Fugitive former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra complained today that she is being legally compelled to pay Bt10 billion in compensation for losses incurred by the rice pledging scheme—despite not having created it and being unable to pay the amount in her lifetime.
Reacting to the Supreme Administrative Court’s ruling in a Facebook post, Yingluck, who is currently living in self-imposed exile abroad, argued that she was not involved in all the processes regarding the implementation of the rice pledging scheme, as stated in the ruling by the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Political Office Holders, which found her guilty of negligence in the management of the scheme.
She claims that she had no intention to cause damage to the state, noting that the implementation of every step of the scheme involved several agencies and various bureaucrats under different chains of command.
As leader of the government at the time, she claims that she could not have interfered with the bureaucrats, “but I have been held accountable for the losses alone. If this is justice, it is difficult for me to understand or to accept.”
Yingluck continued by saying that the rice pledging scheme was the flagship policy of the Pheu Thai party and her government and, according to the Constitution, her government was obliged to implement it.
It was intended to stimulate the grassroots economy and to improve the livelihoods of about 20 million farming families, she claims.
Instead, she said her government was accused of causing damage to the state, adding that she wonders if there will be any future government which would dare to introduce similar scheme.
She claimed that, after the coup which topped her government on May 22nd, 2014, the government sold about 18.9 million tonnes of the rotting rice stockpile at fire-sale prices, despite not all of it being rotten, resulting in a loss of about 100 billion baht. There has, however, been no investigation of this, she added.
Since the coup that overthrew her administration, Yingluck complained that she had been subjected to unfair treatment time after time.
“A person who has never been subjected to such treatment will never know how it feels. Yet, I will fight on, seeking justice as long as the law allows me to do so. If an elected prime minister cannot access true justice, there won’t be any guarantee for the people, who are the owners of sovereign power,” wrote Yingluck.
