Burmese smugglers get rich on Yingluck Shinawatra's £13 billion Thai rice subsidies

[ratcatcher]

This article is in the category of propaganda or agitprop. Putting all issues of the rightness or wrongness of the rice pledging scheme aside, the reporter blames all the Thai/Burma smuggling on Ms. Yingluck.

He claims that as long as the Burmese army turns an eye away from illegal activity it can be carried on freely. He makes no mention of the complicity on the Thai side. Who trucked it out the Thai warehouses, who let it pass the Thai military border lines, who announced that it would be available and ready to ship?

This story is pure nonsense and nothing more than the Thai establishment and The Nation trolling around for slapped together stories masquerading as news that favors bringing down the elected government in favor of a "people's council" designated by the protest leadership. It never looks at decades and decades of reciprocal smuggling in humans, drugs, and commodities between Thailand and Burma. This Thai/Burma smuggling is not a phenomenon of Ms. Yingluck or her brother whether you like them or not.

"......as news that favors bringing down the elected government.."

Do we have an elected government? A little premature I'd say.

BTW, the establishment and The Nation don't really need to try and bring down the PTP, they are doing a sterling job on their own.

[Artisi]

So are these Burmese farmers not also waiting for payment?

They got paid in cash (maybe £20-22 for 50kg) by those Thais who are now waiting for the govt tp pay out £30.

Spot-on, as obvious as balls on a dog, but that's ok it was just part of the corruption perpetrated by PTP and all their mates - wink wink.

[Bluespunk]

Tell me Thaksin doesn't have a tentacle or two involved in buying rice in Burma and selling it in Thailand. What a great way to fleece the government coffers.

Sounds like the type of scheme the anti-government protesters would dream up; underhanded and designed to destabilize King and country.

Nope, the blame for this state of affairs lies squarely with PT and no one else. They created a scheme that was from the start unworkable, illogical, inept and made no provision for any thing like this. Was never going to work and criminal enterprises like this only made a stupid scheme worse.

[jonclark]

This article is in the category of propaganda or agitprop. Putting all issues of the rightness or wrongness of the rice pledging scheme aside, the reporter blames all the Thai/Burma smuggling on Ms. Yingluck.

He claims that as long as the Burmese army turns an eye away from illegal activity it can be carried on freely. He makes no mention of the complicity on the Thai side. Who trucked it out the Thai warehouses, who let it pass the Thai military border lines, who announced that it would be available and ready to ship?

This story is pure nonsense and nothing more than the Thai establishment and The Nation trolling around for slapped together stories masquerading as news that favors bringing down the elected government in favor of a "people's council" designated by the protest leadership. It never looks at decades and decades of reciprocal smuggling in humans, drugs, and commodities between Thailand and Burma. This Thai/Burma smuggling is not a phenomenon of Ms. Yingluck or her brother whether you like them or not.

Whilst smuggling is not a new phenomena - The smuggling rice into Thailand certainly is! And unlike the smuggling of commodities, humans and drugs. The price paid for the smuggled rice in Thai warehouses and mills comes directly from the funds of the taxpayer via the Thai government.

So whilst you broadly defend YL from the smuggling charge, clearly the policies (specifically the price aspect of these policies) which her government implemented underpin the reversal in the direction to which rice moves over Thai borders.

The flow of rice into Thailand is obviously widespread and well known (if a single western journo can find evidence of smuggling, then i'm sure the Thais and Thai agencies have been well aware of it for a lot longer). Which begs the question why has no action been taken to stem a flow which results is widespread loss to the Thai taxpayer?

As PM she is directly responsible. The buck stops with her, she and she alone is responsible for the successes and failures of her governments policies.

That is a perk of the job

[KRS1]

Thaksin : " If i cant beat Thailand, then i will destroy it..."

[robblok]

This article is in the category of propaganda or agitprop. Putting all issues of the rightness or wrongness of the rice pledging scheme aside, the reporter blames all the Thai/Burma smuggling on Ms. Yingluck.

He claims that as long as the Burmese army turns an eye away from illegal activity it can be carried on freely. He makes no mention of the complicity on the Thai side. Who trucked it out the Thai warehouses, who let it pass the Thai military border lines, who announced that it would be available and ready to ship?

This story is pure nonsense and nothing more than the Thai establishment and The Nation trolling around for slapped together stories masquerading as news that favors bringing down the elected government in favor of a "people's council" designated by the protest leadership. It never looks at decades and decades of reciprocal smuggling in humans, drugs, and commodities between Thailand and Burma. This Thai/Burma smuggling is not a phenomenon of Ms. Yingluck or her brother whether you like them or not.

"......as news that favors bringing down the elected government.."

Do we have an elected government? A little premature I'd say.

BTW, the establishment and The Nation don't really need to try and bring down the PTP, they are doing a sterling job on their own.

I don't understand that this government is not indicted as there is so much proof of corruption. The person chairing this fiasco should be held repsonsible and should be removed from polics and maybe some jailtime if it can be proven that PTP leeched off money.

Everyone told them this would end up in tears numerous times it was said it a dead end.. and they covered it up by lies.. bullying people that came out to warn. The person chairing this disaster should be charged... i mean lying stealing.. thieving.

[skorchio]

Is it now clearer why the Chinese canceled the deal? They have no idea what they would be buying, just as the Thais have no idea what they are holding / selling.

Worst case scenario is that all the rice is considered unfit for sale, purchase and indeed human consumption by the time they get this shit sorted out. The champion policy of Duckies tenure at the helm will be the one that banishes the fam from the Kingdom. And the air is heavy with smell of fresh Thai jasmin and som nom naaaaa

[EyesWideOpen]

Whew !!!! Am so happy to read that at least someone is making money from the rice scam.....

[ALLSEEINGEYE]

Where are all the TVF pro-gov apologists like PRBkk and other trolls when stories like this are printed? I guess it is too hard to try and put a bulls@#$ spin on something this obvious? Surely this has to be the Dem's fault too boys??? Come on let's hear it......I am waiting.

[Utley]

Tell me Thaksin doesn't have a tentacle or two involved in buying rice in Burma and selling it in Thailand. What a great way to fleece the government coffers.

Sounds like the type of scheme the anti-government protesters would dream up; underhanded and designed to destabilize King and country.

Nope, the blame for this state of affairs lies squarely with PT and no one else. They created a scheme that was from the start unworkable, illogical, inept and made no provision for any thing like this. Was never going to work and criminal enterprises like this only made a stupid scheme worse.

No argument there; but that was not the point of my post. The original post started off with the phrase "Tell me" - and I complied with his wishes.

[Basil B]

Scrap the rice subsidies?

I do not think that will make the farmers happy...

[mightyatom]

How about Lao, Cambodian and Malaysian smugglers? How rich have they got at the Thai taxpayers expense?

How foolish can the government get?

I don't think this is incompetence on the part of the government. I would expect that many government officials are deeply involved in this smuggling, and especially from Cambodia.

It is one thing to smuggle a load of yabba in the back of a car or over the border at night by paying off border guards. It is another thing trying to move a convoy of truckloads across the borders without the help of many levels of officials from the border guards to the local government to the government themselves.

The only reason the government are stupid, is that it will probably one all come out into the open, but the money and people will be long gone from justice.

NO STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS PLEASE!

[craigt3365]

A post referencing the royal family along with a few associated replies have been removed from view.

[fleeing]

Where are all the TVF pro-gov apologists like PRBkk and other trolls when stories like this are printed? I guess it is too hard to try and put a bulls@#$ spin on something this obvious? Surely this has to be the Dem's fault too boys??? Come on let's hear it......I am waiting.

While there are plenty of posters here with diametrically opposite views, I hardly think it fair to pick PRBkk out as a troll. As much as I generally disagree with him, to be fair he does not only post comments congratulating Yingluck.

[Loles]

aaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAA .....

[Loles]

sorry for double aaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAA .....

Edited February 5, 2014 by Loles

[DrTuner]

You create an artificial price difference, you get smuggling. Ain't exactly rocket science.

[DrTuner]

Scrap the rice subsidies?

I do not think that will make the farmers happy...

They aren't that stupid, next year if the scheme is still on they'll only go for cash on delivery. And that means the government is not the buyer, the scheme has lost it's credibility.

[retsdon]

There used to be a lot of cattle from Eire sold in the North for the same reason - to get the subsidy that wasn't available south of the border. The fact is that any time you have a price differential there will be people to exploit it. That's just how it is.

The rice scheme has been a shambles, but it's probably no worse than some of the EU agricultural policy CUMFUs down the years. The milk lake, the wheat mountain, the wine lake, the beef mountain, etc, etc. In addition, some European farmers were getting 70% of their total income in DIRECT payments, never mind the subsidies on what they sold. And they found in Croatia that 80% of the dairy cow subsidy was being paid for cows that hadn't ever been born!

Was Yingluck's rice scheme a shambles? Yes. Was it expensive? Yes. But it was in no way exceptionally bad by international standards, and to hold it up as grounds for tearing up the constitution and plunging the country into political crisis is a lot of nonsense really. But to gullible it provides an excuse to get PTP out from behind the wheel before an inevitable and probably not too distant very important but sad event occurs. No time to lose.

[JRSoul]

There used to be a lot of cattle from Eire sold in the North for the same reason - to get the subsidy that wasn't available south of the border. The fact is that any time you have a price differential there will be people to exploit it. That's just how it is.

The rice scheme has been a shambles, but it's probably no worse than some of the EU agricultural policy CUMFUs down the years. The milk lake, the wheat mountain, the wine lake, the beef mountain, etc, etc. In addition, some European farmers were getting 70% of their total income in DIRECT payments, never mind the subsidies on what they sold. And they found in Croatia that 80% of the dairy cow subsidy was being paid for cows that hadn't ever been born!

Was Yingluck's rice scheme a shambles? Yes. Was it expensive? Yes. But it was in no way exceptionally bad by international standards, and to hold it up as grounds for tearing up the constitution and plunging the country into political crisis is a lot of nonsense really. But to gullible it provides an excuse to get PTP out from behind the wheel before an inevitable and probably not too distant very important but sad event occurs. No time to lose.

Another "little Johnny did it too" post.

[retsdon]

There used to be a lot of cattle from Eire sold in the North for the same reason - to get the subsidy that wasn't available south of the border. The fact is that any time you have a price differential there will be people to exploit it. That's just how it is.

The rice scheme has been a shambles, but it's probably no worse than some of the EU agricultural policy CUMFUs down the years. The milk lake, the wheat mountain, the wine lake, the beef mountain, etc, etc. In addition, some European farmers were getting 70% of their total income in DIRECT payments, never mind the subsidies on what they sold. And they found in Croatia that 80% of the dairy cow subsidy was being paid for cows that hadn't ever been born!

Was Yingluck's rice scheme a shambles? Yes. Was it expensive? Yes. But it was in no way exceptionally bad by international standards, and to hold it up as grounds for tearing up the constitution and plunging the country into political crisis is a lot of nonsense really. But to gullible it provides an excuse to get PTP out from behind the wheel before an inevitable and probably not too distant very important but sad event occurs. No time to lose.

Another "little Johnny did it too" post.

No, just a dose of perspective. Some people seem in urgent need of it.