Thai government defends chaos-mired rice policy

[Lite Beer]

Thai government defends chaos-mired rice policy

BANGKOK, February 5, 2014 (AFP) - Thailand's embattled government on Wednesday defended a much-criticised rice subsidy scheme after a Chinese firm cancelled a one million tonne order for stockpiled grain, following a graft probe into Thai officials.

The populist scheme, which paid farmers above market rates for rice, has become a lightning rod for anger among anti-government protesters who say it has engendered widespread graft, punched a hole in Thai public finances and dislodged the kingdom from its position as the world's top rice exporter.

Disrupted elections last Sunday have failed to ease the pressure on Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, with experts saying a series of legal moves -- including one over the rice policy -- threaten to erode her authority and potentially bring down her government.

The collapse of the Chinese deal was announced by Thailand's Commerce Ministry on Tuesday following charges by the kingdom's anti-graft body against Thai officials including a former minister.

Defending the rice scheme, Yingluck told reporters on Wednesday night that "everyone is trying to help farmers".

Rice farmers from the central provinces have threatened to march on the commerce ministry in Bangkok on Thursday in protest at lack of payment for the crops they pledged to the scheme.

"The government was trying its best to keep its monetary discipline... we all sympathise with the farmers who suffer (from late payments)," Yingluck said.

Current Commerce Minister Niwatthamrong Boonsongpaisal tried to calm fears Thailand is unable to shift its vast rice stockpile -- estimated at nearly 20 million tonnes -- saying a separate deal with the Chinese government still stands.

Populist policies

"The contract for one million tonnes is separate and they (China) said they will still buy Thai rice," he told AFP, adding the government will soon auction off another 400,000 tonnes of its rice inventory.

It desperately needs the money to pay farmers across the country for rice they have pledged for the scheme -- one of a series of populist policies under Yingluck's administration.

Instead of driving up global prices for the commodity, the scheme led buyers to turn to India and Vietnam, leaving Thailand with a rice mountain.

The government blames three months of demonstrations on Bangkok's streets for derailing the scheme, with Yingluck saying her administration's powers have been limited after the dissolution of parliament in December.

It has been reluctant to reveal the full cost of the scheme or the exact size of its rice stockpile.

But firebrand protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban seized on the collapse of the Chinese deal as another sign of rot at the heart of the subsidy scheme, which opponents say amounted to massive vote-buying by the Shinawatra clan in its rural base.

"They will take more than three years to sell 18 million tonnes of rice," he said.

In January the National Anti-Corruption Commission opened a probe into possible negligence of duty by Yingluck in connection with the rice scheme.

The panel said it would consider whether she had violated criminal law, but did not say what punishment she could face if found guilty.

The panel will charge 15 other people, including a former commerce minister, with corruption over the policy.

-- (c) Copyright AFP 2014-02-05

[zydeco]

Yingluck to farmers: "I feel your pain."

[ratcatcher]

[rubl]

Blame the protesters, easy!

Mind you, fiscal discipline would have 'reserved' sufficient funds or made a strict planning for when money could be distributed. The administration's powers would cover that.

Not covered is trying to borrow more money because a 500 billion Baht fund is not revolving, rice is not being sold, extra billions already lent and still 130 billion extra needed.

So, again a lot of 'nightsoil of a well-fed oxen' from Ms. Yingluck.

[Siripon]

As chairwoman of the rice mortgage scheme she must take responsibility for the utter fiaso and failure it has become, resignation is the only dignified exit.

[petedk]

Yingluck to farmers: "I feel your pain."

Yes, she certainly feels their pain with her assets of 603 million.

[dinom]

"The government was trying its best to keep its monetary discipline..."

[bubblegum]

With tears in her eyes (again) she said we must do everything we can to help the poor farmers...................

And she did without

[Arkady]

I guess this latest Chinese company that cancelled its order for 1,2m tons of rotten Thai rice was another fake deal and they got scared. The company seems to have no website or any google emotions apart from this aborted deal

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

[Basil B]

after a Chinese firm cancelled a one million tonne order for stockpiled grain, following a graft probe into Thai officials.

I hope the probe is continuing, about time Thai citizens woke up to just how much they are being robbed of, and by who.

Edited February 5, 2014 by Basil B

[LadPhrao123]

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."
Theodore Roosevelt

[petedk]

I guess this latest Chinese company that cancelled its order for 1,2m tons of rotten Thai rice was another fake deal and they got scared. The company seems to have no website or any google emotions apart from this aborted deal

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

Maybe it's not Thai rice.

I just read the following:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/thailand/10618134/Burmese-smugglers-get-rich-on-Yingluck-Shinawatras-13-billion-Thai-rice-subsidies.html

[Commander Tamson]

She wasn't forced, if you recall, to dissolve Parliament. She volunteered it. It was an easy-out for her.

The sad truth however is that the die-hard reds believe every word she says.

[Thait Spot]

There's something rotten in the state of Yingluck

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[Artisi]

The government defends the chaos mired rice policy, what is there to defend. It was stuffed from day one and only made worse by PTP and its useless brown-nosing politicians manipulating the scheme for their own benefit and fighting for a share of the spoils.

[MacWalen]

It is a difficult situation indeed. I am confused myself what to think about it. Farmers are simple people but they must have known that it was not possible to pay them so much above the market price. it was not 5-10% but over 50% so now we have this result. If government starts selling it now it will decrease prices on the world markets and government will make even more loss and will be blamed for this as it is obviously idiotic policy to but from farmers for more and sell it for less. Also it is totally wicked policy to decrease supply of rice on the world markets to force the increase of price of this basic food as there is already a lot of poverty and hunger. Thaksin was hoping for the price to go up. Very evil and wicked thinking.

[davehowden]

Darling (Ying-no-luk), when your in a big hole, stop digging!

[northernjohn]

How much money could they get if they dropped the false game of selling at a profit or break even and just sold it as food for animals?

It would probably be a big savings once they didn't have to pay the storage price every month. Mind you more than a few politicians leasing storage facilities to the government and getting their check every month would be shall we say upset.

[Mister Fixit]

'I feel your pain three times' ...

[djjamie]

"The government blames"…At least they are consistent in blaming someone else for everything they have done.

Imagine the PTP on the Titanic.

"The ships sinking"…….. "No it isn't"

"The ships going down"……... "No it isn't. The water is rising"

"The life rafts are rowing away from the ship"…….. "No there not. The life rafts are stationary and the ship is moving"

"My feet are wet"…….""Your sweating too much"

"I can't breath"……."It is your imagination. It must be the cold weather playing tricks with your mind"

"I am dying"...…."No your not. If you die I promise to behead myself"

Then when the ship sinks;

"The ship has sunk"…….."Where is the proof"

"We found the ship"….."Not our fault"

"There is a hole in the side from an iceberg"

BLAME THE ICEBERG. Demonize the iceberg. Evil iceberg. Or in this case….."Riceberg"

Hard to argue with stupidity heay.

Let em believe the rice scheme is a success and see what happens.

Edited February 5, 2014 by djjamie

[Neilly]

Thaksin was hoping for the price to go up. Very evil and wicked thinking.

He wasn't just hoping the price would go up....he was going to try and restrict the market and so force prices higher...unfortunately for him India stared selling it's rice again on the world market and pi55ed on his bonfire

[djjamie]

Thaksin was hoping for the price to go up. Very evil and wicked thinking.

He wasn't just hoping the price would go up....he was going to try and restrict the market and so force prices higher...unfortunately for him India stared selling it's rice again on the world market and pi55ed on his bonfire

Keep that one to yourself, the UDD supporters will share the blame between India, the EC, the DEMS and the PDRC protestors for Thailands failed scheme otherwise.

[bigbamboo]

As chairwoman of the rice mortgage scheme she must take responsibility for the utter fiaso and failure it has become, resignation is the only dignified exit.

Kittirat's failure to ensure that the thieves left enough money in the pot to pay the farmers should be reason enough for his resignation too.

[Scamper]

" The government was trying its best to keep its monetary discipline... "

One wonders what would happen if Yingluck were actually wired into a polygraph test while she made these statements, although there is the scary possibility she might actually pass the test with flying colours, as her entire physiological responses would merely confirm the electrical patterns of one who doesn't really grasp the meaning of the assertion.

[ratcatcher]

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

Theodore Roosevelt

A quote by Teddy Roosevelt used to praise Yingluck.................very good.

OR maybe

If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month.

Theodore Roosevelt

[JesseFrank]

I guess this latest Chinese company that cancelled its order for 1,2m tons of rotten Thai rice was another fake deal and they got scared. The company seems to have no website or any google emotions apart from this aborted deal

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

Another member posted here a few days a go the details of the company. The sole representative of the Chinese company also happened to be the personal assistant of one of the red leaders wife .

[MK1]

The reason why the Chinese have cold feet is perhaps because the Rice scheme was a contra deal where possible no money actually changed hands in exchange to build Mega projects in Thailand like the high-speed rail system. The money would have perhaps been siphoned off locally from loaned project funds to pay back rice farmer in the end anyway but now that the cat is out of the bag, so to speak, no one will speak no-evil, particularly while the rice deal has been cancelled. Chinese walls have been erected on this scam …Opps, I mean scheme.

[Commander Tamson]

Thaksin was hoping for the price to go up. Very evil and wicked thinking.

He wasn't just hoping the price would go up....he was going to try and restrict the market and so force prices higher...unfortunately for him India stared selling it's rice again on the world market and pi55ed on his bonfire

And yet he is still hero worshipped. When he dies (sooner rather than later one hopes) they'll built statues and make plastic effigies of him and then pray to him on a daily basis.

[MacWalen]

There are many who worship Adolf Hitler too. Trying to make food expensive is criminal. I see no good in it.

Sent from my GT-I9190 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[ratcatcher]

I guess this latest Chinese company that cancelled its order for 1,2m tons of rotten Thai rice was another fake deal and they got scared. The company seems to have no website or any google emotions apart from this aborted deal

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

Another member posted here a few days a go the details of the company. The sole representative of the Chinese company also happened to be the personal assistant of one of the red leaders wife .

http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/pm-yingluck-probed-connection-fake-rice-deal/