After a long absence, Thaksin Shinawatra has returned to Facebook with flowers and bricks.
The former prime minister used 3-4-56, standing for 3 April 2556 (Buddhist calendar) to come back to Facebook with a little advance publicity from his son, Panthongtae aka Oak, who has an active Facebook presence.
After Thaksin's new page opened, one of the first messages was, "I missed you very much. Wish you healthy". The page had more than 5,600 "likes" as of Wednesday evening.
There are more than a dozen Thaksin Shinawatra pages on Facebook from Thaksin "politician" to Thaksin "fictional character."
"This one is real. It's confirmed," one well-wisher said. Another ill-wisher expected it to be banned very soon. It is at www.facebook.com/thaksinofficial.
The self-exiled former prime minister admitted that he decided not to send messages to admirers to this social media as he doesn't want to disturb the government.
His return in a handwritten statement was also met with comments strongly criticising him like: "You put this country in trouble for so long and it's about time to pay karma." Many of them were later deleted.
"Hey, if you don't like him, just don't come to this page," a defender quickly hit back and suspected the commentator was a yellow-shirt admirer.
The best comment probably was: "Stop quarrelling please. We're all Thais."
Thaksin promised no political talks this time as he wanted to share his foreign trips, including a plan to update ties between Thailand and Saudi Arabia which turned sour more than two decades due to the murders of Saudi diplomats and the disappearance of a businessman in 1989 and 1990.
The rather plain page features an ageing photo of Thaksin and one of his children, and another "mug-shot" style of the present-day Thaksin. Content includes text of speeches and photos of recent trips to Saudi Arabia and Tajikistan.
Thaksin recently returned to Skype to call party headquarters and give political directions to Pheu Thai members from wherever he is, outside Thailand. The latest Skype call was on March 26, when he reminded Pheu Thai MPs the importance of debate on charter amendments and ordered them not to skip parliament. He promised regular Skype calls to the ruling party's meeting.