Rice Crop Subsidies Could Feed Yingluck Into Prison

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, whose government was toppled by a military coup in May, faces a possible 10 years in prison after the Supreme Court on Thursday (March 19) ordered her trial for alleged negligence when she administered rice subsidies.

"I am innocent," Ms. Yingluck said on her Facebook page, hours after the court's announcement.

The crop subsidies "enhanced the living standards of the rice farmers," she said.

"The Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions has authority to consider the case," the court ruled on Thursday (March 19).

The Attorney General's office had charged her with "dereliction of duty" for not correcting alleged problems within her government subsidy program.

Ms. Yingluck's trial, scheduled to start on May 19, is expected to increase divisions in this troubled and repressed Southeast Asian country.

She remains popular despite the coup-installed junta's use of martial law, military courts for civilian dissidents, "attitude adjustment" re-education at army camps, and other punishments to silence demands for a return to democracy.

Prosecutors allege Ms. Yingluck's negligence cost the country billions of dollars in price supports and other fees.

Her supporters said the subsidies cost the government money because the program was planned as welfare for needy rice farmers.

Much of the rice which the government purchased -- at up to twice the international market's prices -- is currently piled in warehouses where its quality is deteriorating due to humidity, mold and insects.

Subsidized rice that the government bought and was able to sell or trade, did not make a profit.

Ms. Yingluck's opponents said the subsidies suffered from corruption, theft, mismanagement and deception because she ignored warnings about such problems.

But no one has ever been convicted of any major crimes, including corruption, linked to the subsidies.

Nevertheless, allegations of corruption within the subsidy program, and her negligence, have played a big part in the opposition's hammering propaganda against Ms. Yingluck during the past year.

The National Anti-Corruption Commission suggested a few months ago that Ms. Yingluck be forced to pay more than $15 billion for the subsidies' estimated cost because of her alleged negligence.

Ms. Yingluck and her coalition won a July 2011 election, but a Constitutional Court ruled on May 7, 2014 that she, as prime minister, illegally demoted and promoted officials.

When she had to step down because of that court's decision, she handed the prime ministry to a political ally, who ran her caretaker government and tried to arrange fresh elections.

Two weeks later, Ms. Yingluck's crippled government was ousted by the U.S.-trained military on May 22.

More recently, a coup-appointed National Legislative Assembly retroactively impeached Ms. Yingluck in January, banishing her from political power for five years.

Her problems echo the financial trials and military attack which damaged her older brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, who was prime minister from 2001 until 2006 when the military seized power in a previous putsch.

Mr. Thaksin is now an international fugitive dodging a two-year prison sentence for corruption.

From self-exile, his manipulative influence and popularity enabled him to thrust his sister into the prime ministry despite Ms. Yingluck's lack of political experience.

His enemies meanwhile hope to one day investigate Mr. Thaksin's "war on drugs," which resulted in more than 2,500 unexplained extrajudicial killings during his administration.

They also hope the May 2014 coup and latest court cases will eventually destroy the Shinawatra family's authoritarian dynastic politics which have dominated Thailand during most of the 21st century.

The Shinawatras boosted several relatives into important police, military and political posts, but the coup's regime has steadily eroded the family's sway.

Much of Thailand's often violent political polarization comes from a cascade of power grabs during the past decade by the royalist military and its wealthy and middle-class supporters in Bangkok and the south.

They oppose the increasingly strong competition from newly rich business leaders and allied politicians, such as the Shinawatras, who enjoy a majority of votes by the rural and urban poor in the north and northeast.

U.S. State Department Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Daniel Russel, warned the coup leaders in January about the criminal charges against Ms. Yingluck.

"Although this is being pretty blunt, when an elected leader is removed from office, is deposed, then impeached by the authorities -- the same authorities that conducted the coup -- and then when a political leader is targeted with criminal charges at a time when the basic democratic processes and institutions in the country are interrupted, the international community is going to be left with the impression that these steps could in fact be politically driven," Mr. Russel said in a speech in Bangkok at Chulalongkorn University.

Richard S. Ehrlich is a Bangkok-based journalist from San Francisco, California, reporting news from Asia since 1978, and recipient of Columbia University's Foreign Correspondent's Award. He is a co-author of three non-fiction books about Thailand, including "Hello My Big Big Honey!" Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their Revealing Interviews; 60 Stories of Royal Lineage; and Chronicle of Thailand: Headline News Since 1946. Mr. Ehrlich also contributed to the final chapter, "Ceremonies and Regalia," in a new book titled King Bhumibol Adulyadej, A Life's Work: Thailand's Monarchy in Perspective.

His websites are

http://asia-correspondent.tumblr.com

http://www.flickr.com/photos/animists/sets

https://gumroad.com/l/RHwa

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