"I am confident, more than 100%, that I will become the prime minister, " Chavalit declared.
Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh had reversed a Thanong-backed cabinet decision to increase oil taxes.
The next day several thousand demonstrators gathered in Bangkok's financial district to demand that General Chavalit go.
Chatichai denies he is breathing down Chavalit's neck, and insists he merely wants to lend urgency to the crisis.
They are also fed up with General Chavalit, but for the opposite reason to the protesters in the street.
Recognising this, General Chavalit has said that the coalition will vote in favour.
General Chavalit was forced to turn to outsiders whose lack of political clout undermined their ability to carry out even sensible policies.
Chavalit could be questioned, lambasted -- and subjected to a no-confidence vote.
General Chavalit's worry is the leader of the second largest, Chatichai Choonhavan.
So what if it was the fourth in five years: there was no way he was going to help Chavalit get his dream.
He spoke with Asiaweek in late July, when the central Bank of Thailand governor quit and Chavalit fired a highly respected Finance Ministry official.
In the vacuum that followed Chavalit Yongchaiyudh's exit as Thailand's prime minister, the rush to become his successor was at times unseemly, even farcical.
Exasperation with the previous administration of Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, who resigned on November 6th, had become cause as well as consequence of Thailand's economic foundering.
But Thailand's new Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh has said he will visit Myanmar soon to explain the importance of adjusting to the changing world.
If Chavalit feels robbed, the rest of the country is cheering.
Thai markets welcomed the resignation of the prime minister, Chavalit Yongchaiyudh.
Former PM Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, himself a onetime army chief, grumbles that civilians cannot possibly understand the workings of the military - a not-so-veiled criticism of his successor Chuan.
Respected technocrats are understandably wary of signing up, and General Chavalit governs through a fractious coalition of six parties, whose interests all have to be taken into account.
Not that Chavalit is short of conflict within his coalition.
Taking over at the end of 1997 after the inept administration of Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, Chuan's government quickly moved to stabilize the economy and arrest the freefall of the Thai baht.
The CEOs wanted the Chavalit administration, the opposition and key economic bodies "to work together because the problem has now become critical, " as Sawat Horrungruang, chairman of Nakorn Strip Mill, says.
Many of those who could become targets held posts in General Chavalit's government before he was obliged to resign in 1997, after the Thai baht was devalued and Asia's problems began.
Recently, the head of that 1991 putsch, retired general Sunthorn Kongsompong, remarked that if the PM were someone other than former army chief Chavalit, the military might have seized power by now.
Within hours, as casualties streamed into hospitals, the deputy prime minister, Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, a former general and prime minister who had recently joined the government to mediate with the PAD, resigned to take responsibility for the disorder.
The pronouncement was only slightly less emphatic than the pledge by Thai Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, who had vowed on television to prop up Thailand's baht lest Thais "all become poor" -- then allowed the currency to float on July 2.
But they may be having second thoughts now that Chavalit has rescinded the gasoline levy -- that tax and new surcharges on luxury goods were meant to help Thailand meet its commitment to the IMF for a budget surplus of 1% of 1998 GDP.
Narongchai himself tendered his resignation in late June, along with then deputy PM and finance minister Amnuay Viravan. (It was Amnuay who brought businessman-economist Narongchai into the cabinet.) Chavalit asked Narongchai to stay, but let Amnuay go amid disputes over economic policy, replacing him with Thanong Bidaya, a banker with little political clout.
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