Thailand Prime Minister Broke the Law by Hosting Cooking Show, Court Rules

International Law

Thailand Prime Minister Broke the Law by Hosting Cooking Show, Court Rules

Posted Sep 9, 2008, 07:55 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

Thailand's Constitutional Court has ruled that the country’s prime minister broke the law by hosting a cooking show.

The court ordered Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej to resign because he had broken a law barring cabinet ministers from working for private companies, the International Herald Tribune reports. His party said Samak would be nominated to succeed himself when Parliament votes for a new leader on Friday.

Anti-government protesters have blocked Samak’s office for the past two weeks. Opponents say he is a puppet of a premier ousted by the Army in a 2006 coup and charged in several corruption cases, report Reuters and the New York Times. Samak had ordered the arrest of nine protest leaders but the military did not obey.

The New York Times identifies the cooking show as Tasting and Complaining, while Reuters interprets the name as Tasting, Grumbling.

“A hardened and sharp-tongued politician of 73, Mr. Samak has shown a folksy side on his televised cooking show, stirring up personal recipes and sounding off on topics that catch his interest,” the Times story says.

Samak contends he got paid from time to time to appear on the show but was not an employee. He says the case was politically motivated.

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