Yingluck blames anti-government protests for rice-pledging problems

[AleG]

" The farmers are now in the middle of political game of the protest leaders who did not follow democratic and legal ways. They should have felt sympathised for the farmers who worked hard for the sake of the country," she said.

VOMIT SMILIE.

Go back to inside mummy, where you belong.....

Hey, the democratic and legal way is to use your majority in parliament to pass laws that retroactively absolve you of any act of corruption.

[LeamchabangLarry]

That right put the blame where it belongs. Farmers are not very smart they been duped by Suthep.

Please explain. How has this been done?

I am not going to waste my time trying to explain to you. You would never understand anyway. Like talking to a brick wall.

You mean you have no explanation?

He doesn't usually have much to add to discussions besides some derps and some non-sequitur derps about Suthep

[Why ask]

That right put the blame where it belongs. Farmers are not very smart they been duped by Suthep.

Please explain. How has this been done?

I am not going to waste my time trying to explain to you. You would never understand anyway. Like talking to a brick wall.

I don't think many of us understand much at all of what you write... to be honest.

[Thait Spot]

That right put the blame where it belongs. Farmers are not very smart they been duped by Suthep.

Please explain. How has this been done?

I am not going to waste my time trying to explain to you. You would never understand anyway. Like talking to a brick wall.

You mean you have no explanation?

and a forked tongue to boot.

as hard as you like

[bigbamboo]

And that Ms. Yingluck....... is the wrong answer.

yingluck is a sexy woman

Yes, if you like middle aged women who dress like your auntie.

I prefer Chitpas myself but at least we wouldn't have to worry about getting into in depth political arguments with either of them!

[ikurauni]

She has been eating mushrooms and taking LSD at the same time. Very impressive.

[Mackie]

What an embarrassing and lame attempt to wash their dirty hands of any responsibility. It doesn't work that way. Respectable newspapers such as The Economist and others know the truth.

Thailand’s economy The rice mountain An increasingly unpopular government sticks to its worst and most costly policy Aug 10th 2013 | BANGKOK | From the print edition

IT HAS not been a happy second anniversary for the government of Yingluck Shinawatra. Thousands of diehard opponents of her elder brother Thaksin Shinawatra, himself a former prime minister, took to the streets of Bangkok on August 7th to protest against a bill that could grant Mr Thaksin an amnesty for past offences and open up the possibility of his return from exile. Probably Ms Yingluck is used by now to these kinds of protests, along with the usual rumours of coups. More worrying, perhaps, is widespread and growing dismay over her government’s economic performance, supposedly its strong suit.

This week an opinion poll carried out by Bangkok University found that the government’s approval rating has fallen to its lowest level yet. Most damaging to its reputation is its flagship scheme to subsidise rice. This was the brainchild of Mr Thaksin, who dictates most of his sister’s policies from afar. It was a useful vote-winner during the election campaign in 2011. But its costs now jeopardise both the government’s finances and the economy as a whole.

In this section

The rice subsidy was classic Thaksin populism. Two-fifths of Thais work in agriculture, most of them as rice farmers. Ms Yingluck promised that, if she were elected, her government would buy unmilled rice directly from farmers at about twice the market rate, or 15,000 baht (about $500) per tonne. This would put money into poor farmers’ pockets and stimulate domestic demand. Naysayers warned that the scheme would be impossibly expensive. But Thaksin advisers said that withdrawing rice from world markets in this way would force up the price. Since Thailand was the world’s biggest exporter, the government would be able to cash in later by selling its stockpiles of grain at a profit.

So much for the weird theory. In practice, other countries have undercut Thailand, whose exports have tumbled (by about 4m tonnes, or a third, in the first full year of the subsidy scheme). India and Vietnam have overtaken Thailand as the biggest exporters. Unable to find buyers, the Thai government has been forced to stockpile 18m tonnes of the stuff and counting—equivalent to nearly half the annual global trade in rice. Buying rice from farmers is ruinously expensive, costing the Thai government $12.5 billion in the first year of operation. This year the cost is expected to rise to about $15 billion, or 4% of GDP. Storing the rice also carries administrative and logistical costs, and demands expensive new warehouses.

Concern is also rising over the quality of the rice piling up in the warehouses. Rice always deteriorates, but the suspicion is growing that stocks are being contaminated with substandard rice. Criminal gangs and bent officials are said to have smuggled in thousands of tonnes of cheap grain from Cambodia and Myanmar in the hope of profiting from government largesse. This rice has got mixed in with Thai grain. A good deal of Thailand’s rice is top-grade Hom Mali, or jasmine rice. So quality, and reputation, matter.

Poor quality may be one reason why the latest auction of rice stocks was so disappointing. The government managed to sell just 210,000 tonnes, well short of a hoped-for 1m tonnes. But this was also a matter of plain economics, says Vichai Sriprasert, head of Riceland International, a family-run exporter. Why buy now when the government will be forced to sell overflowing stocks later, at almost any price?

Millstone

It is a fiasco. But having invested so much political capital, Ms Yingluck vows to continue. She has tried to tinker with the scheme, for instance, by cutting the cost of the subsidy from 15,000 baht per tonne to 13,500 baht. That only angered rice farmers, her chief constituency. She quickly backed down, but she intends to try again. Her administration is frantically trying to secure deals for other governments to buy the rice, but this is making only a small dent in stocks. Iran has bought 250,000 tonnes.

Meanwhile, daily revelations of incompetence and corruption surrounding the rice scheme take their toll on the government’s standing, and investors fret about the wider effect on the public finances. Government debt levels are rising, and Moody’s, a ratings agency, has warned of the risk that the rice scheme poses to the country’s fiscal discipline.

http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21583281-increasingly-unpopular-government-sticks-its-worst-and-most-costly-policy-rice-mountain

Edited February 18, 2014 by Mackie

[Goat Roper]

That right put the blame where it belongs. Farmers are not very smart they been duped by Suthep.

Please explain. How has this been done?

I am not going to waste my time trying to explain to you. You would never understand anyway. Like talking to a brick wall.

I don't think many of us understand much at all of what you write... to be honest.

What makes you qualified to evaluate how smart the farmers are? A little out of your league aren't you!!!

[GentlemanJim]

This PR stunt by Yingluck would have worked no problem 30 years ago, but now all those farmers kids have got their tablets and can connect to the internet, many of the families up North now realise they have been well and truly reamed out by Shinclan. This all kind of happened in a low/no tech way a couple of hundred years ago in .....France. The problem with keeping pitbulls Yingluck is that one day, one of them will bite you...and it's gonna hurt, no doubt about it.

[nabbie]

Yingluck wants peace & PDRC wants peace. Generating rice is the way of the peace. The court should act to avoid the rotten rice.

[Nickymaster]

This PR stunt by Yingluck would have worked no problem 30 years ago, but now all those farmers kids have got their tablets and can connect to the internet, many of the families up North now realise they have been well and truly reamed out by Shinclan. This all kind of happened in a low/no tech way a couple of hundred years ago in .....France. The problem with keeping pitbulls Yingluck is that one day, one of them will bite you...and it's gonna hurt, no doubt about it.

Correct. Yingluck thinks she can blame the 3 month protests because the farmers would never question why there is 20 billion kg rice in stock which the government cannot sell.....

The Shins really think the farmers are stupid.

[gemini81]

This PR stunt by Yingluck would have worked no problem 30 years ago, but now all those farmers kids have got their tablets and can connect to the internet, many of the families up North now realise they have been well and truly reamed out by Shinclan. This all kind of happened in a low/no tech way a couple of hundred years ago in .....France. The problem with keeping pitbulls Yingluck is that one day, one of them will bite you...and it's gonna hurt, no doubt about it.

Correct. Yingluck thinks she can blame the 3 month protests because the farmers would never question why there is 20 billion kg rice in stock which the government cannot sell.....

The Shins really think the farmers are stupid.

...especially as the result of selecting inept puppet who is just as stupid; if not more so.

[mrtoad]

She has been eating mushrooms and taking LSD at the same time. Very impressive.

I doubt that Yingluck is capable to multi-task at that level.

[LuckyLew]

Hey Yingluck .. you are in way over you head. Just apologize to the farmers and tell them you are incompetent. Then tell your friends, family and colleagues to return all the money they pilfered then pay the farmers

[Dogmatix]

The payments were due in October. The protests started in November and Parliament was dissolved on 9 December. They didn't prepare the funding for the farmers on time and intended to default on them from the beginning. Then dissolved Parliament without bothering to approve the necessary cabinet resolutions for government guaranteed borrowings.

Something doesn't stack here. The woman is not playing with a full deck.

[uty6543]

This PR stunt by Yingluck would have worked no problem 30 years ago, but now all those farmers kids have got their tablets and can connect to the internet, many of the families up North now realise they have been well and truly reamed out by Shinclan. This all kind of happened in a low/no tech way a couple of hundred years ago in .....France. The problem with keeping pitbulls Yingluck is that one day, one of them will bite you...and it's gonna hurt, no doubt about it.

"but now all those farmers kids have got their tablets"

Well kids in your area may have gotten tablets from the government but in my area they have not. Another of Yingluck's scams that went tits up when the Chinese supplier failed to deliver.

[Now or Never]

Thank you 3 times !!!

[ramrod711]

I’m very upset and apologise to all the farmers who suffer from the delaying. The farmers are now in the middle of political game of the protest leaders who did not follow democratic and legal ways. They should have felt sympathised for the farmers who worked hard for the sake of the country," she said.

Time for Yingluck to go see the Russian Olympics, visit Dubai, and never return, just like her worthless, morally bankrupt brother. People in this country must be wondering, why doesn't Buddha love us, why did he send us this plague known as the Shinawatras.

[Misterwhisper]

Is she really that stupid, or is she just playing mind games?

Oops, I guess this is a rhetorical question, because to play mind games, one has to have a mind.

[Valentine]

Why can't she just admit that she was wrong and that this project has failed. Take your losses and time to move on

The pledging didn't fail from her point of view....................it was intended to be as corrupt as it has turned out to be.

Yes it could well have been a cunning plan right from the start including the option to buy lots of cheap farm land when the farmers could not repay their debts. I just wonder how many farmers have their land papers in the hands of loan sharks.

[givenall]

woo took her long time to figure this out. I thought she will blame them right away. normal politician way out blame others

[Trembly]

That right put the blame where it belongs. Farmers are not very smart they been duped by Suthep.

Next you'll be saying that their votes shouldn't count

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

[gemini81]

That right put the blame where it belongs. Farmers are not very smart they been duped by Suthep.

Next you'll be saying that their votes shouldn't count

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

Worse is an expat duped by such an inept puppet for a proxy government. Must be a Kentucky State dropout is he?

[kikoman]

Keep strong PM good luck Yingluck

I believe that PTP must take responsibility for not paying the farmer prior to becoming a care taker government, that being said!

"The EC and the protesters have used every trick they could think of to keep the farmers from being paid" The government has tried everything to pay the farmers and the protesters are fighting that in every way, once they are paid and then they look at what happen with their rice money in their pocket they will see who was behind their non-payment.

Yes, Yinkluck Keep strong,

Cheers

[kratiam]

Yingluck wants peace & PDRC wants peace. Generating rice is the way of the peace. The court should act to avoid the rotten rice.

Pardon.........

[ratcatcher]

Keep strong PM good luck Yingluck

Ancient American proverb.

"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt."

Mark Twain

[Nickymaster]

Keep strong PM good luck Yingluck

I believe that PTP must take responsibility for not paying the farmer prior to becoming a care taker government, that being said!

"The EC and the protesters have used every trick they could think of to keep the farmers from being paid" The government has tried everything to pay the farmers and the protesters are fighting that in every way, once they are paid and then they look at what happen with their rice money in their pocket they will see who was behind their non-payment.

Yes, Yinkluck Keep strong,

Cheers

I doubt she will be strong enough to defend her own corrupt practices and will instead go an a very long holiday. She had enough warnings from all corners of the globe including the IMF, Worldbank and WTO.

And by the way, why are they not converting some of the 20 billion kg rice they have in stock into cash to pay the farmers. I think I just found the solution out of this mess.

[roiethome]

With comments like this, she shows herself to be even more stupid than we know she is

[BuddyPinkham]

OMG! Just when I thought these people could not get any more insane, they come up with this. What next? They going to blame the ghosts and spirits of the farmers that have committed suicide?

[MikeOboe57]

Why not blame George Bush?

He doesn't dabble in peanuts.

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