Thailand Prime Minister: 'I Will Not Resign'

BANGKOK, Thailand Sept. 5, 2008 — -- After his security detail sweeps the building, Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej is ushered through a back entrance and enters the interview room alone.

Outside, protesters call on Samak to resign, and they refuse to leave the grounds of the Government House, the equivalent of the White House, which they have occupied for more than a week.

Samak, who says he has only been in office for seven months and has the right to stay for four years, refuses to resign.

"I will not resign. No reason, groundless," Samak tells ABC News. "A group of people stage a rally on the street and finger-point that the prime minister must resign. You are kidding. You will destroy the monarch."

Demonstrators accuse Samak of corruption and of being a puppet of exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, accusations Samak dismisses. The protestors call themselves the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), although what they are seeking is less democracy, in fighting for more appointed positions rather than elected ones.

"I must stay to keep the country in a good shape and to protect the law and order, and to keep the system of the country," says Samak, who was educated in the United States.

"Now they say that they won," Samak says. "We ask, won [what]? These group of people, they [rouse] the people, and they are just like a cult, like in America," the 73-year-old says, making a comparison to the David Koresh congregation raided by federal agents in Waco, Texas, in 1993. "Everybody believes without reason."

Thailand plans to hold a national referendum to address the political turmoil, though details of what this will entail are not yet known.

Earlier this week, pro- and anti-government protests led to violence, and three people were killed, according to Samak. Video of the violence, which included people kicking and beating others with sticks, was broadcast around the world.

The military and riot police were immediately brought in to handle the situation. The police have made a point of being unarmed.

"This time the military knows [how] they should perform," says Samak, referring to examples in the past when the use of force has backfired.