Samai Charoenchang

Samai Charoenchang was born on 18 January 1955 in Lam Toi Ting subdistrict, Nong Chok district, then part of Phra Nakhon province and today a district on the eastern edge of Bangkok.

He studied at Chachoengsao Teachers College, now Rajabhat Rajanagarindra University, graduating with a bachelor's degree in education with a major in sociology. He later earned a master's degree in public administration from the National Institute of Development Administration in Bangkok. He went on to work as a teacher and academic before entering national politics.

Samai was elected to the House of Representatives for Bangkok at the general election of 2 July 1995, standing for the Democrat Party, and was re-elected in 1996. He served in the House until November 2000.

In 2006 he was elected a senator for Bangkok and took his seat on 14 April. His term ended on 19 September 2006, when the military coup dissolved parliament.

At the general election of December 2007 he returned to the House for Bangkok as a Democrat, his third term as a member of parliament, serving from 23 December 2007 to 10 July 2011. In that parliament he chaired the House committee on social welfare. He stood again at the 2011 election but lost to Jirayu Huangsap of the Pheu Thai Party.

Before the 2019 election he resigned from the Democrat Party, dissatisfied with the selection of its candidates in Bangkok, and did not stand. He then joined the Kla Party founded by Korn Chatikavanij, where he served as chairman of the ethics committee and as a member of the executive board. He later moved to the Sang Anakhot Thai party in 2022 and to the United Thai Nation Party in 2023, before rejoining the Democrat Party in 2025.

Outside party politics Samai was an Islamic scholar. He served as vice-chairman of the Central Islamic Council of Thailand and as a member of the Islamic Committee of Bangkok, and headed a group coordinating mosques in the capital. In 2011 he was appointed a representative on the Education Council. He was also president of the parents' association of Triam Udom Suksa Suwinthawong School.

Samai was a Muslim and was active in the religious life of Bangkok's Muslim community for many years. He was married and had a son, Thanakorn Charoenchang. He was made a Knight Grand Cordon of the Most Noble Order of the Crown of Thailand in 1999 and a Knight Grand Cordon of the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant in 2008.

Samai Charoenchang died on 14 August 2026 at a hospital in Nong Chok district, Bangkok, after receiving treatment for an illness. He was 71. The nature of the illness was not made public.

News of his death was reported the same day by the Thai newspaper Naewna, which described him as a former three-term Democrat member of parliament for Bangkok and a former vice-chairman of the Central Islamic Council of Thailand. A Janazah prayer for him was held at 11.00 on Saturday 15 August 2026 at the Kamalul Islam Mosque, Soi Pracharuamjai 48, in Khlong Sam Wa district, Bangkok.

Samai combined a parliamentary career representing Bangkok with long service in the institutions of Thai Islam. His career spanned three decades of turbulent Thai politics, from the elected parliaments of the 1990s through the 2006 coup and the realignments of the 2020s. Beyond elected office, his work on the Central Islamic Council, the Islamic Committee of Bangkok and the Education Council tied him to religious and educational life in the capital for many years.