Rice farmers join PDRC in Phichit blockade (Thailand)

[grantcart]

Source: The Nation (English language Thai newspaper)

FOR THE FIRST TIME in a week-long rally demanding immediate payment for rice sold under the government pledging scheme, farmers in Phichit yesterday joined supporters of the People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) to block the provincial city hall and prevent civil servants from performing their duties.

Farmers from Phichit and nearby provinces blockaded Bung Narang district office on Sunday evening, while those blocking a key junction in the district agreed to make way for traffic and moved to join protesters at the district office.

The farmers and members of the PDRC padlocked the city hall and were continuing a blockade as of press time last night.

The Phichit-based farmers, along with those from Nakhon Sawan, Sukhothai and Kamphaeng Phet, have also signed a complaint addressed to His Majesty the King.

Meanwhile, about 1,000 farmers gathered outside city hall in Chiang Rai and demanded immediate payment for their long-overdue subsidy. Protest leader Theethawat

Read more: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Rice-farmers-join-PDRC-in-Phichit-blockade-30224791.html

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As I have long predicted the so called populist schemes were just a smokescreen for additional crimes for the Shinawatra cabal. Now farmers are waking up and finding that they are owed billions of baht even thought the fund has received B 700 billion in funding.

Yingluck is not releasing the accounts which will show where that money has gone.

As I reported here: the Shinawatra clan has ruined the credibility of the government in the bond market and latest efforts to float bonds have failed. As a result Thai rice exports plummet and instead of Thai farmers being the kings of rice exporting in the world they are going to end up with a lot of worthless paper.

[Fred Sanders]

1. The story goes on to read "Protest leader Theethawat Sitthisom said the rally was peaceful and not

linked to the PDRC movement", in regard to the Chiang Rai protests.

So, your opinion is based on a false linkage and premise, more like the anti government movement is trying to hitch a ride on the backs of unrelated rice farmer complaints.

[grantcart]

2. Well Fred

1) Not my opinion, quoting news sources as per LBN

2) Article clearly states that the Pichit farmers protest is the first time that the farmer's anti government protests, which up until now have been separate from the PDRC protests but are today, for the first time becoming linked.

3) The Chieng Rai demonstration occurred 472 kilometres away from Pichit 3 days before the protests which show farmers for the first time linkikng

4) There are pro government farmers that are starting their own anti government protests because they are still hoping that they are going to get paid on the government's failed rice subsidy scheme.



They are just realizing that their Bangkok brothers and sisters were right all along, they were never going to get paid

http://www.chiangraitimes.com/rice-subsidy-controversy-widens-farmers-protest-against-non-payment.html

The Shinawatra government has had the revenue but it is now gone and they are refusing to disclose how the missing funds have been spent.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/111646869

The breaking news is that the farmers, who used to be supporters of the Thaksin/Yingluck cabal are just now realizing that the protester movement in Bangkok was absolutely right all the time.

What is breaking today is that they are generating their own protest and march against Shinawatra

http://www.travelfish.org/blogs/thailand/2014/01/18/bangkok-protests-take-their-toll/

Meanwhile, a completely separate development centred around angry rice farmers is brewing in rural Thailand and may have an effect on what unfolds in the capital. The government has failed several times to deliver promised payments for huge amounts of rice pledged by farmers as part of a government programme to sell wholesale rice to China. The project has allegedly been riddled with corruption.

Large groups of farmers have already protested outside of provincial government offices, and if they’re not paid soon, they may invade Bangkok to launch their own separate anti-government protest. As farmers from the rural north and northeast are generally seen as the Pheu Thai party’s backbone, this could be a devastating blow to embattled prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

In as much as the PRDC is not proposing an alternative government or party for rule but simply the eradication of the Shinawatra criminals and free and fair election reform removing vote buying then any protest group that moves against the Shinawatra government is in fact in common cause.

They will have to hurry though because the good spots have already been taken:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024365256

[Fred Sanders]

6. With respect, I think you are letting your preconceived notions of the "criminality" of the current

government cloud and hide the fact the current government was democratically elected, has responded with no violence or threats, and has agreed to an election.

[12AngryBorneoWildmen]

3. Yingluck is the Liz Cheney of 'The Land of Smiles" (Thailand)

Her daddy is a Dick, too. I love the Thai people.

[grantcart]

5. its her brother that is a sin (Thaksin)

She is going to be the Lizzie Borden to world wide rice farmers.

Her idiotic rice subsidy scheme promised rice farmers prices at 40% above world prices.

Guess what, they go and produce even more rice even though Thai inventories are at 50% of the TOTAL world level of importation.

So prices plummet.

The farmers never get paid.

B 700 billion unaccounted for.

And all rice farmers around the world are going to get paid less for years to come until the price recovers.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/111646869

From 7 months ago

An article in the Financial Times (July 18, 2013) describes the impact of the 50% price premium offered by the Thai government to rice farmers that last few years, leading to a drop in Thai rice exports and a surge in government inventories. The current level of Thai rice inventories can cover 50% of global rice imports. Now rice markets are nervous that Thai rice will flood the market and result in significant price drops, thus impacting farmers in India and Vietnam. But producers who use rice as input will also see an impact of this flood of product. How should Thailand manage its inventory to prevent such market meltdowns while achieving its goals ? Should farmers in Thailand be paid to stop growing rice for next year in an attempt to prevent burgeoning inventories ? Should alternate uses of rice for sustainable products such as paper or other be encouraged as a way to manage this problem ?

Click here to see the world price of rice fall a cliff in the last 6 months

http://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=rice&months=60

Poor rice farmers in Bengladesh and India are going to be losing their farms because they took loans when the prices were higher and now have crops that will be worth 40% less.

In another month she will be sitting in Dubai with her brother and they will start to uncover what happened with all the subsidy funds.

[Fred Sanders]

7. The PM obviously meant well, bungling an economic plan is not grounds for revolution and overthrow.

[grantcart]

8. Either you are completely uninformed about the crimes of Yingluck/Thaksin or

simply have problems with reading comprehension.


For the last 12 months she hasn't been 'bungling' anything. She has been pushing only one item - amnesty for her brother so that they can reclaim the $ 2 billion that was impounded by the courts for their ill gotten claims.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/11/thailand-protests-amnesty-bill

They haven't advanced any other legislation during that time but have continued to pass amnesty bills that have been universally condemned. For example over 700 unaffiliated academics joined in an unprecedented letter condemning the action.

http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20131107102337230

It is not the protestors that are trying to overthrow the system but the criminal Yingluck and the rest of the Shinawatra clan are.

Immediately having lost on the constitutionality of the amnesty plan they tried to ignore the legal authority of the court

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Pheu-Thai-issues-statement-to-denounce-Constitutio-30220254.html

Following repeated rulings by the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court Yingluck and the Phua Thai party announced that they were going to impeach and arrest all of the judges:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-from-news/381177/pheu-thai-rejects-court-ruling

http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/pheu-thai-party-file-rebellion-charge-constitutional-court-judges/

will today ask the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) to file rebellion charge against Constitutional Court judges

It was this action by the brazen dictator Yingluck that ignited the broadest and most united public reaction to dictatorship since 1976.

And for the first time many red shirts began to realize what we have been saying all along, the billionaire Shinawatra clan had no real interest in the poor or the red shirts but were selling them down the river.

http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2013/11/28/thailands-amnesty-bill-revives-national-tensions/

the bill is considered by many as a crude betrayal of the red-shirt faction, which has traditionally supported the government. The bill provides amnesty to all those involved in politically-related crimes committed between 2004 and August 2013. This means that Thaksin Shinawatra would be free of corruption charges, but possibly also from prosecution for alleged human rights abuses dating from his government’s war on drugs and the campaign against unrest in southern Thailand. In a similar vein, Abhisit Vejjajiva, leader of the opposition Democrat Party, could no longer be investigated for directing the violent suppression of red-shirt protesters in 2010

. . .

The red-shirt camp is deeply affronted by the government’s willingness to forget the lives sacrificed by their supporters. Those not allied with either camp believe the bill threatens the national legal system and fear that it sets a precedent for future abuses of power.

The entire administration of Yingluck has always had a single purpose: Get amnesty for the murderous Thaksin to return, to get rid of the constitution, turn Thailand into a republic and make Thaksin an all powerful strong man.

Now if you still have any rational doubts about the absolute criminality of the idiot Yingluck then I will leave you with a simple question.

Given the criticism of the handling of the single largest expenditure of the Thai government, the Thai subsidy scheme

The public knows only that the rice pledging scheme has cost the country more than 700 billion baht in budgets so far, with losses projected to exceed 200 billion baht, according to economists. Plagued byrampant corruption, the pledging scheme is the most controversial policy of the Pheu Thai Party. Yet the party vowed to carry on with the programme if re-elected despite heavy criticism and a lack of funds
00
http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/news/390431/going-against-the-grain.

Why does Yingluck, not her brother, but her, keep the expenditures of the B 700 billion secret?

It's hard to figure out how much rice the government has officially sold and kept under its pledging plan that started two years ago. That's because all records are kept secret for what the Commerce Ministry calls "business reasons".

Which of course is absolutely true. Since Thaksin used parliament to pass laws that would benefit only one family in the kingdom it has been clear that the Shinawatra clan has always considered the revenues and expenditures of the Thai government their personal business.

So what have we proved:

Yingluck

had a single policy objective - amnesty for her brother

to undertake it she was willing to rip up the constitution and arrest the judges who continue to find her despotism illegal. It is Yingluck who has tried to overthrow the legal system.

she has betrayed the red shirts time and time again, and they no longer mount counter protests to support her

she has implemented numerous populist sounding schemes that actually benefited her and her supporters and business interests and failed to make the payments to the poor rice farmers.

by giving unrealistic premiums on rice prices she has significantly increased the production of rice at the time of high inventories causing Thai exports to crash and the price of rice to lose almost half of its value, a problem that experts say will take 3 years to recover. (impoverished non Thai farmers in India and Bangledesh will lose their rice paddies when they cannot make their mortgage payments over the next 2 years).

finally there are missing hundreds of billions of baht. Famers should be able to be paid their subsidy, where is the money and why does Yingluck continue to keep those records secret?

Yingluck never meant well, she was always a shill for her criminal brother.

[Fred Sanders]

9. Sorry, but have proven nothing other than your disrespect for the democratic process....

why are you against free elections? Why do you not mention the "murderous" Yingluck and government have promised and kept their promise to not use any violence against the protests?

And who is paying for the highly organized and expensive protests?

[grantcart]

10. No violence that will be a relief to those in the area hospitals

Dozens in hospitals are recuperating from two grenade attacks

A suspect has been identified who was previously arrested in violent attacks against the yellow shirts in 2010

Thai police intercepted a SEAL hit team on their way to the demonstrations

The men were detained at a road checkpoint in Bangkok after police found three pistols, ammunition, a bullet proof vest and other items in their vehicle, which also had false number plates. Official navy SEALs plates were found inside the vehicle, reports said.

The Shinawatra has assaulted the constitution ever since they illegally sold the SHIN company to Singapore

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sale_of_Shin_Corporation_to_Temasek_Holdings#Legal_investigation

That is why he is a convicted criminal sitting in Dubai.

Yingluck attempt to ignore the constitution is the attack on the criminal process

unless you consider the arrest and impeach of Supreme Court Justices part of the "democratic process", something of an adolescent approach to governance that you apparently subscribe to.

[Fred Sanders]

11. Four months of constant protests organized with military precision and this is all the "evidence"

of the "murderous" Yingluck you can come up with?

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Thailand imposes state of emergency over unrest

The Thai government has imposed a 60-day state of emergency in the capital, Bangkok, and the surrounding provinces, from Wednesday, to cope with unrest.
...
The emergency decree gives the government power to censor the media, ban public gatherings and detain suspects without charge.

It also allows for curfews and for parts of Bangkok to be declared off-limits.
...
Emergency rule is supposed to be administered by the police and the army, but the police have until now been told to avoid any confrontation with the protesters, and military commanders have made it clear they do not want to be drawn into the increasingly bitter conflict between the government and its opponents, our correspondent says.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25825872