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Published on April 26, 2008

The Nation

Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej has suggested the country would not have been plunged into turmoil if ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra had stayed out of politics.

"While on board flying back [from Kuala Lumpur], I closed my eyes and thought - if Thaksin had not formed a political party, our country would not now be in a state of political mayhem," he said on arrival at Suvarnabhumi Airport on Thursday night.

It is unclear, however, whether Samak was being sarcastic.

Samak denied speculation that he would call a snap election after the charter is rewritten. He said the revised Constitution would not take effect until the next government came into power. He cited precedents from the promulgation of the 1997 constitution, completed under the Chavalit Yongchaiyudh administration but enforced by the Thaksin government after the next general election.

Samak said the problem about the suspended 1997 constitution had arisen because Thaksin implemented the charter provisions, and that the country would be in a better shape if the transitional Chuan Leekpai government had launched the charter instead.

Chuan was the stop-gap PM after Chavalit resigned in 1997 in the wake of a financial crisis that later engulfed other Asian countries.

Samak, who is also defence minister, yesterday expressed his anger about the ongoing speculation about a military coup. He said the mass media had become a tool for rumour-mongers. "I wonder who is going to do it [a coup]. Why on earth are they talking about it? I can tell you that the military will definitely not do it," he said.

The premier said he suspected the rumour-mongers wanted to cause mistrust between him and the military. "You are aware of that, but you still allow yourself to be their tool," he told reporters.

Meanwhile, Defence Ministry permanent secretary General Winai Phattiyakul also dismissed the coup rumours as groundless.