Thaksin suggested that this influential public figure had been behind ongoing political disturbances that threatened to plunge the country into chaos in order to provide a pretext to oust him from power and set up a new caretaker government to prepare for the next election. The prime minister refused to name names but it was generally understood that he was referring to former prime minister Prem Tinsulanonda, who is president of the Privy Council.

Over the five and a half years since Thaksin came to power, Prem has on several occasions made oblique criticisms of Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai Party-led government - widely seen to be corrupt and anti-democratic - in his occasional public speeches and lectures to promote good governance and transparency in government processes. The chief privy councillor has made an anti-corruption campaign one of his key missions.

But it was obvious that Thaksin was also blaming Prem for the precipitous drop in his popularity among the politically-powerful middle class, civil society and even among rank-and-file state bureaucrats who were disgusted with the prime minister's blatant conflicts of interest and authoritarian tendencies. It is likely that Thaksin even suspects Prem of influencing the recent high-profile defection of his trusted legal advisers, former deputy prime minister Wissanu Krea-ngam and former Cabinet secretary-general Bowornsak Uwanno.

Apparently in a fit of paranoia, Thaksin is now blaming everybody else for the reversal of his fortune from the most popular political leader to a much-reviled caretaker prime minister. He is now counting on his traditional supporters in the countryside, who number in the millions, to rally to his defence. His conspiracy theory was designed to create divisiveness between the urban middle class and the rural masses. Suddenly the political temperature, which had largely stabilised over the past month as anti-Thaksin protesters called off their campaign to show respect for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of His Majesty the King's accession to the throne, has begun to heat up again. Thaksin's opportunistic action - at a time when the deeply polarised society is awaiting rulings from the Constitution Court and Supreme Court that could potentially solve the drawn-out political crisis - also gives the lie to his self-portrayed image as a "democratic leader who plays by the rules".

Let's not forget how political tensions nearly reached the boiling point the last time thousands of Thaksin supporters were trucked into Bangkok while thousands who were against Thaksin held their own peaceful protest in another corner of the capital.

The Constitution Court will decide whether to punish Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai Party for electoral fraud after the Election Commission found that certain party executives had hired obscure political parties to contest in constituencies where Thai Rak Thai candidates would otherwise run unchallenged. The alleged bankrolling was done to get around the electoral requirement that unchallenged candidates must garner at least 20 per cent of all available votes. The Supreme Court has been asked to decide whether the Election Commission, widely seen as biased in favour of the Thai Rak Thai Party, is guilty as charged.

Instead of showing the Constitution Court and the Supreme Court due respect and awaiting their respective rulings, Thaksin opted to raise the stakes in an apparent attempt to influence the courts' decisions. Thaksin has been accused of many sinister crimes and improprieties but if what he is doing turns out to be a premeditated plot to instigate political violence, he will lose the last shred of legitimacy as a political leader and dire consequences will result.