Candidates offer to share joint chairmanship of the FTI

In a first for the FTI, they said they would apply to run in the election as one team in a bid to forge unity and strength for the industrial sector. That leaves two "candidates" at this time for the election to be held next March.

The other is Payungsak Chartsutipol, an FTI vice chairman and a senior executive of Siam United Steel.

If they win, Suraporn and Adisak will serve as chairman for two years each. Traditionally, the FTI chairman is elected for a two-year term, which is automatically extended for two more years.

Suraporn, who is the president of Kulthorn Kirby and honorary chairman of FTI's electronics and electrical industry club, said they had decided to cooperate because they have the same objectives, which are to reduce the disunity in the FTI's membership and work creatively together for the good of the country.

"This will be a new dimension combining the experiences of two well-known executives to develop the country's industrial competitiveness. We agree to urgently help the manufacturers that were hit by the economic crisis by coordinating with the government on loans and foreign exchange, including solving the conflict between local communities and industry," he said.

The first term would be his and the second term Adisak's, he said.

Adisak, an FTI vice chairman and senior vice president of Asian Honda Motor, said they would talk and invite Payungsak to join their team soon.

The position is not that important as long as everyone has the same goal to dissipate the current disunity and enhance industrial competitiveness, he said.

"We are willing if another candidate [Payungsak] wants to join us. In case he refuses, we are ready to compete with him in a creative way. I'd like to see this election go the same way as the election between Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton," he said.

"Everywhere is involved with politics. But don't forget that politics has both good and bad sides. If politics makes us better, that'll be ok. On the other hand, if it worsens everything, that kind of politics should not be accepted," Adisak said when asked by the press about a politician's back-up.

FTI chairman Santi Vilassakdanont, who supports Payungsak as his successor, said he did not want to see the FTI's chairman helped by politicians.

"We [the private sector] should be able to stand alone and consider the country's benefit as the priority. Many politicians try to take us over, but it's not right to allow that," he said.