Thai prosecutors press criminal charges against ex-PM Yingluck

[DiamondKing]

Some reading for the TV yellow cheer-leading squad so they might just get it...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/dougbandow/2015/02/18/liberty-dies-as-thailands-military-monopolizes-power-junta-dispenses-repression-instead-of-happiness/

They are too stupid to get it

[greenchair]

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I read the Thai news every day. It's part of my job. I am willing to entertain the notion that 34 indictments somehow got past me, and my boss would be displeased, nonetheless; please provide links proving this claim of 34 indictments of the above mentioned groups that took place three weeks ago.

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I'd like to ask people of supporters of both factions a question,

Why is it not the priority of the law to go after the people that stole the rice and money to fund the project? why are they not in the spotlight? and lets face it,

It wasn't just politicians, there were warehouse's contractors, millers, large rice growing company's, middle men, go after them and get the money back.

About three weeks ago charges were laid against most of the categories you mention. (From memory 34 people charged.)

FF

No need. It was clearly stated in the press, since you seem to be missing things perhaps you need more news spotting practice.

I would love to see a link.

Betcha can't show.

Why? ?????

Because there isn't one. ??

[gigman]

If she was not able to see what this scheme is leading to .... = she should be punished for incompetence.

If she was to stupid not to see it ....... = She should be punish for stupidity

Whole country lost not only money...( many lost their lives) but she still have plenty of money ...probably still having plans how to spend it on pleasures but those who she cheated only pleasure was to survive and she took it away from them.

[trogers]

Kind of weird to think about it.

Yinluck in jail and brother dear, putting her there, drinking champagne (rothschild) with caviar in his not too cheap hotel room.

It just does not add up. I really think she should join him.

Nooo... he should join her...

[Sadana]

Why people keep referring to the coup at gun point. Please tell and show me where and how this happened.

IMO the army stepped in when things went sour after the dissolution and after the attacks on peacefully protesting groups.

The soldiers were only sent to prevent escalation between protesters and pro government groups.

Yingluck has never had a gun pointed at her or received threats like this from the army during the coup so stop referring to something what did not happen.

[exalll]

Experts say the impeachment and criminal charges are the latest attempt by the country's royalist elite, and its army backers, to extinguish the political influence of the Shinawatras, whose parties have won every election since 2001.

Says it all, its the only way the yellows can get back in power by hunting down all those that WILL BEAT them again in a fair election they cant win so they get the military to take over and start their witch hunt

Its a joke that Prayut is saying they are trying to reconcile the country and the opposition is silenced and is not allowed to have a voice against what is going on

COMPLETE JOKE

The Shinawatras have never won a fair election. Yes, they have won every election since 2001, but all of those have been heavily flawed, non-democratic elections. In a FAIR election - in which there is no coercion and in which voters are educated on the issues, the result is unknown.

I was reading an article in the International Herald Tribune last week. In the very first sentence the correspondent talked about Y being elected in a "democratic election". Lost all credibility right there!

[stopthegreed]

And the WITCH HUNT continues

And if I were her I would of ran a long time ago she has no chance of any fair trial or anything with a government that imposed itself at the point of a gun

I can not believe what you are are saying.... "A WITCH HUNT" ??? Her personal fortune grew by several billions of US $ during her term in office. She has been asked about this and refused to answer.

She is just as corrupt as her brother, and all for personal gain. My boss used to tell me, "The buck stops at me". Well the same goes for her.

She has many questions to answer, so lets wait and see if she does eh?

I am entitled to my opinion, and without her giving satisfactory evidence and producing proof, of where all this money came from, then my opinion is she is a crook.

[seajae]

"The move is widely seen as an attempt to cripple the political machine of Yingluck's brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in the 2006 coup, and to prevent his allies from returning to power."

The move is widely seen as seeking justice with the former PM Yingluck's self-financing scheme having lost 700 billion Baht and she frequently stating the scheme reached it's goal, she to be in charge.

In the civilized Western world it's seen as a political agenda. In the civilized world the junta is seen as illegitimate and illegal and lacking standing to prosecute anyone.

I have seen no proof that Yingluck stole the rice money herself. I have seen allegations of negligence.

This is a political cleansing to rid Thailand of the Shinawatra influence.

If criminal charges are to be brought they should have proof as to who the thieves were. Buying rice for above market price isn't illegal. Stealing that rice, cooking the books and so on is illegal. Who did that? Are they saying that YS did?

actually they are charging her for not stopping it after she was informed that it was happening. She was told several times about it but refused to do anything and continually said everything was good and that there was no corruption involved. As the one running the show she was therefore responsible for everything that happened because she refused to do anything about it, doesnt matter who stole it or cooked the books, she was the one that let them do it with impunity when she should have just stopped it.

[rubl]

next the General will be p*ssing and moaning that the US will be condemning this as politically motivated. Whereas we all know it's not politically motivated, right... It's motivated by the rich elite puppet masters of the General

Scary isn't it? How dare they indict an Amply Rich woman who only did what her brother told her.

Mind you, she went on Television many times stating to be in charge, to have this wonderful RPPS work and reaching it's goal. Even in parliament she clearly stated to be in charge. Seems she gave enough reasons for the indictment, and no reasons why not to do it.

Pity really that till now the legal team seems to have advised her not to say anything meaningful. Guess we have to wait till the Supreme Court decides whether or not to take the case, and if so get her charged and offering her the opportunity for explanations.

See you at court just before Songkhran.

[stopthegreed]

I'd like to ask people of supporters of both factions a question,

Why is it not the priority of the law to go after the people that stole the rice and money to fund the project? why are they not in the spotlight? and lets face it,

It wasn't just politicians, there were warehouse's contractors, millers, large rice growing company's, middle men, go after them and get the money back.

SHE, was in charge, she allowed it to happen. End of !!!

[scorecard]

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I read the Thai news every day. It's part of my job. I am willing to entertain the notion that 34 indictments somehow got past me, and my boss would be displeased, nonetheless; please provide links proving this claim of 34 indictments of the above mentioned groups that took place three weeks ago.

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>




I'd like to ask people of supporters of both factions a question,
Why is it not the priority of the law to go after the people that stole the rice and money to fund the project? why are they not in the spotlight? and lets face it,
It wasn't just politicians, there were warehouse's contractors, millers, large rice growing company's, middle men, go after them and get the money back.


About three weeks ago charges were laid against most of the categories you mention. (From memory 34 people charged.)

FF

No need. It was clearly stated in the press, since you seem to be missing things perhaps you need more news spotting practice.

I would love to see a link.
Betcha can't show.
Why? ?????
Because there isn't one. ??

Suggest you keep searching and improve your search skills.

[mrmicbkktxl]

And the WITCH HUNT continues

And if I were her I would of ran a long time ago she has no chance of any fair trial or anything with a government that imposed itself at the point of a gun

Which they did for a very good reason, and it is all coming out now ...

Nope they did it to take over the country the only way they could at the point of a gun because they could not win a fair election pure and simple.

They did it to prevent a civil war!!

Not even near a civil war.All was planned from the beginning.Suthep made trouble,army had to come and kick out YS,and now the junta is silencing all opposition until democrats can win an election.

[Si Thea01]

And the WITCH HUNT continues

And if I were her I would of ran a long time ago she has no chance of any fair trial or anything with a government that imposed itself at the point of a gun

At this time I have given her credit as she has remained and adhered to the current rule of law. The witch hunt continues? To bring people accused of criminal activities to court to answer for their activities is a witch hunt in your opinion. We must have millions of witch hunts world wide, everyday, if we accept what you are on about is correct.

You would run, most people who have certain tendencies tend to run and if she does then it does not say much for her character. If she does and is dealt with in absentia then she will be forever thought of as a fugitive, like a certain other party. I have no idea as to her innocence or guilt but if she is as she states, innocent, then she should stand by her convictions. There have been others in the PTP charged with certain offences and have proven their innocence and were released.

She will not get a fair trial? How in the hell do you know this, are you a part of the process? I don't think so but no matter what happens, it appears you will always be negative. Government imposed itself at the point of a gun. Stop the embellishment, never happened, it was a bloodless coup and guess what, no more violent rallies, no more killings of innocents, one bombing but we do not know if this was political and a resemblance of order. Got rid of the idiots on both sides of politics, corruption being fought and despite martial law, the country is running and peoples' normal activities are not curtailed. Only those with ill intentions are the ones who have been stopped in their tracks.

So it this not good for Thailand, give a straight answer, either yes or no. And has anything implemented by the Junta and the now Government affected or curtailed your lifestyle in any way. A simple yes or no will suffice.

Edited February 19, 2015 by Si Thea01

[orange31]

A great man named Newton once proclaimed that:

"The cheating of a (Thai) person is proportion to the square of their wealth times by their seniority in parliament"

She should be held responsible. So should many others. So should previous governments, irrespective of party. In fact, there must be thousands upon thousands upon thousands or people that need to be prosecuted. It's such a huge task that you have to start somewhere.

This is a great place to start. Then we can hopefully see a few more prosecutions from all sides.

Horay!

[waitforusalso]

And the WITCH HUNT continues

And if I were her I would of ran a long time ago she has no chance of any fair trial or anything with a government that imposed itself at the point of a gun

At this time I have given her credit as she has remained and adhered to the current rule of law. The witch hunt continues? To bring people accused of criminal activities to court to answer for their activities is a witch hunt in your opinion. We must have millions of witch hunts world wide, everyday, if we accept what you are on about is correct.

You would run, most people who have certain tendencies tend to run and if she does then it does not say much for her character. If she does and is dealt with in absentia then she will be forever thought of as a fugitive, like a certain other party. I have no idea as to her innocence or guilt but if she is as she states, innocent, then she should stand by her convictions. There have been others in the PTP charged with certain offences and have proven their innocence and were released.

She will not get a fair trial? How in the hell do you know this, are you a part of the process? I don't think so but no matter what happens, it appears you will always be negative. Government imposed itself at the point of a gun. Stop the embellishment, never happened, it was a bloodless coup and guess what, no more violent rallies, no more killings of innocents, one bombing but we do not know if this was political and a resemblance of order. Got rid of the idiots on both sides of politics, corruption being fought and despite martial law, the country is running and peoples' normal activities are not curtailed. Only those with ill intentions are the ones who have been stopped in their tracks.

So it this not good for Thailand, give a straight answer, either yes or no. And has anything implemented by the Junta and the now Government affected or curtailed your lifestyle in any way. A simple yes or no will suffice.

Look like guns to me. No embellishment.

[waitforusalso]

Some reading for the TV yellow cheer-leading squad so they might just get it...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/dougbandow/2015/02/18/liberty-dies-as-thailands-military-monopolizes-power-junta-dispenses-repression-instead-of-happiness/

Disclaimer" "Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own."

but hold a hell of a lot more credence than yours

[gemguy]

And the WITCH HUNT continues

And if I were her I would of ran a long time ago she has no chance of any fair trial or anything with a government that imposed itself at the point of a gun

Have to agree with you on that point.

All the people that are hoping she goes to jail should be cautious about such matters as this is Thailand and what we see happening here is the Status Quo, once again, flexing their muscles and basically doing what they have always done while manipulating the system...but in the disguise of justice been pursued on behalf of the people.

That same form of manipulation can and would be used against you or any one ...if it suited the agenda of those in power.

Cheers

[I say]

"The move is widely seen as an attempt to cripple the political machine of Yingluck's brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in the 2006 coup, and to prevent his allies from returning to power."

The move is widely seen as seeking justice with the former PM Yingluck's self-financing scheme having lost 700 billion Baht and she frequently stating the scheme reached it's goal, she to be in charge.

The 700 billion and counting, for there are still ongoing storage and marketing costs to be added, is in fact only the tip of the lossberg to the country and the people.

There are the lost markets that may never be got back, such as Iran which was once one of the top buyers.

The confidence in Thai rice as a premium product was destroyed when the PT Govt sold inferior rice to several countries including the US and Ivory Coast.

The rice traders who before the scheme were the ones who bought Thai rice on behalf of their customers were forced to go to other countries to buy rice for those customers who were loyal to them and trusted the traders to get what they wanted and give them a fair deal.

Those traders are still buying rice for their customers from other countries and may never come back into the Thai market, if the do come back it will only be to buy for a low price

Then there is the loss to the farmers themselves who are now deeper in debt than ever before and have to service that debt with interest.

The scheme which was touted as helping the poor has been found by research to have only reached 18% of poor farmers and that 18% only got 5% of the money paid out to farmers, yet rents and costs of fertilizer and chemicals were pushed up by the landlords and companies to get their share, so the poor farmers were even worse off than before.

The 82% of poor farmers who could not participate in the scheme were also burdened with the higher costs making them even poorer than before.

There is the interest that must be paid on the bonds and loans to be taken out to pay for the losses, that will in part have to be borne by a future generation of tax payers..

And now we see a proposal to write off 45 billion of farmers debt : http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/801632-moac-proposes-that-govt-write-off-45-billion-baht-of-farmers-debts/

Then there are the costs of all the investigations and legal action associated with the scheme which will no doubt run into billions.

All to be added to the 700 billion.

And some call going after those responsible a witch hunt and suggest it should just be forgotten.

Robby, thanks for the above info. While I understand most of the scheme it's still a mystery to me what caused the stockpiling and why wasn't the rice sold as it was produced. Why Thailand held to the rice and shortchanged the market? Many people should be hung for allowing the rice to rotten in the warehouses. Would you, Robby, or someone who knows the facts explain to me my questions, thanks.

[Squeegee]

They can't get Mr T (yet) so his pawn will have to pay instead.

I find it laughable the constant flow of prophecy from the yellow lovers on here that YL will scarper: all the evidence so far suggests she'll remain dignified in the face of all the elites throw at her. Let them make her a martyr, dumb schmucks that they are, and see where their 'reconciliation' is heading....

And no I'm not a red, you're all just two sides of the same dirty coin.

[Fatty123]

Thailand under the rule of the general with all his medals for military heroism frightens me just as much as England under Cromwell.

I am on neither side but it is now clear what the coup was really all about it.

lets fix the rules so we win because we cannot win in a straight fight.

Cromwells result was Civil war. We should learn from history.

I thought the reason for the coup was to bring peace to the streets? This is really going to do that.

Yingluck charged with corruption.Mmm

People who live in glass houses shouldnt throw stones.

And so it begins.......

Thailand under the rule of the general with all his medals for military heroism frightens me just as much as England under Cromwell.

I misread youir post. I thought you wrote the General may have all these medals for military heroism, but has fought as many battles as you have for Oliver Cromwell.

Also true.

[lucky11]

And the WITCH HUNT continues

And if I were her I would of ran a long time ago she has no chance of any fair trial or anything with a government that imposed itself at the point of a gun

Just shows how stupid and pitifully naive this abject woman is!!!

She will get a fair trial - the only guns and weapons were held by red shirted terrorists intent on maiming innocent women and children BTW. The coup was a bloodless one without a shot being fired so cut out the crap about this army led coup being "at the point of a gun" as that is not what happened at all. Next you will be saying that this government abided by due democratic process..

[trogers]

"The move is widely seen as an attempt to cripple the political machine of Yingluck's brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in the 2006 coup, and to prevent his allies from returning to power."

The move is widely seen as seeking justice with the former PM Yingluck's self-financing scheme having lost 700 billion Baht and she frequently stating the scheme reached it's goal, she to be in charge.

The 700 billion and counting, for there are still ongoing storage and marketing costs to be added, is in fact only the tip of the lossberg to the country and the people.

There are the lost markets that may never be got back, such as Iran which was once one of the top buyers.

The confidence in Thai rice as a premium product was destroyed when the PT Govt sold inferior rice to several countries including the US and Ivory Coast.

The rice traders who before the scheme were the ones who bought Thai rice on behalf of their customers were forced to go to other countries to buy rice for those customers who were loyal to them and trusted the traders to get what they wanted and give them a fair deal.

Those traders are still buying rice for their customers from other countries and may never come back into the Thai market, if the do come back it will only be to buy for a low price

Then there is the loss to the farmers themselves who are now deeper in debt than ever before and have to service that debt with interest.

The scheme which was touted as helping the poor has been found by research to have only reached 18% of poor farmers and that 18% only got 5% of the money paid out to farmers, yet rents and costs of fertilizer and chemicals were pushed up by the landlords and companies to get their share, so the poor farmers were even worse off than before.

The 82% of poor farmers who could not participate in the scheme were also burdened with the higher costs making them even poorer than before.

There is the interest that must be paid on the bonds and loans to be taken out to pay for the losses, that will in part have to be borne by a future generation of tax payers..

And now we see a proposal to write off 45 billion of farmers debt : http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/801632-moac-proposes-that-govt-write-off-45-billion-baht-of-farmers-debts/

Then there are the costs of all the investigations and legal action associated with the scheme which will no doubt run into billions.

All to be added to the 700 billion.

And some call going after those responsible a witch hunt and suggest it should just be forgotten.

Robby, thanks for the above info. While I understand most of the scheme it's still a mystery to me what caused the stockpiling and why wasn't the rice sold as it was produced. Why Thailand held to the rice and shortchanged the market? Many people should be hung for allowing the rice to rotten in the warehouses. Would you, Robby, or someone who knows the facts explain to me my questions, thanks.

They did sold a huge amount in a hush hush G2G deal. This would be the main topic in those 20 boxes of documents.

[Fatty123]

Effectively a criminal organisation filing criminal charges against a person perceived as a criminal.

What a farce. If I were YS I would challenge it under the fact that the current gov has no legitimacy under international law and therefore it is them who should be facing criminal charges for treason.

That would be the brave and honourable thing to do. However, she's too elitist to do that. Much more likely to run and stash her cash. Aung San Suu Kyi she ain't, more's the pity.

[lucky11]

"The move is widely seen as an attempt to cripple the political machine of Yingluck's brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in the 2006 coup, and to prevent his allies from returning to power."

The move is widely seen as seeking justice with the former PM Yingluck's self-financing scheme having lost 700 billion Baht and she frequently stating the scheme reached it's goal, she to be in charge.

The 700 billion and counting, for there are still ongoing storage and marketing costs to be added, is in fact only the tip of the lossberg to the country and the people.

There are the lost markets that may never be got back, such as Iran which was once one of the top buyers.

The confidence in Thai rice as a premium product was destroyed when the PT Govt sold inferior rice to several countries including the US and Ivory Coast.

The rice traders who before the scheme were the ones who bought Thai rice on behalf of their customers were forced to go to other countries to buy rice for those customers who were loyal to them and trusted the traders to get what they wanted and give them a fair deal.

Those traders are still buying rice for their customers from other countries and may never come back into the Thai market, if the do come back it will only be to buy for a low price

Then there is the loss to the farmers themselves who are now deeper in debt than ever before and have to service that debt with interest.

The scheme which was touted as helping the poor has been found by research to have only reached 18% of poor farmers and that 18% only got 5% of the money paid out to farmers, yet rents and costs of fertilizer and chemicals were pushed up by the landlords and companies to get their share, so the poor farmers were even worse off than before.

The 82% of poor farmers who could not participate in the scheme were also burdened with the higher costs making them even poorer than before.

There is the interest that must be paid on the bonds and loans to be taken out to pay for the losses, that will in part have to be borne by a future generation of tax payers..

And now we see a proposal to write off 45 billion of farmers debt : http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/801632-moac-proposes-that-govt-write-off-45-billion-baht-of-farmers-debts/

Then there are the costs of all the investigations and legal action associated with the scheme which will no doubt run into billions.

All to be added to the 700 billion.

And some call going after those responsible a witch hunt and suggest it should just be forgotten.

Robby, thanks for the above info. While I understand most of the scheme it's still a mystery to me what caused the stockpiling and why wasn't the rice sold as it was produced. Why Thailand held to the rice and shortchanged the market? Many people should be hung for allowing the rice to rotten in the warehouses. Would you, Robby, or someone who knows the facts explain to me my questions, thanks.

Thaksin's idea was to stockpile the rice and hope that there was a drought or some kind of disaster that led to a failed crop somewhere amongst the rice growing nations. This would create a shortage of rice on the commodities market and he hoped that in attempting to manipulate the market in this way that he could make a huge profit for Thailand when rice became scarcer to source. Being the no.1 rice exporter he also determined that if he stockpiled the rice this would also create a shortage and he could, again, corner the market by selling at a profit.

The trouble is that it didn't even come close to working and left Thailand in the predicament it is in now.

To summarise, Thaksin thinks and Yingluck takes the flack when it all goes pear shaped. She chose to trust her (not so) clever brother and ignore the warnings of many experts of the impending disaster that was inevitable!!

[rubl]

Subsidies are not criminal or theft. It's what civilized and advanced countries do for the betterment of all citizens, not just the city dwellers

.

1. The database tracks $256 billion in farm subsidies from commodity, crop insurance, and disaster programs and $39 billion in conservation payments paid between 1995 and 2012. Crop insurance cost to US taxpayers in 2012. Cost of crop insurance over the next ten years.

Absolutely. Subsidies cost money and that's why governments make reservations in the National Budget to clearly show the costs and how it effects a possible deficit.

Now here in Thailand the Yingluck government came with an innovative idea a Rice Price Pledging Scheme which would be self-financing. They were so confident that no reservations in the National Budget were necessary, just a 500 billion Baht revolving Funds to pay from and put back from sales. Even the day before the scheme started the Minister of Finance (of little white lies fame) stated the RPPS only needed 440 billion Baht and money would return from sales of rice.

So, a few years later and 700 billion Baht poorer it would seem someone was somewhat negligent and as Ms. Yingluck was the PM stated she was in charge, she's the one to start with asking her to take the responsibility.

[rubl]

They can't get Mr T (yet) so his pawn will have to pay instead.

I find it laughable the constant flow of prophecy from the yellow lovers on here that YL will scarper: all the evidence so far suggests she'll remain dignified in the face of all the elites throw at her. Let them make her a martyr, dumb schmucks that they are, and see where their 'reconciliation' is heading....

And no I'm not a red, you're all just two sides of the same dirty coin.

Right. Not-a-red talking about 'yellow lovers', 'elite' and distracting with a dignified innocent Amply Rich woman who's made a martyr simply because the OAG dares to indict her.

Ms. Yingluck positioned her RPPS as self-financing scheme only needing a revolving funds of 500 billion Baht. Defended it. Told parliament to be in charge. And now the OAG may not ask her what happened?

Edited February 19, 2015 by rubl

[gemguy]

Why people keep referring to the coup at gun point. Please tell and show me where and how this happened.

IMO the army stepped in when things went sour after the dissolution and after the attacks on peacefully protesting groups.

The soldiers were only sent to prevent escalation between protesters and pro government groups.

Yingluck has never had a gun pointed at her or received threats like this from the army during the coup so stop referring to something what did not happen.

You are not understanding the implications.

How many times have the military in Thailand pulled a coup...17 or more????...while no one can remember how many exactly

They do not have to pull guns out anymore rather they just do what they want anyhow....but they have their guns and their all persuading military power right there to be used at a moments notice...just one inch short of pointing the gun in anyone's face that does not agree or cooperate.

Had the people resisted the military "intervention" ( as they call it ) then history would have repeated itself the same as most of the previous coups have ended in blood shed and plenty of it.

Maybe you do not recall the other coups, before the last coup, before the coups that happened before all those other coups...including plenty of bloodshed to mark the "military intervention" necessary to save the country...once again

If you can not understand the implications of yet another coup then I could only surmise that what ever country that you come from then you would not mind at all if the military establishment in your country simply pulled off a military coup and took over your government while telling you and all the other citizens of your country: "We did it for the good of the country and you should be happy that we are here to save you."

Cheers

[ianf]

And the WITCH HUNT continues

And if I were her I would of ran a long time ago she has no chance of any fair trial or anything with a government that imposed itself at the point of a gun

I didn't see any guns? I did see a lot of reds with weapons in the years running up to this coup.

[ianf]

"The move is widely seen as an attempt to cripple the political machine of Yingluck's brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in the 2006 coup, and to prevent his allies from returning to power."

The move is widely seen as seeking justice with the former PM Yingluck's self-financing scheme having lost 700 billion Baht and she frequently stating the scheme reached it's goal, she to be in charge.

The 700 billion and counting, for there are still ongoing storage and marketing costs to be added, is in fact only the tip of the lossberg to the country and the people.

There are the lost markets that may never be got back, such as Iran which was once one of the top buyers.

The confidence in Thai rice as a premium product was destroyed when the PT Govt sold inferior rice to several countries including the US and Ivory Coast.

The rice traders who before the scheme were the ones who bought Thai rice on behalf of their customers were forced to go to other countries to buy rice for those customers who were loyal to them and trusted the traders to get what they wanted and give them a fair deal.

Those traders are still buying rice for their customers from other countries and may never come back into the Thai market, if the do come back it will only be to buy for a low price

Then there is the loss to the farmers themselves who are now deeper in debt than ever before and have to service that debt with interest.

The scheme which was touted as helping the poor has been found by research to have only reached 18% of poor farmers and that 18% only got 5% of the money paid out to farmers, yet rents and costs of fertilizer and chemicals were pushed up by the landlords and companies to get their share, so the poor farmers were even worse off than before.

The 82% of poor farmers who could not participate in the scheme were also burdened with the higher costs making them even poorer than before.

There is the interest that must be paid on the bonds and loans to be taken out to pay for the losses, that will in part have to be borne by a future generation of tax payers..

And now we see a proposal to write off 45 billion of farmers debt : http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/801632-moac-proposes-that-govt-write-off-45-billion-baht-of-farmers-debts/

Then there are the costs of all the investigations and legal action associated with the scheme which will no doubt run into billions.

All to be added to the 700 billion.

And some call going after those responsible a witch hunt and suggest it should just be forgotten.

Robby, thanks for the above info. While I understand most of the scheme it's still a mystery to me what caused the stockpiling and why wasn't the rice sold as it was produced. Why Thailand held to the rice and shortchanged the market? Many people should be hung for allowing the rice to rotten in the warehouses. Would you, Robby, or someone who knows the facts explain to me my questions, thanks.

Thaksin's idea was to stockpile the rice and hope that there was a drought or some kind of disaster that led to a failed crop somewhere amongst the rice growing nations. This would create a shortage of rice on the commodities market and he hoped that in attempting to manipulate the market in this way that he could make a huge profit for Thailand when rice became scarcer to source. Being the no.1 rice exporter he also determined that if he stockpiled the rice this would also create a shortage and he could, again, corner the market by selling at a profit.

The trouble is that it didn't even come close to working and left Thailand in the predicament it is in now.

To summarise, Thaksin thinks and Yingluck takes the flack when it all goes pear shaped. She chose to trust her (not so) clever brother and ignore the warnings of many experts of the impending disaster that was inevitable!!

Almost correct.

Yingluck's 'brother' gambled on the fact that by withdrawing rice from the world's market he'd create a shortage and thus a massive price increase. The red supporters here pipe on about how Thaksin supports the poor, but here he wanted to double, nay triple, the price of their staple food. And off course his 'sister' is simply a stool pigeon for all this and highly disposable.

[gamini]

They are charging her with negligence.

That means for those not paying attention...well put simply, not paying attention.

-snip-

If I was charged with a crime every time in my life that I didn't pay attention, I'd never get out of jail.

I believe that a lot of people at the warehouses and millers and trucking companies and who knows where else cooked the books on the amount of rice that was stored. I also believe a lot of the rice was stolen. Those are the thieves I want to see punished.

YS was in charge of a "scheme" to buy rice above market price and hold it, believing it would drive the world rice price up. But there were bumper crops of rice and the world became awash in rice. The price actually dropped.

I'd feel a lot better about an illegal junta bringing criminal charges if it was known that YS was involved in cooking the books and getting money from the rice scheme but I haven't heard that yet.

Please don't tell me that this isn't the junta doing this. The junta is a d word.

The charges are nothing to do with The Junta, The NAAC was putting together a case against her before the coup. Get your facts right before posting