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Published on April 8, 2008

He was obviously infuriated by a soothsayer's prediction that his days as prime minister are numbered and there may be chaos in May.

In fact, some may not take the words of fortune-tellers seriously. But that's not the case with Samak, who used his weekly radio programme to slam fortune-teller Warin Buawiratlert, even though he noted that he had given the benefit of the doubt to Varin who earlier wrongly predicted that Abhisit Vejjajiva would become prime minister.

Thai Rath commented on Samak's reaction in its editorial saying that it does not hurt to listen to soothsayers, but the future in fact is the result of how a person behaves at the moment.

Thai Rath referred to the fortune-teller, widely known as the "Council for National Security's fortune-teller", who predicted that the Samak government would not last beyond year's end. There would be chaos in the country;the military chief may become the leader. But it's not 100-per-cent certain, depending on the future stars of the military chief.

The mass circulation daily said, "People should not totally believe in fortune-tellers. Rather, they should listen to fortune-tellers to be fully conscious of what they'll do.

Fortune-tellers have the right to analyse the political situation. But whether people believe in soothsayers depends on each person's judgement".

Similarly, the paper added, Thammasat University professor Thirayuth Boonmee has the right to offer his criticisms on social and political issues. Thirayuth recently said that Thailand would enter into social and political decay as a result of the deterioration of harmony, politics, and society - including academia and the media - civil servants and morality.

The fortune-tellers may not read the future of the country based on the astrological sciences alone.

Fortune-tellers may also mix their own political analyses in to read the political situation. But they should not cross the line and encourage people to break the law or cause the change of the government by force.

There were examples of leaders who were ill fated because they believed in soothsayers too much.

Prime Minister Samak once referred to the "country's karma" because of the "invisible hands" trying to bring down the government. Fortune-tellers also suggest that there should be a big merit-making effort to get rid of the country's bad karma, which currently overshadows it.

The paper said it does not hurt to make merit to get rid of bad karma.

However, Thai Rath said the best way to correct wrong deeds is to follow the Buddha's teachings. Karma is a result of a person's actions and the best way to correct bad karma is to start by doing good deeds. The editorial summed up by saying that the leader and the public should depend on their consciences when making decisions.

Daily News reacted to Samak's criticisms of Thirayuth's comment. It said that Thirayuth's social criticism this time has several valid points. And the five causes for the social decays that he raised can be fixed by the harmony of the people, who should unite against social and political decay.

Daily News said that each section of the society might start fixing the problem. For instance, if they agree that social harmony is deteriorating, they should unite to solve the problem and end this conflict seriously. Or, if they agree that the political sector is deteriorating, they should try to prevent politicians who are corrupt or abuse their power from unfairly exercising their power.

The Nation