Caretaker PM Yingluck dragged into rice subsidy scandal

[kurnell]

Dragged into??

hehe exactly she is neck deep into it already

In my opinion, I think she jumped into it with eyes wide open. From the very beginning.

Purse open too

[Trembly]

Excuse of course will be that : as she has never actually attended a meeting of the committee which she chairs she cant be held responsible.

That's the same kind of thing I was thinking. It seems likely that Thaksin has told her all along which committees to head up, what official functions to get involved in and what policies to push through government. She is probably the most confused of anybody about why she may be investigated. If you don't really understand what you are doing every day or what is happening around you, it must be very confusing when the sh*t hits the fan and lands on you.

Does anybody else have a bit of sympathy for this woman and feel that maybe is really mostly a victim of her big brother and not actually responsible for all the cock ups this government has made?

I think it's patently obvious that she is just following orders, either from Thaksin or her Thaksin appointed minders. She therefore does carry diminished responsibility for the mess.

Chalerm was supposed to be her main minder/rottweiler at the beginning but he kept making her feel small which in the end contributed to him getting the boot from Big Brother.

Edited January 17, 2014 by Trembly

[Arkady]

The Corrections Department is preparing tender documents for interior designers to outfit another VIP cell in its Dubai facility and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is printing up another life-time supply of the special edition diplomatic passport for fugitive ex-PMs.

[Arkady]

I don't remember the word "caretaker" ever being used before the recent protests. It wasn't used when she was "elected" before.

According to the constitution the government becomes a caretaker administration as soon as the PM has dissolved parliament, until the next government can be formed and approved by the King after elections, and the all the ministers are properly referred to as caretaker ministers. That is the reason you didn't see the PM referred to as a caretaker PM before the dissolution of parliament.

[englishoak]

sadly this is true many farmers that the government havent paid yet are loaning money from the very same bank that cant afford to pay them. The irony right! a frie d of mine her family is in that very situation living in sisaket being rice farmers

........and they voted for........and they will vote for them again.....serves them right for being stupid!!!!

ahhh come on you try being shafted and ignored forever got little education then someone comes along sorts out your mums health your wages go up delivers a raise in living standards of a huge uplift and then sells you a rice pledge and you wouldnt buy into it ? naa of course you wouldnt... much

No way would I!!!

Two main reasons - Thaksin Shinawatra and stupid populist policies that I and many other sane people realised would unravel.

I appreciate that the people involved are pretty much uneducated on politics so I suppose that they sort of have an excuse in a way!!!

I have been into politics all my life and I can see through all of what is going on so it didn't take me very long to establish where my loyalties lie. Only one thing, I cannot understand for the life of me how so many farangs can be duped so easily when it is so blatantly obvious who the 'bad guys' are. Even then their loyalties stick when they are shown up for what they are (confused to the extreme by this irrational behaviour of theirs)!!

Thats not what I asked I was asking you to imagine you were one of them with all that means including the education lack of political interest etc etc

I have no illusion about any of this rice scheme and its flaws but we have the luxury of a much better understanding about many things the farmers do not, these people in the main are blissfully unaware and unassuming someone is out to screw them up, If you havn't spent any time in rural Thailand I highly recommend it, the life is hard but the people are not deserving of this abuse, when they are told this or that they tend to believe what they see and thats all, they have little concept of political manipulation or being set up.

You are blessed with a an education and advanced 1st world values, please dont be so quick to judge those who simply have no understanding in politics or have little education and less in their fortune of where they were born in terms of the support they receive or ever have.

By all means call for YS etc to pay the price but please dont sit there and tell me these farmers deserve to be ruined for supporting the only party that has ever in the history of this country seemed to consider and have been proven in the past to have helped them.

[Crushdepth]

Yingluck is looking stressed.......

ying.jpg

That's a pout if ever I've seen one. She must have missed the EC's comments in the papers this morning.

[belg]

they could declare bankrupcy and rice can be sold to the highest bidder, loooooooooooooooooooooooooooool

[harrry]

Yingluck is looking stressed.......

ying.jpg

Normal for a Thai that look. My niece looks the same when I turn off the wifi and she cannot Line.

Edited January 20, 2014 by harrry

[Crushdepth]

What a dumb headline. She's head of the govt, she is head of the rice scam committee, she basically instigated the whole dam_n thing (on behalf of her brother). She is most responsible of all.

As usual we have totally confusing numbers being thrown around, however they did finally give us some interesting figures a couple of days back so its much clearer just how much has been lost.

In the 3 years since starting the project until 2012-13 season the govt said it bought 50m tons costing 700billion baht (average cost per ton B14,000).

They admitted they still had 10m tons in storage with 5m tons awaiting shipment. Now it wasnt clear if the 5m was part of the 10m or additional stock, but lets be generous and assume they do have 15m tones left to sell. They also confirmed they had only managed to bring in 180billion so far and as they appear to have sold 35m tons (average cost per ton B5,100) for that, we can reasonably assume the remaining rice will be sold at a similar rate, giving them another 80billion for a grand total of 260 billion being made. So Thailand has lost at least USD15 billion over the past 3 years on this scam.

I believe there are something like 1million farmers involved in the scheme so in fact they could have simply paid each farmer B100,000 each year instead and saved around USD 5 billion... and not ruined the countries position in the global rice market.

What!! you mean as in precisely that which Abhisit suggested before they embarked upon this pathetic scam. Did they listen to the experts warnings? no, Thaksin didn't and now they are going to have to pay for it, in spades!!!

Serves them right for being so naïve and stupid!!

The government knew what it was doing. This is by design, not negligence.

[scorecard]

What a dumb headline. She's head of the govt, she is head of the rice scam committee, she basically instigated the whole dam_n thing (on behalf of her brother). She is most responsible of all.

As usual we have totally confusing numbers being thrown around, however they did finally give us some interesting figures a couple of days back so its much clearer just how much has been lost.

In the 3 years since starting the project until 2012-13 season the govt said it bought 50m tons costing 700billion baht (average cost per ton B14,000).

They admitted they still had 10m tons in storage with 5m tons awaiting shipment. Now it wasnt clear if the 5m was part of the 10m or additional stock, but lets be generous and assume they do have 15m tones left to sell. They also confirmed they had only managed to bring in 180billion so far and as they appear to have sold 35m tons (average cost per ton B5,100) for that, we can reasonably assume the remaining rice will be sold at a similar rate, giving them another 80billion for a grand total of 260 billion being made. So Thailand has lost at least USD15 billion over the past 3 years on this scam.

I believe there are something like 1million farmers involved in the scheme so in fact they could have simply paid each farmer B100,000 each year instead and saved around USD 5 billion... and not ruined the countries position in the global rice market.

What!! you mean as in precisely that which Abhisit suggested before they embarked upon this pathetic scam. Did they listen to the experts warnings? no, Thaksin didn't and now they are going to have to pay for it, in spades!!!

Serves them right for being so naïve and stupid!!

The government knew what it was doing. This is by design, not negligence.

You mean they planned all along to get to a point where:

- They would attempt to rush a very controversial change to the law through the parliament at 3.30am in the morning, hoping that everybody would be asleep and wouldn't notice?

- The rice scam has been revealed for what it is - a scam?

- It's been stated publically by the appropriate check and balance agency that the puppet will be investigated for corruption and dereliction of duty?

- They cannot pay the farmers, and they then say they will use general deposits (funds owned by depositors but currently held 'safe' by the bank?

- They would try to take the above action even though it could well spark a serious downgrade of Thailand credit ratings by the international rating agencies and seriously damage investor confidence?

- When the EC says they can't use depositors funds they blame the EC for their predicament?

That's enough for starters.