More misery for Yingluck
A day after the Constitutional Court sent Yingluck and nine ministers home, the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) is taking it a step further.
Yingluck, as chairman of the National Rice Policy Committee (NRPC), has been negligent in stopping corruption in the mortgage system and rising costs.
The committee unanimously voted Yingluck to the Senate today impeachment (deposition). If the Senate finds her guilty, she will receive a 5-year political ban. In addition, the NACC is still considering whether to criminalize Yingluck. That case then goes to the Holders of Political Positions Division of the Supreme Court.
NACC spokesperson Vicha Mahakhun says today's decision is based on evidence and witness testimony. "Political motives played no role in the decision."
Pheu Thai lawyer Pichit Chuenban does not think it is right that the NACC uses the same information with the impeachment procedure and the criminal procedure. “Those are two different things. The NACC should not be using the same information.”
The NACC decided on Jan. 16 to begin an investigation into Yingluck's role as NRPC chairman. It was also decided to prosecute fifteen people, including two former cabinet members, for corruption. They were involved in a so-called G-2-G rice deal (government to government) which was actually a private transaction.
(Source: Website Bangkok Post, May 8, 2014)
Photos: NACC press conference today.
See also: Prime Minister Yingluck and nine ministers must resign
Again great good news for Thailand.
Both the Court and the NACC have tackled corruption and there is still a long way to go, but this is a good start.
Thailand will have to take the time to implement reforms in politics . Of course , elections can not be organized yet , if the right people have yet to be found and many anti - corruption laws have to be devised , for example : political figures should not own excessively dubiously obtained wealth and that people in politics should not have business interests .
Every government expenditure should also include coverage with broad political support.
It was perfectly clear that the elections in February could never have been held, this billions of expenditure must also be recovered from Yingluck as well as the rice corruption losses and unplanned water management tenders.
So far justice may prevail.
Of course there is a chance that blows will fall in Bangkok or elsewhere, but as expats or tourists, will we first think of the Thai and not of their own inconveniences, which Thai politics entails.
greetings from Danny
My thoughts really go out first to my wife's family, a handful of Thai friends and some expats that I've gotten to know over the years, no less myself, but otherwise I won't be able to worry much.
Of course if blows fall, I hope the best for Thailand and its people, expats and tourists, in short for everyone.
I believe that everything will turn out well in the end, Thailand can withstand tough times and disasters, that was no different in the past.
I personally really had the impression that Yingluck really did her best. Although she didn't always have a lucky hand in making decisions.
and I am now wondering how independent that court is when there have been months of arrest warrants against an opposition leader who is not being arrested….
The statement that the costs of the elections are Yingluck's is really ridiculous. She simply followed the law in this matter. The fact that those elections were impossible in practice cannot be blamed on her, but on the police who were damned to act. And those idiotic rice measures were already in place before she came to power. That is, at the very least, a collective failure rather than an individual one.
For now, she can come back from me.
@ Mr Bojangles The rice mortgage system (actually a subsidy scheme) has been debunked by the current government. The previous government (of Abhisit) used a price guarantee scheme and did not buy the rice. For the background of the mortgage system, see: The rice mortgage system in Q&A (http://tinyurl.com/mwzw7b8).