Thailand's Political Parties have been horrified by the fact that a Democratically elected Commerce Minister should be forced to pay back some of the money he made from scams and graft. A spokesman for the Thais-who-love-themselves Party, said it will be the end of Democracy in Thailand forever. If politicians are not allowed to keep the money they made from corruption while in office how can they be expected to pay people to vote for them? And unless people are paid to vote nobody will turn out at elections. The spokesman said.
Thai Democracy, interrupted by periods of Military Rule, has worked well since the 1980s when Mr Tenpercent became Prime Minister. Its a simple system: you get a Government job, take some bribes, buy some votes and get a better Government job with more bribes and kickbacks so you can buy more votes. Eventually, you can become Prime Minister. The system is also open to the private sector. You bribe Government officials to give you exclusive rights to do something, say, sell whiskey, operate a mobile phone service, sell Lumyai to the Chinese or operate the Airport Duty Free shops. With one of these monopolies in your hands, you have a virtual license to print money. With all this money you can start your own Political Party (when you have finished buying Football Clubs) and become Prime Minister. Prior to the military coup, Thailand's Tammany Hall style Democracy was praised to the heavens by the BBC and The Guardian Newspaper (who have long defended voters rights, except when they vote for Brexit). The story from the Nation: Civil-liability case launched to seize Boonsong’s assets THE GOVERNMENT is proceeding with formal action to recover more than Bt20 billion in compensation from ex-politicians and bureaucrats to cover financial damages resulting from the previous Yingluck government’s fake contracts to sell rice to China. Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn said Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha had given the green light for the permanent secretary of Commerce to proceed with the civil liability case, after which six defendants will be formally advised of the charges. The bogus government-to-government (G2G) rice deals, involving a total of 6.2 million tonnes of Thai rice, were signed and executed by former commerce minister Boonsong Teriyapirom and five others. Civil liability law covers all elected officials and bureaucrats accused of causing financial damage to the state while in office. The law empowers authorities to seek financial compensation in relevant cases. Defendants have a total of 45 days to dispute the charges after which the Commerce Ministry will forward the case to the Department of Legal Execution, which has the authority to seize the defendants' assets pending a ruling by the Administrative Court.Chutima Boonyaprapat, the outgoing permanent secretary who retires on September 30, said the ministry had a team of lawyers on this case, adding that defendants may seek an injunction on the seizure of assets and fight the case in court. Wiboonlasana Ruamraksa, the incoming permanent secretary, said she had no details on the case, so it would take time to review the case before she can sign the executive order as assigned by the Commerce minister. Warong Dejkijvikrom, a former Democrat MP, said the commerce minister appears to have lacked political leadership because she assigned the permanent secretary to sign the executive order on her behalf. As well as former commerce minister Boonsong, former premier YIngluck Shinawatra is also expected to face a massive civil liability lawsuit as a result of the rice-pledging scheme. State losses and financial damages in the case are estimated to be Bt178 billion to Bt286 billion covering five rice production seasons. The rice-pledging scheme was the largest farm price intervention effort covering all paddy that was sold to the government at around Bt15,000 per tonne, against the prevailing market price of only Bt7,000 to Bt8,000 per tonne. Government sources said Yingluck could be held responsible for 20 per cent of the damages or Bt35.7 bill.
2 Comments
gary dubrall
9/18/2016 05:17:11 am
It's not only in Asia as evidenced by the reports of how Trump operates. We are all correctable we just have different prices
Reply
The Doctor
9/18/2016 10:32:46 pm
Sure, how many honest politician can you think of? in any place, at any time.
Reply
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