MEDIA
After his weekly talk show yesterday, Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej played a game of hide-and-seek with reporters, lying low in a public toilet at a Bangkok food market.
But the journalists did not give up the hunt, and were on the scene when a visibly flustered prime minister emerged from the cubicle and lashed out at them.
After finishing his live Sonthana Prasa Samak talk show at the state-run NBT television channel on Phetchaburi road yesterday, Mr Samak declined to answer reporters' questions about his latest cabinet reshuffle and his upcoming trip to Si Sa Ket province.
As usual, he then went to the Or Tor Kor market of the Marketing Organisation for Farmers in Chatuchak district with a convoy of reporters following.
At the market, however, camera crews and journalists could not find Mr Samak. But some vendors let on on he was in a public toilet.
After 30 minutes elapsed, and his van and accompanying police car had left, reporters doubted Mr Samak was in any of the small, old and hot toilets. Male reporters approached to check and saw two bodyguards standing in front of the last toilet in the men's rooms.
After almost one hour, Mr Samak's black BMW arrived. Then Mr Samak emerged, looking frustrated.
He approached and stared the reporters down one by one before lashing out at them.
"I have never seen anyone as bad as these damned people. I have never seen such an awful thing. The prime minister was in the toilet and they were standing in his way, blocking him from exiting. Is this how their editors trained them?
"It's awful, it's shameful. Can't I have any privacy? Should I be filmed inside while emptying myself? They should be checked to see if they are insane. This is not human.
"I was sitting inside, as was my right. Who has a problem? I would like just to shop and go to the toilet, but they kept filming. Are you insane?
"Channel owners and editors won't air my two-hour Thai teaching programme, but they'll keep filming the prime minister going to the toilet."
Mr Samak's presence drew a crowd of vendors and shoppers.
Some agreed that the press were invading his privacy, but others said the press was duty-bound to cover the activities of a public figure.
The hide-and-seek game ended when Mr Samak left the market without buying anything.
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