Opposition MP Malinee Sukavejworakit, a physician-turned-politician, seriously believes that PM Samak Sundaravej should take a rest from the pressure of work (such as calling it quits) - because she is concerned about some of the premier's bizarre behaviour.

In her controversial, no-nonsense statement in the no-confidence debate last week, Dr Malinee said she had detected a worrisome lack of "maturity" in the prime minister's attitude towards others, especially those who don't quite agree with his political thinking.

Malinee debates against Samak during the censure showdown last week.

Of course, the premier was furious. (And that's not even part of the "unusual and immature" behaviour).

"I am fine," he retorted. "I have not made any mistakes in my judgement in the four months I have been in office. You are a medical doctor and you have violated your professional ethics by diagnosing a patient's records in public…."

Perhaps to confirm that all his mental faculties are still intact, Samak, in his weekly TV monologue on Sunday, publicly asked the Medical Council to consider whether the good doctor's licence should be revoked.

Dr Malinee countered that she wasn't offering a diagnosis in the House. She was only offering her observations about the leader's "not-so-normal" attitude and that he should consider a check-up.

I find it strange, in fact, that both the premier and the opposition MP didn't find the exchange hilarious - while anyone following that particular part of the televised censure debate would have been hugely amused.

But only two days after the end of the censure debate, it suddenly dawned on me that perhaps our leader's state of mind isn't that normal after all. That realisation occurred when I heard Samak, in the last part of his talk show, deliver a statement that any mentally stable person would find, to put it mildly, extremely absurd.

That this premier cannot tolerate a free and critical press is no secret. But when he said he wasn't going to reshuffle the Cabinet after the debate "because I want the press to lose face", I was convinced that perhaps Dr Malinee wasn't pulling Samak's leg when she raised the question about his disturbingly low Emotional Quotient in the House debate.

Samak was apparently mad when he read headlines in the papers the morning after the debate quoting some coalition partners calling for a Cabinet reshuffle to weed out ministers who had performed poorly under the opposition's grilling. They weren't even demanding the premier's own ouster - which wasn't even as remote a possibility as Samak himself thought.

But the premier was outraged all the same. He should have hit out at his own coalition partners, of course. He should, in fact, have held quiet talks with the coalition party leaders. But he decided that it was another conspiracy by newspaper reporters and editors to put pressure on him to kick out some of the ministers.

"I am not going to be dictated to by newspaper headlines," he thundered on TV, his face turning red and ferocious. "Go ahead and make predictions. But I won't do what the papers say I will. I am going to make the media lose face on this issue…."

For a moment, I froze. It's scary indeed when the country's chief executive decides to do or not do something of national importance just to prove the papers wrong.

Would the prime minister go to such an extent to pursue a personal vendetta against what he perceives to be his arch-rival?

Of course, Samak could have simply dismissed the press reports as "baseless" or "ludicrous" or - a phrase he has made a common theme - "a dirty trick to undermine my premiership". And the papers would have dutifully quoted him verbatim.

There is no doubt that he will be put under great pressure by his coalition partners and even by his own People Power Party to replace some of the Cabinet members who have failed miserably in both their performance and the no-confidence debate. Samak knows he can only resist up to a point - and his battle-hardened political instinct will confirm that.

But he is now bent on discrediting the press - and even finds masochistic gratification in proving the front-page headlines wrong. 

When the country's prime minister turns his whole political decision-making process into an obsession with revenge against the media, you know that the public interest isn't anywhere near the top of his list of priorities.

Perhaps Dr Malinee, the opposition MP, wasn't just teasing the premier about her concern for his urgent need for a psychiatric check-up after all.