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Published on December 7, 2007

How confident are you that the People Power Party will win the majority of votes in the election?

Since we have about three weeks left before the election on December 23 we now think the campaigning is becoming quite dynamic. Many things can change, so we have to wait and don't do anything - especially in Bangkok as voters are hard to predict. We think we should try to campaign efficiently and just tell people about our policies and ask people to vote for us.

If you ask me at this time I will say we still don't really know what the outcome will be on election day but we will perform as best as we can.

Do you think your party has a chance to form the next government?

It's up to the people to decide. If people give me the most seats in Parliament we may discuss with other parties the formation of a government. But at this point we still haven't had any discussion with any parties yet. Now we are just focusing on the campaign.

We have had no time to discuss or form any alliances, because we think it's not fair to the country and the people if we tried to form an alliance before the people have made their decision.

Will your leader Samak Sundaravej be the prime minister? How do you defend criticism over Samak's change of principles?

I think it's a normal practice and the rule of democracy. If the party who wins the most votes can form the government the leader of the party should be the PM. And this time is no exception.

Samak has proved for a long time that he does and speaks everything according to what he thinks. Samak may have had some principles in his past, but today he wants to restore democracy. I don't think it's strange. This time he has come out and said he doesn't want another coup d'etat - and he wants to try to reconstruct democracy in Thailand. This is a very important standpoint.

If our party is accepted by the people on election day then he is the most appropriate person to be the PM.

As the No 2 of your party, what do you think about the rumour that you may become the PM if Samak faces a legal lawsuit in the fire-trucks procurement scandal?

I don't know what this means. Do these people have good or bad intentions for me?

What are the most important things to deal with if your party wins the election?

The main concern of ours is about the reconciliation of all the people in the country, because if we don't have real reconciliation we cannot gain any trust from inside or outside. We cannot move on from this point.

If we want to solve the economic crisis we have to create trust among the people that the economy will recover and we should try to gain the trust of foreign investors. So the first thing we should do is try to join hands with everyone. We are ready to invite all people to solve the crisis. Please don't fear revenge or retaliation. Many people think if the PPP gets into power we will retaliate against the people who were involved in the coup, but we say that we should not have any special task force or special mission. We will try to do everything according to the rule of law.

Is it possible to form a national government?

I think in a modern democracy we should have a government and an opposition because it's good for the auditing system of government services. If we have a national government, who will try to investigate us? I still believe we should have a good government and an efficient opposition. That will create sustainable democracy in this country.

Is "bring Thaksin back home" your main party message to voters?

The policies that we have raised in this campaign concern the nation, the people

and about how we can recover from the political and economics crisis.

The "Thaksin" issue is not the main concern of our party. Thaksin can come back to Thailand if the political system returns to democracy. I think he has the right to come back and defend himself in the judicial system.

Thaksin will come back when our country is back to democracy.  Thaksin has good vision and experience in economic development and international affairs. If we have a chance we would like hear his suggestions. If the PPP can form the government we will ask him to help us. What we are concerned about now are the problems faced by the people and the nation. We will focus on how best we can use all our efforts and how can we gain the trust and confidence from people inside and outside the country.

Are activities such as establishing a website or a club to support Thaksin, or signing Thai national footballers to Manchester City Football Club part of your election campaign?

If people think we are behind those (activities) I would say they are making a wrong evaluation. Thaksin still has many fans. We don't even know some groups.

Some of them have created better strategies than us. We try to distance ourselves from them. We even tell the 111 banned executives of the defunct Thai Rak Thai Party to please not do anything that would get the PPP dissolved.

Have you conducted a recent poll? What was the result?

We have conducted some polls, but unfortunately I cannot reveal the result because we would like to keep the outcome to improve ourselves before election day. We are confident and we will try to learn from the poll what we should do and the areas we should focus on.

Can you tell how wide the gap is between your party and your arch rival (the Democrat Party)?

I'm sorry I cannot reveal anything. But I can say that in this election the first and the second parties will have some gap - you will not see a very close race in this election. The gap is more than 10 seats for sure.

Jintana Panyaarvudh

Sucheera Pinijparakarn

The Nation

* Watch the interview with Surapong on the special election page @ nationmultimedia.com