So she has finally resigned. I'm not sure what it is that she has resigned from: Politics maybe? The abuse? The wild accusations possibly, but no, I think Yingluck has had enough and decided the bullying Yellows and tyrannical opposition ministers are more than she wants to have to deal with. These are not businessmen; these are the power piranha. No other PM in history has had to put up with as much as she has. In three years of office she has been referred to the Ethics Committee no less than 77 times. That is once every fortnight. Unlike any predecessor Yingluck spent more time in court than she did in the PM's office.
Amongst some of the complaints are that Yingluck dispensed the Rice Quota too quickly. She didn't dip her hand in the pot, she didn't give anyone more than they were supposed to get, she didn't even pay it out before it was due. The ministry for land and farming was instructed to pay the subsidies as and when the funds were made available rather than unnecessarily make poor regional farmers wait and potentially run out of money because the yield the previous year was reduced in the middle regions because of flooding. Did she do anything wrong? Not according to the ethics committee, if only she hadn't increased the Government's promissory quota without approval from Parliament.
Another was because she had lied about how much money she had personally loaned to a ventures company. The public accounting committee ruled that because Yingluck had paid the correct taxes and had declared an interest in that company to Parliament, the fact that at the time of the disclosure she had only invested sixteen million and had after the fact put in another 44 million was not cause for impeachment, if only she hadn't forgotten to tell Parliament.
The reasons for referral got sillier by the day with one accusation that she had spent the night with businessman Settha Taveesin at Four Seasons Hotel. That backfired as married lady Yingluck's lawyers fired off a writ for libel but the Rak Thai Party highly cynical opposition four MPs watered it down to "What was being discussed during this business meeting". I get their point that she could have potentially used her office to promote a business transaction but her private secretary was also present along with two cabinet members and the discussion was about flood prevention. She was using a business situation to promote a role of her office. When one of the four asked if she had sex that night he found himself locked up. And rightly so. But they still referred her to the ethics committee...
But the worst complaint of all to the ethics committee was surely her abuse of office to return her brother Thaksin to Thailand. She had done no such thing. She did ask the high court to review the sentence given in his absence that effectively makes him an exile. She also asked the home office to process Thaksin's application for a new passport. That's not an abuse of power, that's putting it to work, that's an MP's job to help constituents. I have done it myself when I couldn't get a friend's Thai girlfriend's visa, I went to his MP and asked him to write to the immigration office on his behalf, which his MP did for no payment, and then the visa was approved. Using that as a benchmark Yingluck acted most cordially if only she hadn't after being told 'No' then presented the Political Amnesty Bill.
But the putrid Phue Thai and it's cynical bunch of power hungry seat grabbers have stooped to drainage levels not previously seen when they used a high court that is founded and seated by yellow followers, the chair being a registered PTP member, to look into whether it was constitutionally legal to move an unwanted security official, Thawil Pliensri, to another equally commensurate position, if only she hadn't replaced him with one of her own family.
The court ruled she compromised her position and she has had enough, just like I said she would, and has resigned. Although she didn't say from what?
There will be riots, people will die, tourism will be damaged, exports will struggle, all because the PDRC want to grab power at any cost. I delighted in her closing statement to the Press, "I am glad I was able to serve the people and proud that I got to office through democratic means". A verbal slight that will not go unnoticed. But she will despite setting records that are undeniably remarkable:
She is the youngest ever PM
She is by far the prettiest ever PM
She is the first female PM
She polled more votes than any other elected PM
She got a second mandate for PM with the lowest ever turn out
She was in the chair during the worst floods on record
She was investigated more than any MP on record and yet given the least number of advisories
She is also the PM who served during the most politically stable period, called a snap election without Parliament approval, and led a cabinet that lasted only one day.
There are many other records broken by Yingluck Shinawatra amongst which is that she presented a record number of bills before Parliament and yet the country is in exactly the same mess it was in when she arrived on the scene in 2010. More than a million home owners who's livelihood's were destroyed in the 2011 floods have still not received their flood victim compensation. School leaving age, poverty line pensions, hospital fees, and tax exemptions have not been raised. She failed at every opportunity. Even amongst the reds in Issan she went from hero to zero in four years. They want Thaksin and his sister was a disappointment. She is the PM who mingled with heads of state and danced with the American President while the poor who put her there live in squalor.
My next prediction; When the Generals have finished little sister Yaowapa will be the next PM and she will be eaten alive by the political vultures because she isn't as pretty.
Your Comments
Leave your comment
Leave your comment