Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra displays a picture of Their Majesties the King and the Queen during a speech given before a gathering of high-ranking bureaucrats at Government House yesterday.

The once popular weekly radio show, "Prime Minister Thaksin Talks to the People", will be back on air tomorrow morning. The caretaker premier will host the programme for the first time since he quit in late February after the House dissolution.

But don't expect bouquets from Thaksin Shinawatra, however, for he is expected to lash out at those opponents who have tried everything possible to get him removed permanently from the political arena.

His return to the airwaves is raising very real concerns that a new confrontation is imminent.

Thaksin is apparently ready to send a message that he is now in full recovery mode after the exhausting struggle to survive Thailand's political crisis

which nearly cost him the premiership.

While some people are still seeking a "royally-sponsored Cabinet" to replace his caretaker administration, they have failed to notice that Thaksin has gradually regained the composure that saw him through five years of government.

Since returning from his seven-week leave from office last month, he has resisted getting involved in any incidents that would have resulted in political clashes.

While the Democrats and other anti-government groups have tried to unseat him, claiming his decision to take leave invalidated his right to be prime minister, Thaksin has paid them no attention.

He has kept silent on political issues, only responding to the press on administrative affairs.

Thaksin has been chairing meetings of the Cabinet, provincial governors and senior government officials, acting like he was an elected PM who has full administrative power and that the House dissolution never happened.

With his return to the radio show, it has given the Democrats and the People's Alliance for Democracy a chance to recall how he exploited his air-time to attack his opponents while putting a favourable spin on his Thai Rak Thai Party's schemes.

Less than four months before the October 15 election - if it takes place - Thaksin appears to be set to gain an advantage over his rival parties by using the radio show once again to communicate directly with "his people", as he has done for several years.

The show's re-launching comes hard on the heels of the Office of the Attorney General's (OAG) decision to ask the Constitution Court to dissolve Thai Rak Thai and the Democrats, along with three minor parties.

Thaksin was criticised for "improperly" summoning Attorney-General Pachara Yutithamdamrong on the eve of the landmark decision by public prosecutors that could lead to the ruling party's dissolution.

Then overnight, the Democrat Party awoke to the shock that the OAG had made it a co-defendant with an accusation of attempting to "topple democracy", although Thai Rak Thai was supposed to be the prosecutors' only defendant. The Democrats allege the Thaksin-Pachara meeting resulted in this "unfair" resolution.

As the two main parties sit on the brink of dissolution and calls for the resignation of Thaksin and the three remaining election commissioners continue to resound around the country, tensions are rising inexorably again after a short break for the 60th anniversary of His Majesty the King's accession to the throne.

Thaksin's return to radio seems timed to clash with the anti-government movement's plans to stage a new round of mass protests next month.

Thaksin is now on the way back even as his opponents try to block his path.

The drawn-out political crisis is set for a resurgence that looks to have no hope of an ending in the near future.

Weerayut Chokchaimadon

The Nation