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  • News & article

    Going potty over luck at Govt House

    News, Ploenpote Atthakor, Published on 10/05/2017

    » Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha likes to remind us he is not a politician -- a statement that in a way reflects his perceived superiority. Basically, he wants it known he is in a different league.

  • News & article

    About Politics

    News, Published on 19/11/2016

    » Yingluck's rice photo ops and Prayut's subsidies come under attack v Some election commissioners are scrambling to protect their jobs under new qualification rules v New army chief Gen Chalermchai likes to appease his masters

  • News & article

    Looking in the mirror

    News, Postbag, Published on 30/07/2016

    » Re: "Merkel's immigration policy helps deter terrorism", (Opinion, July 26).

  • News & article

    Weekly business news quiz: October 21-25, 2013

    Jon Fernquest, Published on 25/10/2013

    » Check if you understand the issues and vocabulary in this week's most important business news stories.

  • News & article

    Rice policy mainly benefits rich people

    Jon Fernquest, Published on 08/08/2012

    » Poor farmers get 5% of govt rice program money, merchants & millers get 63%.

  • News & article

    Rice industry corruption

    Jon Fernquest, Published on 02/05/2012

    » With dealings between millers, exporters & government invisible to public, rice industry corruption seems likely but also impossible to prove.

  • News & article

    Government returns to rice trade

    Jon Fernquest, Published on 21/07/2011

    » Will active government buying, storing, selling rice, using it as collateral for state bank loans, avoid the corruption of the past?

  • News & article

    Rice stockpiles not necessary

    Jon Fernquest, Published on 01/02/2011

    » Heavy losses resulted when past governments took physical possession of large amounts of rice.

    • Forum

    Stop hunting for ‘foreign’ scapegoats

    By bobbyd, Created on: 15/08/2009, Last updated on: 17/08/2009

    » This piece is just hypothetical gossip. The writer says “the recent spate of news on proxy ownership”. Recent spate means journalist decided to jump on the issue of foreign scapegoats because it stirs the waters in a rather dull news week. Writer: Sanitsuda Ekacai Published: 13/08/2009 at...

    • david commented : Apparently the farmers are now hiding in the fields! The news was dominated last week by revelations of mass purchases of Thai farmland by foreigners, particularly Arabs, bent on growing crops, particularly rice, to fend off the imminent starvation of their own citizens. The conspiracy is widespread, with the foreigners paying off and using farmers as proxies for the land purchases. The only problem is that no shred of proof was presented to back up the stories. The Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry tried to debunk this outlandish tale, saying it had been unable to find a single case where foreigners or their companies were using Thai nominees for rice farming. The Commerce Ministry also investigated and was unable to find any such case. That proved that the foreign takeover was massive, apparently. As a Bangkok newspaper (not the Bangkok Post) put it: The farmers fear to talk. As with any good conspiracy theory, the denial is proof it exists. The inability of officials to find any land-grabbing allegedly demonstrated how competently cunning the foreigners are. After all, newspapers quoted people in the know. In Chiang Rai, Inkham Namwong, head of a local palm oil cooperative, told reporters that 70% of the farmland in the entire province had been rented to foreigners. Unfortunately, he also had no proof, no names and no evidence. All of this did nothing to pinpoint a major failing of Thai agriculture. Low crop prices have kept farmers impoverished even as middlemen and food exporters thrived. This could be the conspiracy elephant hiding in the middle of the room. It is true that farmers have been forced or encouraged to sell their land to investors for many years, but there has never been any proof that foreigners or their companies were behind any such purchases. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva himself jumped into the issue. ``We will do everything in our power to keep the country's rice farming land out of the hands of foreign investors,'' he thundered. That seemed like a fairly simple goal. In all the nationalistic fervour, no one bothered to explain _ or to ask _ how this massive land grab by foreigners would actually work. That is, once the Arab interlopers have actually grown all this rice and fruit and vegetables for their people, how would they get it out of the country? Have you ever seen an Arab in a Thai rice field?

    • 1 replies, 3,497 views

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