Bail-out for growers of pineapples a waste of taxpayers' money

The economic slowdowns in the US and EU have gutted demand for canned pineapple, halving prices for the fresh fruit.

But both recessions have been around for years. Have her economic advisers, including her 

minister of agriculture, been snoring at their posts? They should have been out warning the farmers of the reduced demand – and had the farmers ignored the advice, then they should have had to bear the consequences, rather than having her bailing them out with your hard-earned money and mine.

We can afford the B1.4 billion squandered on pineapples. But her maiden address to Parliament when taking office was roundly lambasted for being all short term, not telling us what her long-term vision was.

And we still don’t know what “Promised Land” this female Moses of ours is leading us to, other than that her brother will very much be a part of it. Her focus on the short term seems to be chronic. Will Madame Parrot just simply hand the reins over to dear brother, and let him decide? Either way shouldn’t we know – and shouldn’t she seek our approval first?

Can you, Dear Reader, afford to pay for an entire rice crop at 40 per cent over world prices, giving our leading position in the world market away to competitors? Or can you afford flood controls that convince neither insurers nor the businesses supposedly being protected? Or for a jump in the minimum wage that the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce forecasts will put 10 per cent of our SMEs – maybe including the noodle shop you ate at today – out of business?

Are we lemmings, blindly following our leader? What if she’s blind also? I suggest that we should take to heart Charles de Gaulle’s observation, “Politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians”, and play an active role in deciding where we’re going.

Burin Kantabutra

Bangkok