In Bangkok
HIS critics complain he got the premiership through the back door. But last Wednesday in my capacity as President of the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand, I saw him make a real backdoor entrance of a different kind.
I had to welcome newly-installed Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva for dinner with some 500 guests – including most of Bangkok's foreign media, and many from the diplomatic, business and NGO communities.
Around 30 protestors had gathered at the front steps of the Intercontinental Hotel where the event was being held. They were polite, but were armed with eggs which they intended to throw at the Prime Minister. I was told to stand by because the Prime Minister's security would change his entry route at the last second.
Eventually I was led into the bowels of the hotel, right down to the service entrance. This is where the food supplies for the day arrive early every morning, and are inspected and sorted before being sent to the kitchens. At that late hour though, it was the garbage that was being taken away.
The security men hurriedly cleared the area. A garbage bag hanging out of the back of a truck was stuffed into it to keep it out of sight. Within seconds motorcycle outriders swept in followed by a car which disgorged the Prime Minister accompanied by Chulalongkorn University professor of political science Panitan Wattanayagorn, who is his acting spokesman.
As we made our way into the hotel building we passed the kitchen where the food for our own dinner was laid out in rows. The Prime Minister got a sneak preview. We then went up in the service lift, and I quipped that this was a first for me – being in a tradesman's lift shoulder to shoulder with a Prime Minister. With us were only professor Panitan, the General Manager of the hotel, and a couple of Mr Abhisit's bodyguards.
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit had to avoid protesters at the front entrance of the Intercontinental Hotel.
SOURCE: AFP (File Photo)
Upstairs the ballroom was packed, with a long queue still waiting to get in. Security was quite tight. My colleagues on the FCCT's executive committee, and I, sat and chatted with Mr Abhisit for a while in a holding room, where he had a glass of water, and we took a group photo before making our way to the ballroom.
The conversation at the table of 10 including nine journalists, was a lively one.
We talked about his football club Newcastle United, whose supporters were apparently delighted when he became prime minister. I asked Mr Abhisit where finance minister Korn Chatikavanij was, and he showed me a text message from him saying he had just had a root canal and would be late.
Mr Abhisit told us about the hate calls he had received on his mobile phone for the first couple of days after he was voted into the premiership. Many were just a barrage of swear words, and often he would just hang up. But when he spoke to the more moderate ones, trying to engage them, they seemed to calm down and listen to him, he said.
He is sticking to the same mobile phone he used when he was opposition leader – which means many of us foreign correspondents have. That is quite unusual; most politicians on assuming positions of importance ditch their old numbers. Mr Abhisit, however, remains relatively accessible. He has also rejected recommendations that he should move around in a bullet proof vehicle – and in his speech at the dinner apologized for the tight security.
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit said he is a fan of British pop band Oasis and rock band Metallica. SOURCE: AFP
Mr Abhisit likes music, and we asked him – at the table and later in the open forum – what he has been listening to lately.
His commended the comeback albums of Oasis, Metallica and Guns n Roses, and also mentioned The Killers and Arctic Monkeys.
After the event I saw him off at a side entrance, again avoiding the protestors who were gathered hopefully at the main door. But this time, the prime minister just hopped into an ordinary police car and sped off.