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SCMP Reporter

Thai decadence may have taken a pounding but the indulgence of martyrs, it seems, has never been so popular.

  The lives of two very different dead men - one a humble tuk-tuk driver and the other an exiled communist - have suddenly been propelled into prominence as thousands of Thais seek some solace in their legacy.

  Hard-up Chamnan Lorapong has been given a hero's funeral after he died in a fight with two motorcycle thieves who stole a passenger's gold necklace.

 Chamnan chased the pair on his tuk-tuk and knocked them to the ground only to be stabbed. Denied hospital treatment because of an apparent lack of cash, Chamnan died soon after.

  A simple variation on the 'good Samaritan cabbie' maybe, but Thais have latched on to his selflessness in the face of poverty.

  Senior police, soldiers and politicians have been among the mourners as appeals for his widow and two children have taken on a nationwide momentum.

 Assanee Polachan died a very different death. Described as a romantic 'thinker and poet', Assanee fled Thailand in the late 1960s as military rulers sought to end his criticism of them.

  One of his laments, Full Moon, has moved from rebel appeal to widespread acceptance. It is now pumped out by every bar band.

 More scholar than rebel, he nevertheless spent years in jungle camps with his wife and other members of the Communist Party of Thailand. As armed government action intensified, he fled to Vietnam and then Laos, where he died in 1987 - far from his widow and muse Wimol.

 She remained in Thailand and has led the mourning in recent days as his blackened remains were handed over by the Lao authorities. Rites were performed over his skull while more than 30,000 mourners partied at a vast open-air concert in his memory.

 The appeal of both men seems to grow as recession bites. Many Thais say they are pleased to have some real martyrs to cling to after apparently being duped by cab driver Sompong Leuthaharn.

 Sompong now faces a short stretch in jail after a swift rise and fall. The claim that he returned some US$1 million (HK$7.73 million) in cash and cheques to a Frenchman who left them in his cab brought parliamentary praise, a new cab and nearly US$5,000 in donations.

 It also drew the attention of an ex-wife who went public with his less honourable background and his great tale of honesty soon unravelled.



Thais look to martyrs for solace