As predicted, the government will not be able to keep its promise to rice farmers that they will definitely be paid today, Jan 31 -- just as all the other promises of payment been broken -- because the government itself is broke but has stubbornly refused to accept it and has kept lying to the farmers.
Its last-ditch attempt, through the Finance Ministry, to raise funds via a bridging loan auction on Thursday -- and to raise another 20 billion baht loan in a similar way each week until it reaches the 130 billion baht the Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives needs to pay the farmers -- was abruptly cancelled, because most commercial banks did not take part.
The couple of banks that did show an interest asked for a very high interest rate that the ministry found unacceptable.
The reason for their absence is that it remains doubtful the Finance Ministry can secure the loan and whether such a transaction would be constitutional or not.
This rice farmer taking part in a road blockade protest in Phitsanulok on Jan 27 has a sign saying ‘‘Every tractor is for sale. Need money to pay off debts". (Post Today photo)
If problems later arose the banks' image would suffer and there could be a run on the banks' funds, depleted to provide the badly needed loan to the ministry for a corruption-riddled project such as the rice pledging scheme. Or there could just be a public backlash against the lending banks.
I wonder what excuses the government or provincial governors will be telling the unpaid rice farmers this time - hard working people who have already waited several months for payment and are now even deeper in debt than usual.
Maybe they will blame the People’s Democratic Reform Committee? Or put the blame on the commercial banks for their refusal to take part in the questionable bridging loan auction?
Just please, do not make yet another promise to the farmers, just to buy a little more time and keep procrastinating about the payments.
Just tell the farmers the truth – the real truth – that the government is broke, and about the corruption in the rice scheme which has robbed the farmers of the money they should have received. Perhaps the farmers may then take pity on the government and be willing to wait a bit longer for their outstanding payments - although the people they may have borrowed money from probably won't be so generous.
Most farmers are down-to-earth, honest and non-aggressive and I am sure they are willing to lend an ear. But no more lies!
How or if the government will be able to convince these dissenting farmers to go to the polls this Sunday and to vote for the Pheu Thai Party is the government’s business. It is the government’s problem, a problem of its own making, and it will just have to deal with it.
And if the farmers take to the streets en mass to protest against the delayed payments, instead of going to the polls on Sunday, then the government will be worried because it will lose a substantial number of votes it cannot afford to lose given the anticipated massive boycott of the election called for by the PDRC, and the "Vote No" campaign.
It is time for the farmers to decide for themselves, using their own judgement and free will, whether they will continue to vote for a party that while in government has kept failing them. Or whether to ignore the voting process and just carry on protesting until they get paid.