My wife's family are long time rice farmers from Surin. I spoke to them via an interpreter about what Thaksin had done for them as far as making their lives better. They laughed at that, saying they could not remember anything he had ever done to improve their lifestyle. They say that the taxi drivers in Bangkok were far better off than them because Thaksin bought them (with Government money) just like he bought the redshirts. Not all the poor rice farmers from Isan are staunch PTP fans.

I just love the 'my girlfriend's family/village/neighbours..' line.

Why not consider some facts;

During Thaksin's premiership;

• Income in the Northeast, the poorest part of the country, rose by 46% from 2001 to 2006.
• Nationwide poverty fell from 21.3% to 11.3%.
• Thailand's Gini coefficient, a measure of income inequality, fell from .525 in 2000 to .499 in 2004 (it had risen from 1996 to 2000)

Thaksin did ensure that the monies being shiphoned off were drastically increased and put into the hands of new political groups, and his own bank accounts. The offspring of the poor moved to the big cities , they remained poor but fell out of the assigned poor bracket. You had a whole passel of Thaksin followers that climbed the income ladder by leaps and bounds.

Thats some of the hard facts you seem to be grasping for after a implant of 3 more Prime minister and their accompanied luggage it has come back to a probable situation, which hurried Thaksin into going on the fugtive trail, to start with... Criminal activity, by those tasked with and entrusted to work for the good of all Thai's, not just the supporters.

"

Deputy Commerce Ministry permanent secretary Niwat Sutheemeechaikul said the pledged rice in government-run warehouses was safe to eat, as pesticides used to protect it from rice-eating bugs was covered by government safety standards."

Basically; we are saturating our rotting rice with toxic chemicals...........

The Thais with their hub mentality did see themselves as the Saudi Arabia and OPEC equivalent in the global rice market. This is actually the kindest interpretation of their rice scheme. That is, control the supply, jack up the price, the elites get richer, trickle down some to the farmers and everyone is happy.

This grandiose self view fails to recognize rice is not oil in various ways. Rice is a perishable commodity. Rice is not a vital commodity to most of the world which doesn't eat rice five times a day. Rice farming in Thailand is less efficient than in, for example, Vietnam, i.e., Thai farmers grow less rice per rai than other rice exporting countries. While Thailand produces some rice of some quality, most of the rice produced is, well, rice. The nutrition in rice is temporary, i.e., sugar, carbohydrates, not protein which builds body cells, to include brain cells.

So Thais, led by Thaksin the rice brain, have deluded themselves once again. Yes, as some posters have pointed out, Thailand now is trying to sell rice it deliberately had held in "reserve" that has turned out to be piled in storage for months and saturated with yummy pesticides.

It's amazing too to watch PTP deliberately and knowingly screw their own main constituency, the northern farmers in particular, in the corrupt from the outset rice scheme. Yingluck and PTP are panicking as the farmers who actually believed that PTP and Thaksin care about them instead are now organizing seriously against them.

It's a form of justice itself to watch PTP sweat this one through. The farmers, however, will still have learned nothing as they will finish their protests only to sit back to wait for the next handout of cash from the unprecedented baht 2 trillion corruption fund.

They just needed the Vietnamese, Cambodians, Indians and Chinese to play ball. A very united bunch where the Thais have massive influence.

Pfffff.

The Thais flat out blew it on every front, PTP first and foremost. The Thais cannot even organize a rice cartel which was the whole idea so each country could benefit, the Thai elites especially. The Thais can't organize a two car funeral.

The private companies have managed to achieve it through the old system by putting governments in their pockets.

His motivation here is to control the market and hurt the rice exporters by starving them off supply.

Result. Catastrophic mess.

The 100% predictable has happened as the rice scheme has necessarily turned into a stink. Thai farmers were fools to believe the government in the first place. Thais have the inherent ability to effect the reverse Midas touch in everything they do - guaranteed.

Of course they believed the government in the first place.........they were promised BIG money (and probably were paid for their votes). That is the Midas touch.

My wife's family are long time rice farmers from Surin. I spoke to them via an interpreter about what Thaksin had done for them as far as making their lives better. They laughed at that, saying they could not remember anything he had ever done to improve their lifestyle. They say that the taxi drivers in Bangkok were far better off than them because Thaksin bought them (with Government money) just like he bought the redshirts. Not all the poor rice farmers from Isan are staunch PTP fans.

I just love the 'my girlfriend's family/village/neighbours..' line.

Why not consider some facts;

During Thaksin's premiership;

• Income in the Northeast, the poorest part of the country, rose by 46% from 2001 to 2006.
• Nationwide poverty fell from 21.3% to 11.3%.
• Thailand's Gini coefficient, a measure of income inequality, fell from .525 in 2000 to .499 in 2004 (it had risen from 1996 to 2000)

Indeed after 1997 and the austerity regime under PM Chuan things started to pick up again just like the world economy. And now waiting for (reliable) figures after 2006 and put into a proper context as well. Please

Rather than see this as a classic episode of 'Yes, Minister' it reminds me of 'The Goon Show'.

To stoke the fire that the farmers are at last lighting, may I remind them of a slogan of yesteryear? "In six months everybody will be rich". I think 'everybody' should read 'everybody who matters', which may be translated as Thaksin and his motley crew.

Dear farmers,

in the 2011/2012 period your government lost THB 136 billion on 352 billion expenditure to make you rich. 2012/2013 will probably show similar figures. We, your government, think that being rich two times should be enough. There are many more deserving people in Thailand who have to be helped as well. Therefore your benevolent government has decided to accept the National Rice Policy Committee's decision to lower the pledge price for common paddy to 12,000 Baht. Our PM, Ms. Yingluck has assured us as well that she had no choice but the accept the reasoning given to her by the chairperson of the NRPC (who just happened to be herself).