What he intends is an all-out attempt to intensify his negative campaign against the Surayud government and regain the power to rule with his awesome war chest.

Ousted by the military coup on September 19 and grudgingly accepting a forced exile after more than five years as prime minister amidst massive corruption, abuse of power, cronyism and other misdeeds, Thaksin no longer wants to take it sitting down.

Thaksin's assertion - also recently made by his sister - that he had decided to wash his hands of politics should not be taken seriously, and underscored again that he is not a man of his word.

He intends to fight the ongoing investigations into his family's multibillion-baht business deals, tax fraud and questionable transactions. Caught in the dragnet are his wife, son and daughter, his brother-in-law and sister.

The investigations could eventually focus on more members of the Shinawatra clan in addition to political cronies and civil servants who were partners in crime in the extensive corruption network.

His back to the wall, obviously, Thaksin wants to use his massive wealth to regain freedom for all of the accused and cause more political troubles for the Surayud government and its guardian, the Council for National Security (CNS) comprising top officers of the armed forces and police.

Thaksin's wings were clipped when his diplomatic passport was nullified by the Foreign Ministry, making his travels more difficult without certain privileges. From January 25, he will have to jet around as an ordinary man, yet still unable to return home.

His refusal to call it quits was made clear when he hired a US-based public relations company, and a well-recognised lobbyist firm with a lot of clout and strong connections within the American political establishment.

It is not difficult to understand that Thaksin wants the power and influence of PR and lobbyist firms to campaign hard to restore his name and make sure that the Thai government and the military junta look bad, if not worse.

Let's accept as fact that Thaksin intends to stop at nothing to spare family members and cronies from the wheels of justice and karma, never mind the consequences of his well-funded propaganda machine on the entire country.

Thaksin does not enjoy his status in political exile despite his immense wealth, which can enable him to have a princely lifestyle with all the luxuries money can buy. The disgrace in being accused of corruption and other misdeeds is getting unbearable. Yet there is even more.

The Surayud government is being pressed to quickly ratify the Rome Convention so that Thaksin could possibly be brought to the International Criminal Court for his role in the war against narcotics that claimed hundreds of lives in extrajudicial killings, other macabre violent events in the South, abuses of human rights, and what not.

If this becomes reality, he could be treated as a pariah in the West, which abhors such practices. This is a means to counter his PR campaigns and bad-mouthing of the government with disregard for the negative impact on the country's status in the international community.

The government could also launch extensive publicity through the state-owned media network for the rural grassroots to know what happened during the Thaksin years that led to the months of rallies and street demonstrations against corruption and other wrongdoing before the military coup.

So far, Western countries look only at how Thaksin was ousted from power, without considering what severe structural damage was done to the country, including the sale of business interests with vital significance to national security.

The government must assure the people, as well as the international community, that it intends to make good its promise to restore democracy with a better constitution and organise a general election for the people to decide their own future.

But that should come after political reforms and appropriate ground rules, measures and mechanisms to prevent big-money politics and ways for politicians to enrich themselves through abuse of power and betrayal of public trust.

That could make the recent coup the last one in our political development.

 Sopon Onkgara