Gun Jompalang might win any popularity poll even with Pita Limcharoenrat or Nadech Kugimiya thrown in. Better still, Gun could triumph or lose it narrowly if Thais were vote for a national police chief today and he was a candidate.
That’s how famously adored he has become thanks to the present road-rage case in which he is helping the average family at the receiving end, which pits him against a very powerful political family in Pathum Thani.
The Thai public have had a fair share of false-image publicity that disappoints them in the end, therefore many people are reserved about Gunnathat Pongpaiboonwet (his real but lesser-known name) and the excitement he has generated.
He has been on TV a lot, fighting for people who could not fight for themselves. There have been doubts about his intentions, so the past publicity did not get much farther than him being an often-seen figure who probably just wanted to be on the news to promote himself.
Some such doubts still exist, but his helping hand for the family affected physically and mentally by the angry young man driving an expensive sedan with little regard for road safety changes almost everything. Praises have come in a downpour. The more furious the public are at the road incident, the more adoration they give Gunnathat.
There must be hundreds of thousands of social media comments on the incident, and for every one attacking the young man, one will give Gunnathat deep gratitude and strong admiration.
“Without Gun, the story would be developing and ending very differently,” one comment said, a point that has been echoed numerous times.
Gun’s attempts to guard the ordinary family’s daughter against “insincere” or “media-event” apologies of the rich young man’s political family were presented as separate clips on YouTube, now flooded with developments of the road case, drawing millions of views.
Gun’s popularity, though high, did not yet peak when he openly challenged the rich man’s clan. It went through the roof, however, when a well-known politician curiously asked him to stop, suggesting that wealthy and powerful groups were chipping in funding for an assassination because he was just getting too far.
Mongkolkit Suksintharanon, who works for the Democrat Party, was the latest person who crashed and burned because of the road incident. The first was the young BMW driver himself, Smittipat Leenawarat. Then his father, Krissada Leenawarat, who was widely accused of defending an indefensible act. After that, Smittipat’s mother and Krissada’s wife Yuppawao, who has urged the social media to “stop hurting” her son.
The 28-year-old hotheaded man is seeking a seat on the Pathum Thani’s Thanyaburi municipal council in next month's local elections, together with other members of his family.
He had briefly entered the monkhood and Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and her father Thaksin were guests of honor at his pre-ordination ceremony, reportedly attended by thousands of other people.
Following Mongkolkit’s online warning, which some people interpreted as a conveyed threat, a powerful figure calling himself “Por Saimai” scolded Gun in a post, causing a concerted dig into his (Por Saimai’s) own backgrounds which involved massive gambling.
Now, Gun’s breathless activism targeted Por Saimai, too, and it’s threatening to shed new light on the illegal betting underworld.
Smittipat’s family reportedly wanted Gun to stay away from those he was helping. They apparently claimed Gun has been complicating what should have been an easy talk on settlement. The ordinary family, however, needs him to stick around because that would make them feel more protected and confident.
Gun Jompalang is rich himself. There are pictures of him with a red sport car. He is a well-known social media influencer who also have personal businesses. “Jompalang” nickname came from a noodle menu he sold previously. “Jompalang noodle” even became a franchise.
Whether or not Gun has been trying to project a certain kind of image is not much relevant in the aftermath of the infamous road rage, though. The case features a fight for justice between the rich and the poor, and he is siding with the underdogs, helping them in a showdown in which they would never have stood a chance otherwise.
It’s a case that is testing social strength, one that looks every “good” Thai in the eyes and defies them to do something. It’s a case that does not deny that Thailand has heroes, but challenges all the heroes to do the battles that really matter.
Whether Gun is doing the right thing for the wrong reason or not, his action is providing a serious food for thought.
Maybe Thai “heroes” are not outnumbered and outgunned after all, but they are probably barking up the wrong tree and looking the other way while they should have paid attention to the blatant infamy directly in front of them.
