We have a right to know the figures
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Commerce Minister Niwatthumrong Boonsongpaisan declines to reveal the prices of government-to-government rice deals, saying that the information is sensitive.
The minister is 100 per cent right – for if Minister Niwatthumrong sells at or under world market prices, PM Yingluck Shinawatra has squandered your money and mine from the start, by buying at 40 per cent over market. You and I should be incensed at her being so generous with what’s not hers to give.
And Yingluck cannot really sell at above market, for that would mean that the buying government is forcing its own citizens to subsidise our farmers.
The money PM Yingluck is spending is ours, and we have a right to know that we’re getting value for money and there’s no corruption. Yingluck must at least allow the National Anti-Corruption Commission and Office of the Auditor-General to go over the deals with a fine-tooth comb to certify that all is clean and above-board and that losses are no more than the government claims.
As things stand now, “Methinks the minister doth protest too much” (Shakespeare).
Burin Kantabutra
Bangkok
