rickirs

They have a chance to avoid the mistakes made in the creation of Thailand government. Put the military under civilian control, put the police under local jurisdictional control, provide for a bill of rights to assure due process of law and equality, and allow for state's rights. Take small but deliberate steps and keep the whole country engaged in the process to provide for transparency and accountability.

So if rice has risen this high, why can't the Thai Gov. unload the stored rice and pay the farmers.

Or is it being blocked and used as a political tool by PDRC and other political

rivals?

It's the latter situation. Successful sales of rice by the PTP Government only enhances its power base with farmers; PDRC hopes to get farmers to support Suthep instead by preventing the government from making sales and distribution of proceeds to the farmers.

Thai hypocritical circus. Army in army out. Wax on wax off.

It would be interesting to see how the army "waxes" if anti-government protesters open fire on army vehicles as they did on the police and attempt to drag soldiers from their vehicles and beat them. The good news is Suthep's guards won't have to intercede to save the soldiers.

Better late than never. But this discussion could have and should have taken place before the Feb 2nd election when it was well announced in advanced by Suthep that polls would be blocked and delivery of ballots disrupted. But EC arrogance of its own authority stood in tyhe way. EC now requesting military assistance also points to two significant failures in Thailand: both the National Police and EC are incapable of maintaining law and order to assure people exercise their right to vote.

When the day is over and the polictical finger-pointers and anti-government protesters eat their dinners and go to bed, what do the farmers have? Nothing. There is now a complete block against any process to sell the rice and deliver payment to the farmers. There is no new government yet to pass legislation, the Democrats cannot pass any legislation now or in the next administation; even a successful government overthrow by Suthep will not according to their own agenda produce a new parliament for 12-18 months. The only possible outcome is that farmers abandon their crops and find employment in the cities to sustain their families. And that leads to more difficult challenges.

Around here the paddy is mostly in the seed head stage (rice grain) and will be due for harvest I would think in the next month.

Some has already been harvested and as I get around the small sois between the paddy I wonder what is going to happen to all these tons of rice when they are harvested.

I would think the farmers are going to be very reluctant to entrust any to the pledging scheme again and they certainly cant keep the stuff so I guess it only leaves selling privately to the millers or traders for whatever they can get, which could well leave them in a loss situation, still they will have some money on hand hopefully enough to pay off any debts and keep them going. But going till when and to what ?

The new seasons rice being sold privately will mean that the Govt trying to sell the stockpiles will be in direct competition with the farmers, lowering prices even farther.

Unfortunately for the farmers, Thailand cannot domestically absorb all the current rice stock at any price and must put rice on the international marketplace - farmers are not themselves capable to make bulk international sales. International buyers know there is now a glut of Thailand rice resulting from delays in sales and will take advantage of the glut to drive down the prices even further. To make matters worse, another harvest is on its way. Farmers might be better off to plow under, or whatever is the procedure, current rice production or donate it to the Monks. Regardless of this epic disaster, who is trying to make matters better for the farmers? They need rice sales, not sympathy, not political support, not finger-pointing; those things don't pay bills and feed the family.

An ignorant policy with corruption as its aim. This was never a policy aimed at helping the POOR farmers, many of whom are too small to participate, but a policy to benefit big farmers, millers, warehousemen, money lenders and the middlemen as well as huge corruption for the perpetrators of the policy.

If they wanted to help poor farmers this was never the way to do it. Pheu Thai are traitors to Thailand and should be treated as such.

Shame also on the Democrats whose myopic policies have still not been thought through to provide a balance which include every sector of society. History will show the huge opportunity they have wasted here because of their own selfish ideas.

As for Yingluck and her team running around trying to lay the blame at everyone's feet except her own where the responsibility actually lies, it is sad the average Thai cannot see the wood for the trees and soak up the wrapping paper around the pile of Doo Doo that is PT.

And now Yingluck is after forcing the AOT to deposit funds to cover what her corruption has lost for Thailand and screw the shareholders much like the attempt to get the GSB to bail her out, my goodness isn't it all so obvious?

So your argument is that the PTP was corrupt by developing a program intended to help Democrat supporters. Yet the Democrats are blaming the government as corrupt for using the rice program as a means to buy poor farmer votes. Seems there has to be some misrepresentations being made about the program with regard to corruption. It's more like, "If it's my corruption, it's okay but if it's your corruption, it's not okay."

The pledged price of rice, even though higher than market, to my mind is not so bad......it's a rural subsidy which many countries apply to the farming industry.

Managed properly, it possibly could have been sustainable and actually benefited the rural folk.

The faults of the scheme has been in the management....there hasn't been any which is abundantly clear!

Warning signs and genuine advice were ignored, and the graft spiralled out of control until it got the the state it is now at.

Politicians should never be allowed to manage any form of state enterprise.

Thai Air is another glaring example about to fall victim to the same management principles.

Warning signs were not ignored. The PTP did consider changing the program but the Democrats objected. Now the Democrats hypocritically insist the fault of the program lies entirely with the PTP government. I have never seen a government overthorwn for making bad decisions, sure such government become vulnerable in the next elections against charges of inefficiency. But in Thailand the accusation of corruption seems to be a convenient catch-all for everything politicians oppose.

The Government "planned to cut the price or reduce the pledging volume, only to face opposition even from the Democrat Party. Even though the Democrats hated the policy, they said the Pheu Thai Party must not change it for the sake of farmers."

If there are charges of corruption, shouldn't they also be applied against the Democrats who were complicit and participatory in the rice program going forward unaltered?

But the gunfire and beatings were made in peace and harmony and not intended to attack the State, its institutions, nor overthrow the government by violent means. Suthep has assured us that will always be the case.

So here is the "evidence" of Yingluck's "negligence":

1) she had been warned by many organisations of POSSIBLE massive damage and corruption in the scheme.

2) the scheme COULD cause massive corruption in every stage of the process.

3) she was asked to review and halt the programme had many irregularities and corruption.

4) rice farmers who entered the program have not yet received payment and are now in serious financial difficulty.

5) she was negligent to duty by continuing with the program which resulted in severe damage to the country.

This is simply without any apparent concrete evidence and looks more like a political assination attempt. Even some of the anti-graft panel members appear to have a conflict of interest (aka corruption) as being financial supporters of Suthep's anti-government protesters. The major "witnesses" are current or former Democrat party supporters with no supporting accounts from anyone in the current administration or unrelated third parties. There is mention of "documents" but no details have been disclosed. From a 3rd party perspective there may be enough to question Yingluck about alleged corruption, maybe even enough to charge her, but until there is more hard, unbiased evidence to collaborate her "negligence" (which would not be criminal in any event), I don't see how she could be held guilty. But even if she was found to be negligent, does that just mean she just promises not to be negligent in the future and continues on as PM?

An old Mongolian proverb which say

" If you want to know the road ahead, ask those who are returning"

"He who chooses the beginning of the road chooses the place it leads to." - Kami Garcia.

While i do not like Suthep all that much, I give him credit - he is out on the front lines, risking assassination, for his cause. He is not a coward running from water bottles, or cowering in his palace in Dubai. I hope he wins, on shear moxy alone...

You forgot he is also surrounded by 10-20 armed guards and a freverent devoted crowd of followers who have shown they will turn to violence even when it came to blocking civilian voters from polling places.

This could be the final showdown, where he is captured.

I would actually wager against that happening.

However, these protests are only a side-show and irritation to the failed government (read rice scam), and not a decisive game-changer in the current deadlock..... I wonder if Yingluck will cry like a baby in court, the same as her brother did..... or will she run before making an appearance (read rice farmers and parliament), just like her brother also did.

Wasn't Thaksin tried in absentia?

Police being hiding from assailants shooting at them, being dragged off the bus to be beaten, then rescued by civilians. Will people stop calling them "police" which is a term used for deputized law enforcement officers. This body of people deserves a more desriptive term like "mommy boys" or "sissy fits." Or more fitting in the way of Thailand, they might be called something like Officers of Politeness and Peace, but not Police.

Those vicious, wicked, mean and nasty PCAD fascist thugs at it again.

I check my dickionary and I am confused it says: fascist comes from Latin fascismo meaning "strength through unity" what is wrong with that?

and wicked? let us know what wicked things coz for wickedness prayers are needed to kill the devil - whenever u point finger at the devil please state the nature of his crimes too so we can all get alt=blink.png>

Nazi Germany and Musolini's Italy were facist states. Was there anything wrong with them other than world domination?

While TBA's concerns seem somewhat innocous or nebulous as only bankers can think, their solution is simply genius - "there would be no legal issue if BAAC loaned the money to private firms joining in the rice bidding and allowed the government to repay farmers with proceeds of the stockpile release." That plan should settle farmer concerns of further delay and politician concerns of anyfiscal mismanagement. AND BAAC gets a larger "handling" fee than if it alone handled the payments.

"As part of its reform proposal for the next government, the TDRI suggested establishment of an independent committee to oversee spending policy to increase transparency and make sure tax money is actually being used for the benefit of society, and especially for the people who truly need it."

Agree!

Agree too.. who would not want transparency.. except the PTP of course who wanted to do the 2 trillion transport project off the books without parliament checking it.

I don't have a problem with a "watchdog" sort of independent committee to help keep budgetary transparency but the "make sure tax money is actually being used for the benefit of society, and especially for the people who truly need it" part sounds like the unelected committee would have legislative powers independent of the elected parliament and/or the power to veto legislative action of the parliament. As an example, the parliament passes a higher minimum wage but the committee decides that the people that would most benefit from it are "undeserving." Could the committee void that legislation? So there is a danger that if poorly constructed, the committee could become a dictatorial agency that could supplant a democratically elected parliament.

Warong "believed caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra was fully aware of the fake government-to-government rice deal between Thailand and China." More testimony will be taken to support the charge of a fake deal. I would be more impressed of a fair investigation if former PTP leaders or nonpolitical third parties such as Chinese officials gave such testimony but apparently there are none. So this will be a "he said, she said" contest with no concrete evidence. The burden of producing hard evidence seems to have a low threshhold.

This article is at best confusing with contradictions. The Government Bank makes loans to the Government to pay the farmers; the Government incurs the debt. The Government then directs the borrowed funds (aka "cash") to BAAC to pay the Farmers. There is not a baht of BAAC customer deposits involved in this transaction. In fact BAAC likely charges a fee to act as Payor for the Government that contributes to its own profits without ANY RISK; it gets money, it pays money. So now BAAC decides it will not pay the farmers and returns the funds back to the Government because it believes the loan has insufficient collateral. So what? The borrowed funds did not originate from BAAC and no debt is owed to BAAC, so why would it be concerned with loan collateral? It appears BAAC's decision is not financially motivated but politically motivated that smacks of corruption.

"A true democracy should guarantee that a leader would not stay beyond his or her welcome. And sometimes, in a more perfect democracy, leaders would realise that the ultimate service to their beloved country might be, just might be, to let go of the mantle of power." The author is completely ignorant of what a "more perfect democracy" is. It's not about leadership quiting for some moral incentive. It is about building an electorial base and political concensus to gain control of the government through a peaceful, democratic succession of power. I would like to hear in what country a democratically elected leader just gave up simply because he was not "welcomed" as the leader. Actually there is one country that quickly comes to mind - Thailand. Yingluck gave up her permanent and legal position as PM to become a much weaker interim PM for the expressed purpose to offer a new election of leadership to the Thai people. But the PDRC wants more brinkmanship, more anarchy. When is Suthep going to recognize his own staying "beyond his welcome" as his protests degrade into a spiteful worship of the PTP that continues to remain in power through the elections and refuses to be ousted or overthrown by Suthep. So if Thailand is going to continue on a path of a more complete democracy, it must be done through a peaceful and constitutional transition to a new democratic government that includes both majority and minority electorial representation. Suthep's principles of change in power belongs to dictatorships and the destruction of people's rights.

I sadly have to resort to the often plagurized, "This Is Thailand." First the Government is heavily critisized for not paying the farmers; the banks are then ostracized by PDRC for considering loans to the government to pay the farmers; farmers threaten to file suit against the government for not making payments; then Suthepsays it's okay for the banks to make those loans; then the GSB starts to make loans that will go towards paying the farmers; NOW the bank unions wants those loans to stop. Yes, this is thailand where politics is a Merry Go-Round the Mulberry Bush and We All Fall Down. Rather the farmers fall down between competing political forces. My wishes to the farmers that they get their pay in the most direct and immediate manner and politicians stay out of the way.

PDRC wants to "oust" the government but not "overthrow" the government because the latter would be unconstitutional. I wonder if its supporters appreciate the nuance between the two words as they continue to talk about overthrow. These Thai anit-government protesters should be saying that they are determined to "exercise their freedom to protest," not oust the government. Otherwise the Constitutional Court will get confused and might actually rule correctly that the PDRC is engaged in overthrowing the government. And that would interrupt Suthep's Crusader Rabbit leadership.

When is this guy Suthep ever going to come up with a viable policy to attract voters? It is impossible to take him or his backers seriously. 555+

In case you haven't noticed, he is not running for election.

In case you haven't noticed, he can't run for election. That is why he is against a democratically elected government because he can't win by legal means.

Suthep and his PDRC clan has managed to lose every credibility when he started to appoint corrupt people as the shady lear jet monk or the Singha lady to join his party.

And not to forget the farmers, who he collected a lotof money for but didn't gave them a dime.

That was the start of the end of Suthep and his PDRC.

Yingluck and the government is now trying to pay off the farmers and she will succeed in this (not in the last because of the help of Suthep who claimed that the banks should give loans to the farmers).

In a few months, Suthep and his whole PDRC will be a bad page in history and forgotten.

But not by the country which has been damaged badly by his behavior.

I dont believe they will get the money. The loans they think they are getting today is not enougg to appease the farmers. The loans GSB made to BAAC was done with lies that they were not for the farmers and are now being opposed by their unions.

The auctions are selling for below wholesale costs.

Without the loans the farmers will not be paid until there is a new PM.

Plus the arguments about making the loans constitutionally

Sent from my GT-S5310 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

The Government is getting its loans to pay the farmers so no need to wait for a new PM. No farmer support for the PDRC. Will the PDRC now file a lawsuit against the Government receiving the loans as unconstitutional, and thus deprive the farmers of their payments? Wouldn't that be an irony. And I thought Suthep lately (subject to change as the wind blows) supported the banks to make loans to the Government. It doesn't seem he believes (for the moment) the loans would be unconstitutional and he favored the Government paying the farmers. The PDRC has become a political merry-go-round and where it stops noone will know.