The eclipse of Suwit Khunkitti

What lies beneath this phenomenon was not that Suwit is a person who was concerned about country, as he claimed, but rather that, in fact, he is an opportunist. His reason to make the announcement came from power bargaining and infighting for Cabinet posts among Puea Pandin's MPs.

The Puea Pandin Party was reborn from the gathering of former MPs of the defunct Thai Rak Thai Party (TRT). Some of the banned TRT executive members are founders and supporters of the party.

There are many political factions in the party: Phya Naga led by banned Pinij Jarusombat, Korat by banned Pairoj Suwanchawee, Ban Rim Nam by banned Suchart Tancharoen, and Suan Luang by Vatana Asavahame, including Surakiart Sathirathai and Somkid Jatusripitak, who withdrew from the party before it joined the coalition.

The more factions, the more trouble. In addition to much power bargaining, outsider financiers also posed another important problem in the party as they financially supported MPs. This was the reason that certain new names in Puea Pandin's quota were heard as Cabinet candidates in the ongoing reshuffle: Prasong Kositanont, owner of Sukhothai Marble Company, and Pichai Nariptaphan, a mine and gem businessman in Phang Nga.

Suwit, as a young-blood politician, always had a good image and seized an advantage over other politicians in the party.

Despite failing in the election in Khon Kaen, he was originally supported by Pinij's faction to be the party leader and deputy prime minister and Industry minister

However, Suwit's behaviour recently upset some key members of PPP, especially Newin Chidchob. Suwit tried to "up his stock" at all times.

Before joining the ruling People Power Party (PPP), Suwit joined forces with Chart Thai Party leader Banharn Silapa-archa, setting some conditions for the PPP.

As a minister, Suwit acted many times as if he was a member of the opposition party. Suwit expressed his concerns about charter amendments and the Preah Vihear controversy - the top two troubles of the government - in public and in Cabinet meetings.

The Phya Naga group now felt upset with Suwit because he did not do his duty as leader and also ignored his MPs. So the group withdrew its support from Suwit and turned to join forces with Newin, the key man of the Cabinet reshuffle, to oust Suwit from the Industry ministry. Other factions like Ban Rim Nam and Suan Luang reportedly joined Phya Naga. They put Suwit into a corner.

Besides the uprising inside the party, Suwit also faced an outside uprising.

The relationship between Suwit and Samak turned soured because Samak asked Suwit to sit only as deputy PM instead of combining both the deputy PM and the Industry ministry positions. But Suwit wanted both, citing quota reasons.

Samak's patience was reportedly limited. The prime minister then burst out at Suwit.

"If you are going to be too demanding, you and your party had better get out of my government," Samak was quoted as saying.

This was the last straw.

Suwit realised he was now alone so he decided to commit "a mass suicide" by announcing the party's withdrawal from the coalition. In this case Suwit is seen as an opportunist. Instead allowing himself to be kicked out, Suwit opted to pull out. He might have thought that if he had to die, he wouldn't die alone. Other party MPs should die with him.

So he has emerged as a political hero.

But it was Suwit who died alone. Three hours after his announcement, MPs from Puea Pandin held a press conference to deny that they had quit the coalition.

Once regarded as a candidate for prime minister - Suwit won much praise from the international media several years ago - nobody trusts him as he has repeatedly tried to mount his high horse.

This hasn't changed this time around.