Have the security services at last learnt how to be effective?

Thailand's prime minister, Samak Sundaravej, is resisting pressure to resign just four months after taking power as MPs begin to debate a no-confidence motion in his leadership.

Politicians in the parliament's lower house are to vote on the measure on Tuesday after four weeks of street protests by Thais calling for the government to resign.

Sirichok Sopa, an executive of Thailand's Democrat party which filed the motion, told Al Jazeera the opposition party wanted to tell the Thai people that the government was mismanaging the economy.

"We're hoping the government will answer the questions with clarity," he said.

Critics accuse Samak of being a proxy of Thaksin Shinawatra, the former prime minister, who was removed from power in a 2006 coup amid allegations of corruption and abuse of power