Has Thaksin finally found a way of returning to Thailand 'through the front door'?

The one wish Thaksin Shinawatra made while blowing out 72 candles on his birthday cake on Monday (July 26) was to be able to return home.

Thaksin was ousted in the 2006 coup after serving as prime minister for just over five years. He returned to Thailand for a brief visit in February 2008 before fleeing charges of corruption in July that year. He was subsequently sentenced to two years in jail in absentia and has lived in self-exile ever since.

The fugitive former premier has repeatedly voiced a desire to return to his motherland. However, he has never sounded so confident about achieving that aim as he did on July 13 in a chatroom of the social-networking app Clubhouse.

“I reiterate, I will definitely come back. I will reveal more details when the time is right. I will arrive through the front door of Suvarnabhumi Airport, not the back door,” Thaksin told his supporters in the Clubhouse chatroom, where he is a regular guest of “CARE” – a thinktank founded by his inner circle.

Soon after Thaksin – who uses the name “Tony Woodsome” as a handle on Clubhouse – made the announcement, the hashtag #พี่โทนี่กลับไทยแน่ (Brother Tony is definitely returning) began trending on Twitter.