Scrap the rice fiasco, please prime minister

Yingluck must come clean and give accurate information to not only Moody’s but we taxpayers whose money she’s being so generous with. But nobody in government gives credible facts. The government reports glowingly on government-to-government rice sales, but refuses to give reveal which governments would subsidise Thais instead of spending the subsidies on its own citizens or prices at which the rice was supposedly sold, and when shippers report that nobody’s booked ships to transport the rice bought. PM Office Minister Niwatthamrong Bunsongphaisan and Fiscal Policy Office Director Somchai Sujapongse blasted Moody’s for using information not from the government, as if only the government could be trusted – and neither person was able to give alternate figures, either. Government economic affairs spokesman Wim Rungwattanajinda said that the Commerce Ministry “never reports the total amount of rice pledged under the scheme, the total amount of rice released from stockpiles, or the amount of money spent to finance the scheme.” So, with PM Yingluck being kept totally in the dark about these vital statistics, and the Commerce Ministry mute on the matter, how can we believe anything that she – or anybody else in government – says?

As Bank of Thailand Chairman and eminent macro-economist Virabongsa Ramangkura said in 2012, the Pheu Thai government should swiftly scrap its rice-pledging scheme, as it requires huge debt-financed budgets and opens the door wide to corruption. He went on to say, “The country will be doomed if the government proceeds with the rice-pledging scheme. This government demonstrates stability. But if there’s anything to rock the stability, it’s this scheme.”

PM Yingluck should heed her own appointee, Dr Virabongsa, and scrap or at least drastically modify the rice scheme, for as she said in response to Dr Virabongsa’s comments, “Everybody has the right to be concerned. We have the duty to explain”.

Lady, explain – if you can.

Burin Kantabutra

Bangkok