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He was one of the first Thai politicians I knew of, because in his political prime, my father was one of his biggest fans. He admired Samak's sharp tongue and apparent fearlessness. There were a few Samak books in our house, and although they have disappeared because that intense affection has subsided over the years, the big-nosed, arrogant politician is the real reason why my father can never bring himself to like the Democrats.

One of the first lies I told my old man involved Samak. The politician was leading a fund-raising campaign on a live TV programme, and my father wanted nothing more than to see his teenage son step in front of the camera to present a donation to his political favourite. "Tell him 'My father wants you to receive this with your hands'," was the instruction that I can't forget.

Call me a bad son, but if there's a teenager who's ready to hand Bt200 to a politician before a live TV audience and utter those words in the process, I would like to know him. The cash, as you surely can guess, didn't make its way to Samak but ended up on one of the reception desks in front of the studio. "The queue was too long," I told my dad after returning home.

A "sliding door" moment? Who knows what could have happened in my life if I had reached Samak and he had given me an avuncular pat on the back and some verbal nicetey to remember. After all, for all his apparent political faults, people who knew Samak as a person tend to, well, not take them too seriously.

I ended up being among those who knew him solely as a politician, one who thrived on hostility and being loathed. However, as a young journalist many years back, I had an opportunity to visit him at his home once, and to tell you the truth, he could be anyone's favourite uncle. It made you wonder why people play politics if it can cost them that much.

Like Samak would have cared. No matter how many dimensions he might have possessed as a man, his was a one-dimensional, unapologetic, bulldozing political worldview. He will be remembered for his controversial role during the October turbulence in the 70s because he never bothered to rectify his image, and for all those all-but-obscene exchanges with reporters that went on and on until almost his last moments in public view.

Samak's political life was a guilt-free roller-coaster ride. And for many of us it has been a love-hate relationship. I didn't vote for him in the 2000 Bangkok gubernatorial election - in which more than 1 million voters sent him to a historic landslide victory - but quietly marvelled at the stunning political comeback. If Samak never wavered in playing old-fashioned politics, spitting venom on virtually every occasion, what brought him back from political oblivion that year?

They say few politicians ever show real remorse. Samak went a step further because his purported guilt was often showered with his own contempt. You can blame, criticise or scold him for many things, but he was probably the least pretentious among the lot. He caused untold pain to countless people but had to fight tooth and nail against animosity and humiliation himself.

He could have chosen to fade away cooking his favourite dishes for his loved ones. Instead, he opted to fulfil that long-held dream of his and many of his admirers - that "Samak will be prime minister one day". He therefore had to demonstrate his passion for cooking on a TV show against a complex and unfriendly political backdrop. The rest is history.

When the Constitution Court disqualified Samak as prime minister last year, for earning peanuts from the politically harmless show, he was probably too ill to make it a Samak-esque fight. Again, in retrospect, I wasn't very kind to the man in my subsequent article. But again, like Samak would have cared.

He would probably never give a toss about this either and, from wherever he is now, would tell me to go and have sex. Knowing Samak, even though he's resting in peace, he's probably still capable of saying that.

But rest in peace, anyway.