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Toyota Motor Thailand is cutting its workforce to cope with lower demand and Thai Summit Group, a leading Thai auto-parts maker which expects a 30 per cent drop in orders next year, is following suit.

Today, when reporters meet executives of automakers or parts makers, the first question inevitably turns to a possible job cut or a reduction in production capacity.

Consequently, reporters who attended Thai Summit's event on Tuesday were surprised with the first sentence uttered by the company's president Somporn Juangroongruangkit.

Rather than normal greetings or complaints about company business, she said: "I am present today to participate in the group's launch of the electric car. For our mutual understanding, I'm neither leftist nor rightist."

What did she mean by "leftist" and "rightist"? According to the dictionary, the Left is applied to a wide variety of views endorsing liberal or radical causes. The Right is applied to a variety of political positions associated with conservative positions.

As these are political terms, the only suitable explanation for Somporn's statement is that it must involve political wrangling. It's known that the Pheu Thai Party was struggling to lead the new government formation and Pheu Thai's majority members were members of the defunct People Power Party, which was given birth by the defunct Thai Rak Thai Party.

Somporn is the sister-in-law of former industry minister Suriya Jungrung-reangkit, a key member of Thai Rak Thai. Certainly, at the Tuesday event, she must have tried to distance herself from the political mess.

She also proved that she wasn't taking anybody's side.

As the chance to interview her was rare, a reporter asked her for an exclusive interview. But another was enraged, saying that it was unfair. Both nearly got into a fight.

Somporn presented herself as the referee. She raised her hands and told them to stop quarrelling.

"As I said, there must not be "left" or "right" here," she said in stern voice.

Indeed, she proved that at her age, she knows well that taking sides would not help lessen the economic impact on her business.