Unpaid Thai rice farmers allege intimidation as protest ends

[ourmanflint]

^Same thing the Democratic Yellow masters do with their minions.

Another contender for the stupidest post of the year and its not even the end of the first month.

It's pointless even posting a comment on TV at the moment, too many trolls who thing they know it all. If some of the commentators really believe what they say then they are as messed up as the political system in Thailand. For those that claim to stand for or know what democracy is. You've proven the opposite with you're comments.

It does make you wonder about the type of foreigners choosing Thailand as their home doesn't it?

[Crushdepth]

but the reds will soon be telling them all to vote again for their master ..heres a couple of hundred bant for food

WAKE UP THAILAND

Why is intimidation only wrong when red-shirts are alleged to be doing the intimidating, this is exactly what the protesters have been doing in Bangkok for the last 3 months, that all of you have turned a blind eye to.

You need to wake up to the truth!

Cheers

Well you may not have noticed in your rural village, but those who oppose Thaksin have been suffering red shirt intimidation, sometimes lethal and usually violent, for more than 8 years. And many of the "red leaders" who incited much of it are now PTP MPs, delaying the court cases that will see them jailed for many years.

Case in point: Farmers protesting about not being paid for their crop (for 5 months) are publicly labelled as "fake farmers" by red shirt leader Thida and subjected to harassment and threats.

Bloody disgusting IMHO and shows the real priorities/payroll of the red shirt leaders. Rural Thailand needs to dump these reptiles, start their own political party and start representing themselves.

[MGP]

One thing I do know for sure, and I can prove it with photos if anyone doesn't believe, is that plain clothes police were taking photos of all the Lop buri and Chai nat farmers who were protesting (blocking Asia Rd) at Lop buri last weekend.

Seems a strange thing to do unless there is some scheme to lay charges against them in the future.

Whatever, I can tell you the farmers and others with them felt intimidated to the extent that they were covering their faces.

Love to see someone interview thida, nattawut and jatuporn on this point, and some general questions on the non-payment of farmers, and push them for specific answers.

Not going to happen of course.

Yes, it happened. And this is the answer from Nattawut:

[smileydude]

Some Facts:

The BAAC has only about 3.1 billion left in its account.

The government currently owes about 100 billion to farmers in the rice-pledging scheme.

The government will owe a total of 190 billion baht by the time rice harvesting is over in February.

The Finance Ministry has approved the borrowing of over a100 billion baht in loans but no financial institution (in their right mind?) has come forward to offer loans that have no collateral and looks like a black hole.

The farmers are suffering as can be seen from the protests and suicides and the entire program is obviously a failure.

conclusion:

Time for the government to own up to its mistake and solve the problem instead of just trying to save its own ass.

Rice subsidies as good as they are for getting votes are not feasible in the long run as a single country cannot dictate world rice prices by hoarding. When you factor in corruption via middlemen and most of the gains going to wealthy landowners and rice millers very little actually benefits the average rice farmer or encourages competitive and efficient farming practices aside from subsidy handouts.

[djjamie]

Northern Farmers Network chairman Kittisak Rattanawaraha said most farmers in his network would not vote for Pheu Thai.

But all the Thai people I know think she is wonderful!