Perhaps it was a good job that Supachai did not stand in Thailand's January elections, saying he wanted to devote all of his time to preparing to take over at the WTO.
He thus avoided the defeat that wiped out the government of Chuan Leekpai, in which Supachai was deputy prime minister and economic overlord. But he admits that one of the reasons for the government's defeat at the hands of Thaksin Shinawatra's Thai Rak Thai (Thais love Thais) party was the nasty economic medicine the outgoing government had administered after the 1997 financial crisis.
"Some voters told me bluntly, 'Supachai, you are traitors because you sold the country to foreigners.' But when you argue with them and reason and ask what we have done that other parties would not have done, they respond: 'We are bored with you; we need new faces.' "