Alert over rice rally in Bangkok

[webfact]

Alert over rice rally
The Nation


Farmers continue their days-long protest at the Commerce Ministry to demand payment from the government
NSC fears violence as more farmers team up with PDRC protesters

BANGKOK: -- The National Security Council (NSC) yesterday warned of a possible escalation in violence as rice farmers link up with anti-government protesters to mount pressure on Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her crew to step down.

Thousands of farmers have vowed to rally today at the Office of the Permanent Secretary for Defence to demand not only that the government's rice-pledging scheme pay them, but also that the whole Cabinet step down to let others solve the problem for them.

Yingluck reportedly often works at this office instead of Government House after the anti-government People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) sprang up and won solid support from Bangkok residents.

NSC secretary-general Paradorn Pattanatabut said flocks of farmers have now taken to the streets to seek overdue payment and the PDRC is apparently keen on wooing them to its side.

Some of the farmers have already shown up on PDRC stages in the past few days and some of them have petitioned the anti-graft body to investigate the controversial rice scheme and impeach the government.

The PDRC will today go on another fund-raising march to help the farmers' fight for their claim to payment after the first such drive last Friday.

The government's rice-pledging scheme now owes about Bt130 billion to over one million farmers. The repeatedly postponed payments have made many farmers desperate and others furious.

Protesting farmers have come from many provinces, including some seen as the Pheu Thai Party's strongholds.

Northern Farmers Network chairman Kittisak Rattanawaraha said more than 10,000 farmers from his zone have already headed to Bangkok to join the demonstration.

Hundreds of farmers were seen leaving Phitsanulok for Bangkok for the same cause.

"Violent incidents have often taken place at the PDRC rally site on Chaeng Wattana Road," Paradorn said.

This rally site is close to the Defence Permanent Secretary's Office, where the farmers will converge today.

Paradorn remained vague about whether Yingluck would meet with the farmers.

"If she does not come to the office, other ministers will directly talk to the farmers," he said.

Caretaker Commerce Minister Niwatthumrong Boonsongpaisan said he was ready to go to the farmers' rally site in front of the Commerce Ministry, where they have camped out for days already.

"In fact, they don't even need to come to the Defence Permanent Secretary's Office," he said.

The government is now planning to consult the Election Commission (EC) on the legality of using Bt1.2 billion from the central budget for the payment of interest to rice millers who agree to accept farmers' certificates in the rice-pledging scheme as mortgages for loans.

The government has been struggling for months to secure a bridge loan to continue financing the rice-pledging scheme.

After Yingluck dissolved the House of Representatives on December 9, her government is just a caretaker and needs EC approval on several issues.

Election Commissioner Somchai Srisuthiyakorn said on Facebook that there was no point in the government consulting the EC on the interest payment proposal because the Cabinet has not yet issued a resolution on the issue.

Nipon Poapongsakorn of the Thailand Development Research Institute suggested that the government ask the Council of State to approve a plan for the government to provide interest payments to commercial banks that agree to accept the farmers' certificates as loan collateral.

Caretaker Deputy Commerce Minister Yanyong Phuangrach said the ministry would release 1.2 million tonnes of rice from the government's stocks on Thursday in the hope that it would earn Bt10 billion to pay off farmers for the latest crop under the rice-pledging scheme, Nation Channel reported. Some 227,000 tonnes from 11 granaries in eight provinces would be offered through the Agricultural Futures Exchange of Thailand, of which 167,000 tonnes will be 5-per-cent white rice and the rest jasmine rice.

Some 460,000 tonnes will be sold through a general auction and the remaining 500,000 tonnes to millers.

Manus Kitprasert, president of the Thai Rice Millers Association, said he would circulate letters to members to inform them that the government has proposed to sell rice to them.

"We are ready to buy the rice from the government, but the rice we buy will be at the same prices as those set by the general bidding," he said.

Will the government be able to arrange a mortgage of farmers' rice-pledging certificates via rice millers? The mortgage is the latest proposed solution to the rice-pledging project's repeatedly postponed payments to farmers.

Government: The government has been struggling to find money to continue financing its rice-pledging project for months already. It now hopes that rice millers can help. If the plan goes ahead, farmers will be able to mortgage certificates they got for rice submitted under the scheme to millers and get money quickly. The government will pay interest for 'mortgage' funds using Bt1.2 billion from a central budget. Farmers will not get fully paid via this option, but will at least get some funds now and get the remaining portion later.

Due to its caretaker status, the current government cannot simply pull out money from the central budget. It would need to consult the Election Commission (EC) first.

EC commissioner Somchai Srisuthiyakorn:

_ The government will need to determine first whether this is a budget request for an emergency and possible under laws. If yes, the Cabinet must issue a resolution to make a budget request before raising the matter with the EC.

_ The EC will not grant any approval if there is no Cabinet resolution.


-- The Nation 2014-02-10

[EricBerg]

"Yingluck reportedly often works at this office"...

Doing her nails is work?

"NSC secretary-general Paradorn Pattanatabut said flocks of farmers have now taken to the streets"...

Again wrong choice of words, the farmers are no sheep anymore.

[ShannonT]

"Yingluck reportedly often works at this office"...

Doing her nails is work?

Do you have a link to the source of this claim?

If not, then please don't post worthless nonsense.

If I want such nonsense, I can ask my 5 year old. I expect a little bit more from discussion forum.

[EricBerg]

"Yingluck reportedly often works at this office"...

Doing her nails is work?

Do you have a link to the source of this claim?

If not, then please don't post worthless nonsense.

If I want such nonsense, I can ask my 5 year old. I expect a little bit more from discussion forum.

Presiding over the rice scheme committee, yet never ever attending a single meeting is another part of her work I suppose.

[ShannonT]

"Yingluck reportedly often works at this office"...

Doing her nails is work?

Do you have a link to the source of this claim?

If not, then please don't post worthless nonsense.

If I want such nonsense, I can ask my 5 year old. I expect a little bit more from discussion forum.

Presiding over the rice scheme committee, yet never ever attending a single meeting is another part of her work I suppose.

Again, source for the information that she never attended a meeting?

And you still owe me the link where it says that she only makes her nails at the office.

[winstonc]

"Yingluck reportedly often works at this office"...

Doing her nails is work?

Do you have a link to the source of this claim?

If not, then please don't post worthless nonsense.

If I want such nonsense, I can ask my 5 year old. I expect a little bit more from discussion forum.

Presiding over the rice scheme committee, yet never ever attending a single meeting is another part of her work I suppose.

maybe its his 5 yr old typing his posts,cos you wouldnt expect rubbish from an adult ..ignore him eric devoid of humour..as per..

[rametindallas]

Of the 600 plus billion Baht the government has already spent on this project, 180 billion went to farmers. Had they not been quite so greedy, they would have kept enough money in reserve to keep the scheme going a little longer; but such is greed.

If the farmers should sides with Suthep and Co., this would create the 'perfect storm' that will surely sink the rotten, PTP, ship of state and all the rats that are still on board will either flee or drown. Since the Election Commission has no interest in propping up this corrupt government by letting them borrow billions (they understand they will be accountable to the next government), and the NACC in hot on the case of numerous corruption cases involving the Rice Scheme, and the Constitution Court is butthurt over the way they were disrespected by the government, I can't see the government has any allies left outside of each other. I pity the next government that has to straighten out the mess that took less than three years to create by Thaksin and his cronies. I sincerely hope the farmers, and everyone else, has learned a valuable lesson on politicians lying and promising the moon to get elected. A healthy distrust of government is good for democracy.

[newcomer71]

I am on the farmers side with all my heart, and I have a curiosity: who makes signs for them?

I expected handwritten signs in Thai language, but I see some nice printed sign with translation in English, I guess some good donation from some South philanthropist?

As they say: in love and in war (would we add in politics?) everything is fair!

[Yunla]

The real 'Amazing Thailand' is the hardworking and longsuffering agrarian workers. Their heart, spirit and indefatigability is remarkable, and they deserve a lot more than what successive Govts have given them. Its a modern tragedy that not only have their lives not improved under PTP, their crops were scammed from them and left to rot too. No amount of fancy words from the PTP can change this disaster that they have inflicted on the poorest and most loyal of citizens. The fact that the PTP leadership are sitting on a mountain of money, in their offshore accounts, while the rice farmers they swindled have to borrow from loan sharks and commit suicide from debt-stress, is a crime against humanity.

Edited February 10, 2014 by Yunla

[Phatcharanan]

"Yingluck reportedly often works at this office"...

Doing her nails is work?

Do you have a link to the source of this claim?

If not, then please don't post worthless nonsense.

If I want such nonsense, I can ask my 5 year old. I expect a little bit more from discussion forum.

Jeeeeez. Get a life.

[GentlemanJim]

"Yingluck reportedly often works at this office"...

Doing her nails is work?

Do you have a link to the source of this claim?

If not, then please don't post worthless nonsense.

If I want such nonsense, I can ask my 5 year old. I expect a little bit more from discussion forum.

Presiding over the rice scheme committee, yet never ever attending a single meeting is another part of her work I suppose.

Again, source for the information that she never attended a meeting?

And you still owe me the link where it says that she only makes her nails at the office.

He doesn't owe you anything so stop being so pompous. I pity your child in that you consider their input to you as worthless nonsense, conversation at the dinner table must be a laugh a minute in your house.

I fail to see how they are going to sell 1.2 M tons of rice on Thursday and if they do how does 10 Billion baht help, it still leaves them short by 120 Billion. To clear the debt they would need to sell around 15 million tons of good quality rice, which lets say is all of it (some figures range from stocks of 10M to 18M tons). If they sell it all and it just covers the current debt then where is the 600-800 Billion that has been spent already.......answer, lost and thieved, as they literally have nothing to show for it. All the rice in stock right now is only worth the amount of money owed to the farmers. In the USA some people would be looking at 50 year jail sentences over this.

[Siripon]

I am on the farmers side with all my heart, and I have a curiosity: who makes signs for them?

I expected handwritten signs in Thai language, but I see some nice printed sign with translation in English, I guess some good donation from some South philanthropist?

As they say: in love and in war (would we add in politics?) everything is fair!

I recommend the Minister of Education, Mr Chaturon adds a compulsory syllabus to the present English course to include all vocabulary and phrases used in protests.

Future protesters will thus be able to demonstrate and explain their grievances clearly to the international community, thus putting overweight lawyers such as the deeply unattractive Robert Amsterdam out of work.

This will enable foreigners to understand the issues more clearly and not lead to

[craigt3365]

"Yingluck reportedly often works at this office"...

Doing her nails is work?

Do you have a link to the source of this claim?

If not, then please don't post worthless nonsense.

If I want such nonsense, I can ask my 5 year old. I expect a little bit more from discussion forum.

Presiding over the rice scheme committee, yet never ever attending a single meeting is another part of her work I suppose.

Again, source for the information that she never attended a meeting?

And you still owe me the link where it says that she only makes her nails at the office.

Google:PM admits rice panel absences

[Tatsujin]

"Yingluck reportedly often works at this office"...

Doing her nails is work?

Do you have a link to the source of this claim?

If not, then please don't post worthless nonsense.

If I want such nonsense, I can ask my 5 year old. I expect a little bit more from discussion forum.

Methinks thou doth expect too much . . .

[scorecard]

"Yingluck reportedly often works at this office"...

Doing her nails is work?

Do you have a link to the source of this claim?

If not, then please don't post worthless nonsense.

If I want such nonsense, I can ask my 5 year old. I expect a little bit more from discussion forum.

Well perhaps you'd like to mention that to fab4 and team.

[scorecard]

I am on the farmers side with all my heart, and I have a curiosity: who makes signs for them?

I expected handwritten signs in Thai language, but I see some nice printed sign with translation in English, I guess some good donation from some South philanthropist?

As they say: in love and in war (would we add in politics?) everything is fair!

Why would you specifically mention South. Are there not people (Thai and non-Thai) all over Thailand who could come up with some English, and ever heard of Google translate?

Some of the kids in the rural areas now have tablets and would be very capable of simple internet activities, including using Google translate and similar.

[Chupup]

No money for FARMERS, but managed to pay THAKSIN 30 BILLION Dollars .i wonder just who autherised THAT PAYMENT

[Tchooptip]

"Yingluck reportedly often works at this office"...

Doing her nails is work?

Do you have a link to the source of this claim?P

If not, then please don't post worthless nonsense.

If I want such nonsense, I can ask my 5 year old. I expect a little bit more from discussion forum.

Presiding over the rice scheme committee, yet never ever attending a single meeting is another part of her work I suppose.

Again, source for the information that she never attended a meeting?

And you still owe me the link where it says that she only makes her nails at the office.

Psycho-rigid!

[MGP]

After consulting his magic ball, Chalerm said that more attacks would happen on Chaengwattana, and there were attacks.

Paradorn has another magic ball, and he predicts violence with the Rice Farmers.

They can predict the future movements of the Men in Black, but they are incapable of arresting them.

[4X4]

If I am not mistaken, rice is a controlled economy (prices are set by the government) controlled economy is not a good mechanism because it produces inferior products as there is no competition, (why should any company produce/manufacture high quality goods if the prices are set?) the result of a controlled economy is inferior products using the cheapest methods available.

A free economy has the opposite effect because of competition in the market; the result of a free market system is to produce the highest quality goods, and to sell at the cheapest price possible because of competition, this Mechanism of economy has excellent end results as it benefits the country by increasing its exports, it benefits the government by taxes and last but not least it benefits the manufactures and farmers by elevating their living standards.

(Just a thought)

[sweatalot]

No money for FARMERS, but managed to pay THAKSIN 30 BILLION Dollars .i wonder just who autherised THAT PAYMENT

30 billion $ ?

[gemini81]

"Yingluck reportedly often works at this office"...

Doing her nails is work?

Do you have a link to the source of this claim?

If not, then please don't post worthless nonsense.

If I want such nonsense, I can ask my 5 year old. I expect a little bit more from discussion forum.

Never shows up at meeting, parliament, goes abroad on pointless tours, escapes speeches, doesn't answer questions, reads scripted passages, avoids confrontation, escapes when the plot thickens. One can notice you have been here for a very, very, short length of time.

[rametindallas]

If I am not mistaken, rice is a controlled economy (prices are set by the government) controlled economy is not a good mechanism because it produces inferior products as there is no competition, (why should any company produce/manufacture high quality goods if the prices are set?) the result of a controlled economy is inferior products using the cheapest methods available.

A free economy has the opposite effect because of competition in the market; the result of a free market system is to produce the highest quality goods, and to sell at the cheapest price possible because of competition, this Mechanism of economy has excellent end results as it benefits the country by increasing its exports, it benefits the government by taxes and last but not least it benefits the manufactures and farmers by elevating their living standards.

(Just a thought)

You are 100% correct. If the government had spent a fraction of the money it has spent so far on helping the farmers with techniques/technology to be more productive, the farmers wouldn't need to be subsidized, as they would be competitive on the World market. The next government is going to need to spend a lot of money to retrain the former rice farmers to grow a different crop as the next government will be in direct competition with the remaining rice farmers, selling on a free market, trying to recoup the losses to the public treasury.

[LuckyLew]

"Yingluck reportedly often works at this office"...

Doing her nails is work?

Do you have a link to the source of this claim?

If not, then please don't post worthless nonsense.

If I want such nonsense, I can ask my 5 year old. I expect a little bit more from discussion forum.

Presiding over the rice scheme committee, yet never ever attending a single meeting is another part of her work I suppose.

Again, source for the information that she never attended a meeting?

And you still owe me the link where it says that she only makes her nails at the office.

All you have to do is google her parliamentary attendance record and you will see she is "less than present"

[icare999]

"Yingluck reportedly often works at this office"...

Doing her nails is work?

Do you have a link to the source of this claim?

If not, then please don't post worthless nonsense.

If I want such nonsense, I can ask my 5 year old. I expect a little bit more from discussion forum.

its not true she has a team of beauticians do it for her while at office spending her time reading travel mags and shopping mags. does anyone really believe she could do anything herself

[MikeOboe57]

No money for FARMERS, but managed to pay THAKSIN 30 BILLION Dollars .i wonder just who autherised THAT PAYMENT

30 billion $ ?

Actually it was 30 bn THB.

Sent from my GT-N5100 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[newcomer71]

I am on the farmers side with all my heart, and I have a curiosity: who makes signs for them?

I expected handwritten signs in Thai language, but I see some nice printed sign with translation in English, I guess some good donation from some South philanthropist?

As they say: in love and in war (would we add in politics?) everything is fair!

Why would you specifically mention South. Are there not people (Thai and non-Thai) all over Thailand who could come up with some English, and ever heard of Google translate?

Some of the kids in the rural areas now have tablets and would be very capable of simple internet activities, including using Google translate and similar.

Yes and print it on a vinyl banner...

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[Ricardo]

No money for FARMERS, but managed to pay THAKSIN 30 BILLION Dollars .i wonder just who autherised THAT PAYMENT

30 billion $ ?

Quite, Forbes mentioned close to US$ 1-billion, which is roughly B30-billion, not US$30-billion.

http://www.forbes.com/profile/thaksin-shinawatra/

[pipkins]

Wow, another brilliant non-partisan rice article.

Nothing on the fact that the PDRC coup has failed and is attracting only a hundred or so protestors.

Nope, got to keep the media in line re-gurgitate the propaganda of the day. was it 3 rice articles yesterday?

Great posts devoid of anything other than smears and snears from the Coup lovers.

Next

[Crushdepth]

Wow, another brilliant non-partisan rice article.

Nothing on the fact that the PDRC coup has failed and is attracting only a hundred or so protestors.

Nope, got to keep the media in line re-gurgitate the propaganda of the day. was it 3 rice articles yesterday?

Great posts devoid of anything other than smears and snears from the Coup lovers.

Next

What's your idea of a partisan article? One that devotes equal space to how these 'fake farmers' are ginning up 'fake stories' about their 'fake kids' (rented no doubt) as part of an elite-funded plot to overthrow the democratically elected government and enslave the masses?

Keep posting, you do more to make Phuea Thai look like idiots than they could ever manage

Edited February 10, 2014 by Crushdepth