On casual inspection the life of Thaksin Shinawatra, former Thai Prime Minister, former owner of Manchester City and former billionaire, looks likes a study in idleness and stagnation.

Since being deposed in a military coup in 2006 he has wandered the world in search of a sanctuary before washing up in the city of Dubai, financial oasis and home of the tax-shy rich.

Divorced from his wife, he shares his nine-bedroom villa with a domestic staff of ten and an exercise bicycle. He golfs at the neighbouring Montgomerie Club and shops in Dubai’s vast shopping malls. He fills his days with Buddhist meditation, exercise and updates on his website and Twitter feed.

He greets the visitor dusted with face powder. “Make me look more handsome than I am,” he asks The Times's photographer with a smile.

But the impression of irrelevance is misleading; despite his physical distance from Thailand, Mr Thaksin is as energetic and ambitious as ever. There are few former prime ministers anywhere in the world who exert such a powerful influence on their country’s politics.

The “Red Shirts”, as his followers are known, muster every few weeks in Bangkok in their tens of thousands. In the three months since he began twittering he has acquired 41,000 followers and 3.5 million signed a petition to Thailand’s King begging for him to be pardoned for the two-year prison sentence that he received in absentia for corruption. Tomorrow he lands in Cambodia at the invitation of its Prime Minister, Hun Sen. It is a visit that has provoked a full-scale diplomatic crisis between the two South East Asian countries.

Mr Thaksin is a paradox. While in office, he was feared and loathed by many Thais, especially the educated middle-class, as an opportunist and authoritarian who trampled on human rights, the media and independent institutions in the pursuit of power. For the rest of the population he was — and remains — Thailand’s most adored leader, re-elected repeatedly and forced out by a naked military coup.

After the generals returned power to elected politicians Thais voted for Mr Thaksin’s supporters and proxies who were subsequently forced out of power not at the ballot box, but through a series of questionable court decisions.

“I don’t care whether I will go back to politics or not,” My Thaksin says. “But if the majority of the country needs me then I have to go back. I cannot be selfish.”

Times Recommends

• Grace Coddington: the Vogue visionary
• Abuse of process
• Pamela Anderson pops out of the lamp