Thailand's flagship rice buying policy turns sour

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http://www.adn.com/2014/02/05/3309518/thailands-flagship-rice-buying.html



Farmers ride on a small truck during a rally to demand the government to speed up the payment for the price of their crops outside the Commerce Ministry in Bangkok Thursday, Feb. 6, 2014. An ambitious rice buying program that Thailand's ruling party hoped would uplift millions of its poor rural supporters may end up helping to bring down the increasingly cornered government.

Thailand's flagship rice buying policy turns sour
By THANYARAT DOKSONE
Associated Press
February 5, 2014 Updated 10 minutes ago

BANGKOK — An ambitious rice buying program that Thailand's ruling party hoped would uplift millions of its poor rural supporters may end up helping to bring down the increasingly cornered government.

Hundreds of farmers from more than 10 provinces converged Thursday on the capital Bangkok to demand rice payments now overdue for several months after the policy caused ruinous losses. Some have blocked three main highways in the north and the west, while a few hundred in the ruling party's northeastern heartland protested at a provincial government hall.

With the help of populist policies such as the rice pledging scheme, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's party won a landslide election victory in 2011. But it suffered a self-inflicted and crushing setback late last year by attempting to amnesty Yingluck's elder brother Thaksin Shinwawatra so he could return to the kingdom without serving prison time for a corruption conviction. Ousted as prime minister in a 2006 coup, Thaksin is a polarizing figure, beloved in the countryside and loathed in the capital where military, palace and old money cliques have traditionally held sway over the nation.

The rice crisis could not have come at a worse time for the government, which is reduced to a caretaker administration after street protests sparked by the amnesty law forced new elections. Official results of the Feb. 2 vote may not be announced for months after protesters in Bangkok prevented some polling places from functioning, requiring by-elections. The government is also assailed by numerous court cases and investigations that could result in it being deposed judicially.