To recap the party's history we have to go back to its formation in 1998 after the Asian financial crisis of 1997. Government campaigns for Thai people to buy Thai products to ease a foreign-debt crisis were popular at the time.

One of the most remembered campaigns was called "Thai Chuay Thai" (Thai Help Thai), which used print and television advertising to promote locally made goods.

One of the ads featured a picture of a wine-bottle cork popping with haemorrhaging blood. The ad conveyed a message encouraging the purchase of domestic goods to curb trade deficits and propel a sense of nationalism.

It was said then Thaksin Shinawatra planned to form a new party and was considering naming it after the "Thai Chuay Thai" campaign because of its huge popularity.

The name was altered a bit but was still inspired by the campaign. The new party was formed on July 14, 1998 under the name Thai Rak Thai (Thai Love Thai). Its campaigning rode on a wave of rising nationalism.

Thai Rak Thai's campaigning promoted nationalism as an alternative for unhappy voters, who had suffered under the Democrat-led government's austerity policies prescribed by the International Monetary Fund.

Some Thai Rak Thai candidates in the 2001 election branded the laws passed by the government to solve financial problems as "national sell-out laws".

It was not surprising to see the Thai Rak Thai fortunes start to wane after Thaksin sold a majority stake of his Shin Corp empire to Singapore's Temasek Holdings.

We are not saying the sale was wrong. In fact, the sale made perfect business sense with a backdrop of globalisation. But it was a departure from the party's original spirit.

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. But this may not be the case for a political party where its name is not just a title.

Jeerawat@nationgroup.com