Suranand denies rifts with other politicians close to PM

He dismissed media reports that he has been at odds with the outgoing secretary-general to the PM, Bantoon Supakvanit. Suranand said he had maintained good ties with Bantoon since serving under Thaksin Shinawatra as a Cabinet member overseeing the Budget Bureau, which then was headed by Bantoon.
“If you were to come to my office, you would find that Bantoon and I often discuss our work. We have no problems with each other,” Suranand said.
He also rejected as groundless recent reports that Khunying Sudarat Keyuraphan, a powerful figure in the ruling Pheu Thai Party, is unhappy with him and intends to prevent him being appointed to the Cabinet after a five-year political ban against him ends in May.
“Those reports are an attempt to cause a split [between myself and Sudarat]. They are untrue,” Suranand said. However, he added that he saw no need to ask Sudarat about the matter. “I believe the reports are not true.”
Suranand declined to comment on the possibility of his being appointed to the Cabinet after the political ban ends.
“That is three months away. In Thai politics, changes can happen in a week, so three months is too long for you to say anything with certainty. Nobody knows the future,” he said.
Suranand is one of 111 former executives of the disbanded Thai Rak Thai party who were stripped by a court in May 2007 of the right to participate in politics for five years. The ruling came as Thai Rak Thai was dissolved for electoral fraud.
A Prime Minister’s Office minister in the Thaksin government before the 2006 coup, Suranand said yesterday that during last year’s flood crisis, he volunteered to work for Yingluck.
“I told the prime minister in the beginning that I would volunteer to work for her, with no desire for any position – before or after May 2012. I want to work to fill the gap. If I can be replaced someday, I will go back to work as a TV host,” he said.
Suranand also denied being influenced in his work by members of Yingluck’s family.
“I only receive orders from the prime minister,” he said.