pride and wait for the right timing to strike back with vengeance. Nobody knows when that will happen judging from the strong unity of doctors in the ministry.

This leave Samak and Interior Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung and their endlessly combative styles, with the former enjoying his one-man Sunday morning talk show, during which he can foment resentment among longstanding critics and create new enemies at the same time.

Samak has been busy transferring civil servants, police and military officers to facilitate his control and help his patron Thaksin Shinawatra, who left the country last week on business trips and to keep an appropriate distance from possible trouble.

In addition to that, he has visited neighbouring countries, smooth-talking the leaders of Laos and Cambodia and schmoozing with the cut-throat junta leaders of Burma. He plans more visits to Singapore and Malaysia before extending his trips to the Far East and the West.

Chalerm has been maintaining a high profile with his brazen style, without much in the way of substantive results in addition to his morning chats with provincial governors who take turns seeing him at his residence. This is a highly peculiar style as others try to avoid negative speculation over their real motives.

At present, Chalerm is engaging in a cat-and-mouse game with Bangkok Governor Apirak Kosayothin, who wants to take a leave of absence to prepare to fight potentially troublesome criminal allegations linked to graft.

Before that his self-imposed suspension from duty was heralded as a commendable move, a rare practice among politicians tainted by scandal. But Samak, Chalerm and their minions regarded the decision as a ploy to force Cabinet members to display similar shows of conscience and some shame about remaining on the job.

All in all, one can't say the Samak administration is highly popular, especially among urban people. The private sector might like its pro-business policy and the rural grass roots should welcome more financial handouts and populist policies, however character and credibility problems persist.

We expect to see more freak-shows intertwined with their day-to-day management with hotshots continuing to raise their profiles and get more publicity. It's odd that both Samak and Chalerm are not much inclined to get involved in the ongoing terrorism-based troubles in the three southernmost provinces.

It looks as if that they will find other activities as excuses for not going down there. That is understandable. Both are not the darlings of the people in that region and should not expect a warm welcome, let alone the red-carpet treatment.

Eventually they will have to come up with some strongly convincing pretext if the crisis becomes too hot to be indifferent or ignorant. That comes with demands for competence and accountability.

The Sunday talks and their bullying and confrontational style in dealing with pressing problems will become too routine and dull. A new crowd-pleasing soft-sell approach with an intellectual touch might help. They have to show originality, civility and good taste.

Sopon Onkgara

The Nation