Dec 24, 2007, 5:16 GMT
Bangkok - Samak Surndaravej, who is likely to become Thailand's next prime minister, is a politician with a colourful past and a history of changing principles.
Samak's People Power Party (PPP) won the most seats in Thailand's parliamentary election Sunday, making him the likeliest candidate to become the country's 25th premier.
Lacking an absolute majority, the PPP would need to put together a coalition government over the next few weeks before Samak, 72, could assume the premiership.
'I will definitely be the prime minister,' Samak bragged to a press conference Sunday night after an unofficial tally showed the PPP had won about 230 of the 480 contested seats.
Samak also chastised the Thai military for staging a September 19, 2006, coup that ousted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, Samak's political ally. 'The decision of the people is a good lesson,' he admonished the military.
Samak was not always so harsh on the armed forces.
During an October 6, 1976, military-led crackdown on students in Bangkok, Samak played a key role in stirring up a ring-wing frenzy against a purported communist plot to seize power that resulted in the massacre of hundreds of Thais and the return of military rule.
In the aftermath of the March 1992 general election, Samak and his Thai Citizens Party threw their support behind the appointment of General Suchinda Kraprayoon, the leader of a 1991 coup, as prime minister.
Suchinda's premiership sparked anti-military demonstrations in Bangkok that resulted in yet another bloodbath on the capital's streets.
Samak's recent transformation into a champion of democracy and staunch enemy of coups has understandably been greeted with some scepticism.
When confronted with his pro-military past in a recent television interview, Samak said, 'Principles can change with the situation. That was then, this is now.'
Samak is also well-known for his combative communication style, especially with the press.
In a notorious recent interview with the local press, Samak - when persistently pestered by one reporter on a sensitive political issue - countered, 'Did you have sinful sex last night?' leaving the roomful of journalists dumbfounded.
A bigger threat to his political credibility as a national leader is several pending corruption scandals, including an agreement to buy a fleet of unusually expensive firefighting trucks from an Austrian company when Samak was Bangkok governor from 2000 to 2004.
The purchase is still under investigation, and Samak's case is pending.
'The mobsters are back,' Kraisak Choonhavan, a rival politician in the Democrat Party, said of Samak's pending premiership. 'The next government is going to have an image problem, but the Thai people have asked for it.'
Political observers opined that the electoral victory of the PPP had a lot more to do with its promise to fight for the safe return of Thaksin to Thailand than with the popularity of Samak.
The PPP won only nine of the 36 contested seats in Bangkok, which can be seen as a comment on Samak's recent performance as Bangkok governor. The PPP's archrival, the Democrats, won the remaining 27 mandates.
After his stint as Bangkok governor, Samak had seemingly retired from politics and was devoting much of his time to hosting a popular television cooking show and taking care of his cats.
When popular opinion turned against Thaksin in 2006, Samak became a vocal defender of the embattled prime minister.
His loyalty to Thaksin reportedly earned Samak the PPP leadership. During his campaigning for Sunday's election, Samak had no qualms about calling himself a Thaksin 'nominee.'
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