Published on Oct 31, 2007

The surname of Sakolthee Phattiyakul, who has been tipped to join the Democrat Party, has struck a chord with some people.

Party deputy spokesman Sathit Pitutecha's remarks that Sakolthee is just a man who is not swayed by money may not convince a lot of people.

People persist in believing that the eldest son of Defence permanent secretary Winai Phattiyakul plans to enter politics to prolong the military's influence in the Thai political sphere.

Maybe a gossipy lizard living at the Democrat Party headquarters might be able to stop such talk with the following whispered rumour: Winai had nothing to do with his son's plan to join the party.

Instead, the club of Buddha-image collectors that Sakolthee belongs to urged him to toss his hat in the ring. Thana Cheeravinij, former chairman of the Bangkok Metropolitan Council, is part of the same circle of collectors and it was he who first extended the invitation to Sakolthee.

The lizard continues that Sakolthee might have forgotten the invitation if Thana had not asked him again three or four months ago.

After thinking the issue over, Sakolthee decided to tell his father a couple of months after that.

The only thing the father asked was which party his son wanted to join.

The lizard went on that Sakolthee, who graduated from law school in the United States, wants to transform himself from being a practitioner of law at the Ministry of Justice to become a legislator in Parliament.

Given his relatively young age, an MP post could just be the beginning of him contributing more.