No one denies his talent, experience and knowledge. After years of being a rising media star with Newsline, straight-talker “Pleum” has “finally” hit the big time with the popular morning news program Rueng Lao Chao Nee. Workaholic, funny dude, bigmouth or playboy—here’s the man in his own words.

Constitutions should be based on what will happen in the future, not the past. The new constitution was derived from a group of conservative people that intended to cut the potential growth of political parties. It aims at correcting some of the things that went wrong in the past 5-6 years.

Even if one or two million people protested against Thaksin, it does not justify the coup. There’s always a way to save the constitution if you want to save it.

Coup d’etats are a part of Thailand. I accept it as a reality of living in this country.

After the coup to topple Thaksin, the possibility of coups in the future will be even greater.

The role of a judge is to rule on cases, not to decide who becomes senator or who should sit on the National Broadcasting Commission.

The idea of a state religion in a time when we’re trying to make Thailand a country open to all religions is just ridiculous. I wouldn’t say this in Thai, though, because the protesters who want Buddhism to become the state religion would probably come after me. I can say it here because they won’t take the time to read this.

There’s a good balance now in the media. But there’s too much usage of the term “according to sources.” That’s the main problem: We need the media to focus on facts instead of rumors.

The media loves to report rape cases because there are lots of perverted people in Thailand who love to read about them. And the local newspapers serve it up like the main course. It’s sad and it’s kind of rewarding for the rapist in a way.

People like to ask me questions about girls, because I believe they want to see the reaction on my face, which is somehow funny to people. When I comment on a particular woman, it’s the same when I comment on a particular guy. I would comment on Kratae or Nun just like I’d comment on Ronaldo.

I actually comment about these people from the perspective of an outsider. I’m not interested in these people romantically, nor do I desire them sexually.

By the way, I’m straight. I like women.

Love could be a waste of time, theoretically, if you look at the potential productivity of a person. It actually blinds you from keeping your mind on work. When I have been in love, my career has pretty much gone down the tubes.

But love still has good things about it. It makes a family stay together. Otherwise people just have sex and go home. It makes a couple stay together, have kids and raise them. That’s a good thing: It serves a reproductive purpose in the longer term.

I don’t bother with love. I’ve been in love before and it never helped me with my career. It actually makes me more vulnerable.

The attention I suddenly drew after I joined Rueng Lao Chao Nee is funny. It’s funny because I’ve been in this industry for seven years.

This reflects two things. The values of the viewers—but I don’t want to comment on that because I don’t want to judge the viewers. And it reflects the ability of Channel 3 to draw viewers. It goes to show you that if television is to be successful, it has to be owned by a private company that that thinks about profits and revenues.