rickirs

My rice bowl must be half-full, not half empty like most of the TV commentors.

While an auction of 420,000 tons of rice spread among 18 traders reflects nominal demand, it comes on top of several 1 million+ recently planned trades, and reflects the broad market demand for Thailand rice. So there appears to be MOMENTUM in the Thailand rice market despite foreign competition advantage during Thailand's government being prevented to conduct sales since October 2013. Thailand is the premier rice supplier and even its damaged rice commands market value. You don't need Jasmine rice to feed hogs, chickens, and cattle.

Hopefully there will be no further interruptions in the government's sales of rice by whatever cause. These sales are the best hope for Thailand rice farmers' futures and for the future of the Thailand agricultral economy.

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So they are selling all the new rice first ie 2013/14

What has happened to all the old stuff ?

A lot of it has been stolen, and some of it was never there , even though paid for.

A lot has been eaten by birds, rats and insects.

And a lot is rotten and needs to be thrown out.

Still any shop owner with perishable goods sells older stock first

But of course this Government knows that 2011/12 rice is almost impossible to sell so as it desperately needs money for the farmers

They are still paying storage and interest payments on millions of tons of old stock and want to keep borrowing more money to cover their incompetence.

Enough to get the chairwoman of the Rice Scam convicted in a couple of days

Especially with super Supa - the 'new star of Thailand' to be brought on board at the NACC.

Make someone unhappy and they will be out to get you, well now she can put Yingluck in concrete!!!!

Exactly why someone with a political agenda and personal vendetta should not be a member of an independent investigative committee on corruption. She will not bring any confidence to the NACC that it will conduct itself free of any conflict of interest or political bias. Truly a sad appointment for justice.

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Is this extra to the other Chinese deals, announced last year, also for millions of tons of rice ?

Wonder how those are doing, when the rice was shipped, when payment is due to be received, etc. ?

If you recall, the dissolution of the parliament and formation of the interim parliament, schedule of new elections, EC Court challenge on new election dates, , PDRC shutdown of government operations (especially with exports), and several EC and Court challenges over the funding of the rice program delayed sales from last October 2013 to March 2014. China had previously cancelled its order from last year due to concerns of an "unsettled" Thai political situation, but this year re-ordered million tons. USA also has announced interest in purchasing a million tons. Yet, I expect for those people who want the program to fail as a means to put more pressure on the government to collapse will be unhappy with any progress in rice sales that would be necessary to pay the farmers all the while they bemoan nonpayment to the poor rice farmers.

So Ms Supa was known for her "audacious" move in uncovering evidence of corruption in the rice pledging scheme. Curious to understand what was audacious about it . But she will no doubt be biased and maybe even vendictive in her role as a NACC member. NACC doesn't need this person if it wants to portray itself as independent and unpolitical.

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If the cabinet does not have the power to open a special session in the senate (and even if they did, they would refuse).

Then it MUST go to the constitutional court to make an interpretation of the constitution to decide whether to allow the session.

Without the session, democracy cannot advance, and so the court must allow it so that the nation can advance.

Without it, then there is a vacuum.

If the Court had any interest in allowing democracy to advance, it lost its ability to do so when it nullified the February elections that represented voting at 90% of the polls. It could have instead nullified the voting at the remaining 10% of the polls held at a later date and allowed the democratic process to procede unimpeded. Now with the EC back in the game to play out Suthep's defeat of any further elections, the EC sees no forseeable election schedule. If it is perceived that allowing the Sentate to begin its session so that Government officials can be impeached, no doubt the Court will rule against the government.

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What would you do if you were the CEO of a company and you knew that one of your senior employees was out campaigning against your company, calling you and your family crooks?

Doesn't everybody have a right to support which ever polictal party they chose even if they are employed by the government?

Police reshuffled to promote peace and security of the nation - translated and summarized from Daily News; Column: The Editorial; February 10, 2009
Regarding the meeting of the Office of Police Commission chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Tuagsuban on discussions about the police reshuffle, the board meeting was postponed to be hosted on February 13, 2009 due to indeterminate problems.
The Phea Thai opposition party criticizes that the transfer of some police officials is to promote some Democrat-backed police officers who are close to Democrats’ politicians.
According to Prime Minister Abhisit, who gave a defensive speech to clarify the reason behind the police transfer, the police officials are officials who serve best the nation as those who maintain the security of the nation and the security of the Royal family. The police transfer following the Democrat-led government policy is aimed at promoting the police’s responsibility and roles in promoting the peace of the nation (as opposed to responding to flaws and political incidents in the past).

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So basically Singapore is not going to back the PTP government.

Nor anyone else. They will deal with whom ever leads Thailand in their own best interests.

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What would you do if you were the CEO of a company and you knew that one of your senior employees was out campaigning against your company, calling you and your family crooks?

I understand your point, but in Government not all people are always on your side, as you INHERIT bureaucrats and have to accept not everyone believes the same as you do. That is LIFE and Government. BUT if that person is in a position whereas making a POLITICAL move can be a violation of a law then you should be careful.

It would appear in this case that this was something that should not have occurred and ths the Constituional Court making its decision.

I am no expert in ANY law as one Judge will rule this way and another Judge will overturn the previous decision. But there MUST be grounds or this would not have such an impact upon the Yingluck administration.

So I guess it is a case of Naughty Yinny

Many governments employ too types of employees: civil servants and leadership.

Civil servants or civil serviec employees are nonpolitical and protected usually by job descriptions and grievance procedures. Their employment follows prescribed competitive hiring practices and removal must be made for cause only as prescribed by their terms of performance. Civil Service employees are typical required to be nonpolitical in the work place.

The leadership or "breaucrats" are those executive positions typically several levels above the frontline manager. First tier executives who report directly to the top leader of the government like the PM or President are appointed positions. Their appointments are typically politically motivated to assure the leader's political agenda is carried out through to the operation of the civil servants. Thus, when there is a political change in the top leadership, it is not uncommon and quite practical for previous administration political appointees to be dismissed from the new government administration. Yingluck had the right to replace the appointee due to political conflict with her administration but apparently valued his employment enough to merely transfer him.

For someone who quit parliament, doesn't vote in national elections, supports blockade of voting polls, gave up Democrat membership, and under murder charges, he is not the one to tell anyone else to quit for the better of the Thai people. I challenge Abihisit to mind his own business unless he has something useful to contribute to the political conflict that isn't a knee-jerk reaction to Suthep pulling his chain.

General Prayuth Chan-ocha earlier ordered legal action against a group of people in Chiang Mai who espoused the idea of separating the Northern region from the rest of the Kingdom. But with regard to whether Mr. Suthep’s declaration of sovereign was illegal, (it) was not for him to decide. No wonder Suthep sought out support of the military for his "hypothetical" claim to Thailand sovereignty. General Prayuth Chan-ocha is showing clear political favoritism to the PDRC, not treating all political parties equally, and needs to resign from office for abuse of power.

On another note, a lot of TV commentors take issue with how Suthep's speech was translated into english that could have caused a misunderstanding of what Suthep actually said. Suthep spoke in Thai. The Thai Government leaders, military, police, and news media are native Thai speakers. It is they who are hearing from Suthep the idea of him assuming the nation's sovereinty after the removal of Yingluck from the PM. So let's get away from useless claims of mistranslations. Obviously, Suthep well understood what he said and the legal problems it might cause him to the extent he needs now to "retract" his sovereignty statements.

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---Suthep Thaugsuban yesterday retracted his claim---

Guess that clears up the debate about whether or not Khaosod coverage of Sutheps speech was accurate and unbiased or not.

The Khao Sot English article was wildly inacurate. My guess is that it was published strictly for international consumption. Suthep used the word being translated as "sovereignty" in what seemed to me a pretty garbled rant (I wasn't there, but have reviewed the Thai press reports-including Khao Sot-Thai). What set everybody off is that the word has historically been used by coup leaders to claim absolute powers (in the name of the people, of course!). The implications of the mid-century coups & brutal imposition of totalitarian power were drawn out by KS-English and put falsely into Suthep's mouth.

--S

So what is he retracting?

You can't take these translations literally. The editor thought "retract" was a cool word & wanted to use it. Suthep's clarifying what he meant by "sovereignty". He really said nothing new. "People's coup" & so on. The man's delusional--there's absolutly no constitutional pathway to what he's been demanding. But when with a new constitution every few years, who cares? The UK and Canada get along fine without a constitution--they go on custom, precedent, common law. They do that here too, more-or-less, while pretending to follow a constitution. Thus, e.g. all the confusion over whether the government can resign (not the same as calling elections BTW).

Cheers, S

Canada has a constitution http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/page-15.html.

The UK operates according to various statutes, conventions, judicial decisions and treaties which collectively might be referred to as the "Constitution." I would imagine that if all the authority and protections described by such documents were consolidated, the result would be a constitution bigger than several Websters Unabridged Dictionaries.

The problem for Thailand is that it has a Constitutional Court that makes rulings that conflict with the Constitution and involves itself directly in Thai politics to upset any balance of power that runs against its own political agenda.

Election night was a tense one for Kim. All night long he had to constantly go over lists of assinations for any possible opposition and renegade voters. But all ended well for him and everyone is now able to sleep in deathly peace.

Change this title to "Militants focus on rocking Bangkok's economy, tourism" and it still applies. Of course the "militants" in Bangkok are the PDRC. If the Thailand Army is as concerned about the South, it should be as concerned about Bangkok and the rest of the Country's economy and tourism that is being held hostage to Suthep's efforts to over throw the government, theoretically of course. It's all interrelated.

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US expresses concern over Thai political situation and power seizure

BANGKOK, 9 April 2014 (NNT) – The United States has handed a letter to the Thai government expressing grave concern over the political situation and the possibility of a power grab.

US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel R. Russel and US Ambassador to Thailand Kristie Kenney attended a meeting with Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra at the Ministry of Defense on Tuesday.

Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul said after attending the meeting that the US delegation handed a letter from US Secretary of State John Kerry, which expressed concern over the political situation in Thailand, to Ms. Yingluck.

Mr. Surapong added that the US was especially against a military coup or seizure of power. The US was also worried over the effects the problems in Thailand would have on ASEAN as a whole, as Thailand was unable to initiate any new policies in the multilateral arena due to the caretaker status of the government.


-- NNT 2014-04-09

Given situations in Asia, Thailand is of strategic interest. Stability is important, and the tough part for the US and allies is siding with the winning side. China sits idly by watching.


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Unfortunately for Thailand there are plenty of banana republics in Asia that the US can choose from as allies. What the US would prefer as allies are industrial, mature, well-established democracies. Looks like Thailand might be on a short-list from not fitting that criteria should Suthep succeed in his undemocratic overthrow of the Thai government.

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I thought the US didn't interfere in the political situation in Thailand ?

Expressing concern is hardly interferring. Just the exercise of freedom of speech in a most diplomatic way possible. But I would expect when the greatest democracy in the history of the world expresses concern, that it is taken seriously. On the other hand I expect Suthep to not care what any foreign country has to say about his personal reach for power. However, the PDRC did visit a number of embassies this year to solicit support for Suthep's insurrection. I guess that didn't count as objecting to foreign interference.

"But if in a democracy we can elect relatives to key positions at will, what differentiates it from dictatorship?"

The "we" happens to be the legitimate electoriate and the "at will" as prescribed by the Constitution. A dictatorship does not rely on any elctoriate nor on any Constitution, at least until the Constitutional has been suspended, then amended as Suthep publicly proposes. No, the Thawil case is a lesson on the corruption of democracy by the so-called Constitutional Court and this article is a simple argument for Suthep's style of dictatorship as a faux democracy.

There was never any EVIDENCE that the Court relied upon for its decision. No smoking gun that he was transferred without harm to his career and to the betterment of the administration to his new position. Only personal allegations and perceptions were presented to the Court. But this Court has repeatedly shown itself hostile to Government executive actions to an extent now that it has intruded itself into the operations of the Executive branch far beyond its authority as prescribed by the Constitution.

The Thawil case is a lesson in the rape of democracy in Thailand and virtual Court coup.

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1, Used to I live in South-Africa and Namibia.

2. Must to be full donkey with 15 IQ those Thai woman who goes there to work.

3. If there are donkeys with 15 IQ they deserve it what they get there (AIDS, slaps and kicks, bullet to the head).

No one deserves to become a slave no matter their IQ. Economic desparation is not a matter of intelligence, it's a matter of basic survival. Thailand needs to improve the standard of living for Thai people at the lowest end of its economy with more jobs, better paying jobs, training, opportunity with attractive capital investments, and GDP growth. If it can reduce or eliminate people's desparation, they needn't get fooled into promises of better lives outside of the Country.

You blame the person standing in front of a gun for abuse, not the one who pulls the trigger.

Morison and Sidasathian republished (I assume with permission and recognition) a Reuters report that indicated that some servicemen of the Royal Thai Navy were involved in human trafficking trade of the Rohingya refugees off the southern coast of Thailand.

Unless they stated that such report was correct without independent confirmation, how is this defamation to report what someone else stated? If it is defamation shouldn't the Navy also file against Reuters and every other news agency that may had published the Reuters report? Maybe because Phuket News is a little easier to intimidate? Normally in a defamation suit the plaintiff has to show harm by malovent and malisious statements. Does the Navy deny such soldier involvement or even deny that it is investigating such charges? What is the harm to the Navy even if the report is unfounded? Will it fail to meet recruit quotas, lose funding, etc. or just lose face for having little control over its soldiers involving themselves in criminal activities?

Practically speaking, Mr. Abhisit Vejjajiva has no control over the PDRC and Democrats at all. The puppet master Suthep controls all aspects of the Democrats and PDRC activities. Mr. Vejjajiva himself is just another puppet whom Suthep has sacraficed to a political Twilight Zone after having served his use as a political shill for Suthep.

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So, if this is a modern day "coup" then what crime does cheating in the house votes and preventing opposition debate constitute?

The same thing - seizing unilateral power.

If you want to see opposition debate in Parliament, you have to have opposition in Parliament.

Suthep and the PDRC had decided last year that such civilized congressional debate cannot be effective because the PTP populist policies are supported by the majority of Thailand's constituents and he will not prevail. In democracy that's the consequence of being a minority party that cannot (or in PDRC's case will not) attract the majority constituents to their side. By choosing to vacate the parliament and not participating in the new elections, Suthep has conceded all legitimate, democratic government power to the PTP. That is not a seizure of political power by the PTP.

Instead Suthep has chosen strategies to seize for himself political power outside of a democratic electorial system, at least until such time he can "reform" (aka "fix") the electorial system to guarantee Democrat's return to legitimate power.

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How can a known corrupt guy with murder charge still free talk and walk around and disrupt the live of the people in the capital city?

How can a known corrupt gov and leader still run the country? Or for that matter how can a known convicted criminal in Dubai advise a corrupt gov?

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How can a known corrupt gov and leader still run the country? Suthep no longer runs the Government. Maybe you didn't get the memo. That's why he is trying so had by any means (except through elections that he can't win) to take back HIS government.

"US State Department Lost track of $6 Bln Under Hillary Clinton." - No.

Under Secretary Hillary the State Department found that the State Department under Secretary Colin Powell had lost track of the funds during the Bush administration. That's a different read than what the title of the article states. It was well known now that during the Iraq invasion and establishment of an interim Iraq government by the US that pallets of hundred dollar bills were flown to Iraq and given to the new Iraq leadership handpicked by the Bush administration without any accounting at all. Furthermore, contrary to federal contracting laws requiring competitive bidding, the Bush administration hired former CEO Cheney's company Halliburton in sole source contracts to rebuild Iraq infrastructure costing billions of dollars, again without any audits of irs reimbursed expenses.

"He said PDRC protesters will launch a campaign tomorrow urging civil servants to stop serving the Thaksin regime and to perform their duties alongside the people."

CHAPTER III of the Constitution:

"Rights and Liberties of Thai People Part 6, Rights and Liberties in Occupation - Section 43. A person shall enjoy the liberties to engage in an enterprise or an occupation and to undertake a fair and free competition."

It would appear that if the PDRC enters government civil servants' work areas with its campaign, whistles, shouts, and signs it may be violating (again) the Constitution. But when Suthep has big plans for reforming the Government and amending the Constitution, nothing is sacred.