A lot of eyebrows might have been raised when Thaksin declared a few weeks earlier that he was ending his self-imposed "political break". Nobody was quite sure as to what the mercurial Thai Rak Thai leader was up to. Was his return merely meant to be a morale booster for the rank-and-file of the ruling party preparing for the general election or a signal that he was here to stay?

But any doubts about Thaksin's political agenda should have been dispelled by his stern and provocative address at Government House last week and his sudden decision to return to the airwaves. The caretaker prime minister was sending out an unmistakable message that he was on the warpath.

 His enemies? Anyone opposed to him and his Thai Rak Thai. His goal? To stay in power at any cost even if that means having to defy whatever power that gets in his way.

Even though Thaksin didn't identify that "charismatic person", it was amply clear whom he was referring to. And it's probably who that person represents that is more important.

Why Thaksin chose to display his political bravado at this juncture and direct it at this particular person - someone of immense clout - is particularly revealing.

Are his own delusions driving him to fight an imagined foe? Or is it simply an act of desperation in the face of mounting pressure from all sides? It was no coincidence that the audience chosen by Thaksin to hear his message comprised heads of government agencies at all levels. These are the people who are instrumental in implementing the government's policies but who have been half-hearted in taking orders from politicians because of the prolonged political uncertainty.

Thaksin might have felt "betrayed" by what he perceived to be a shift in their loyalties because of the political vacuum. Rumours that Thaksin had been abandoned by all major institutions following HM the King's address to the country's top judges - that led to the April-2 election being declared null and void - certainly were not lost on the bureaucrats.

Thaksin apparently wanted to remind the bureaucrats that, as caretaker prime minister, he was still their boss and he wanted their unwavering loyalty. Thaksin's decision to resume his weekly radio talk show was also timed to coincide with his political resurgence. The "Prime Minister Talks to the People" programme is probably one of his most effective public relations tools. The Public Relations Department has made it mandatory for all of its radio stations nationwide, along with its television arm Channel 11, to broadcast the programme live. And there is no escape from Thaksin's morning call for people in most provinces where public loud speakers blare out his voice every Saturday morning.

For almost five years prior to his brief political hiatus Thaksin not only used the radio programme to propagate his achievements and exhort his supporters but also to hit back at his critics, sometimes making unsubstantiated charges against them. As opposition to his leadership snowballed in the aftermath of his family's sale of Shin Corp's shares to Temasek of Singapore, Thaksin unashamedly turned the weekly radio programme into a forum for a hate campaign against his opponents.

There are definitely reasons to fear that Thaksin will once again use the airwaves to rally his supporters against the forces that seek to overthrow him. The People's Alliance for Democracy, which encompasses all major anti-Thaksin movements, is already making plans to bring tens of thousands of its supporters back to the streets to pressure Thaksin to quit.

Some of the staunchly pro-Thaksin groups, including the "Caravan of the Poor" whose members besieged The Nation office for eight hours in March of this year, have already started mobilising their supporters for a showdown with Thaksin critics. One of their leaders has threatened to confront the Constitution Court in the event that the Thai Rak Thai Party is dissolved for bribing smaller parties to run in the April 2 election.

Aided by some members of Thaksin's inner circle, they have also taken to the airwaves, including several community radio stations and a major cable channel, to spread pro-Thaksin messages and launch counterattacks against his detractors. All of these developments only demonstrate that Thaksin is not flexing his political muscles on the spur of the moment or in a vacuum. Portraying himself as a "guardian of democracy", Thaksin said last week that his was a fight to safeguard the country's democratic system which he claimed was being threatened by "extra-constitutional forces".

Once again, Thaksin has lived up to his reputation as a man of contradictions.

It was only a few weeks ago that he uttered "I have had enough", when asked by reporters about his promise to take a leave from politics. But now he is back in the saddle with a vengeance and his lieutenants are dismissing any notion that their boss would walk away after the next election. Then he went on to preach about political unity and appealed to all sides to bury their differences to help democracy survive, only to see his party members and supporters beating the war drum a few days later. Two days after declaring war on the alleged "extra-constitutional forces", last week, Thaksin called for "national reconciliation".

And for all his rhetoric about patriotism and democracy and adherence to HM the King's appeal for unity, Thaksin is now setting the stage for what many fear will be a violent confrontation. And he is giving every impression that he doesn't care what the consequence will be. For Thaksin, everything else is secondary to his political survival.

 Thepchai Yong