Feb 26, 2014 09:05 AM EST
Thai Rice Buying Scheme Backfires for Farmers: Price of Politics

The price of rice in Thailand is now a huge national debt, and perhaps the loss of a future election for those involved in a massive buying scheme to secure votes which has now backfired.

According to the Global Post, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's plan to purchase rice from Thai rice farmers for 50 percent of the market rate was a solid way to secure the votes of the blue collar populace of Thailand. The plan was also theorized to be a big win for the country, as the government intended to hoard the rice, and therefore increase the scarcity in the global market, and drive up the market value. With one miscalculation, however, the entire program will end, as will Shinawatra's chances of reelection. The rice price didn't increase in the global market, and the Thai government is now sitting on almost 4 billion dollars of debt, and silos of slowly spoiling rice.

Thailand is renowned for its rice, and was the world's greatest rice supplier for years.   Yet increased rice production and sales in India and Vietnam stifled the Thai government's plan and the rice farmers are not happy to hear the government rice-buying initiative will be stopped. They're so unhappy, in fact, that Ammar Siamwalla, a senior economist with the Thailand Development Research Institute claims things may get apocalyptically bad in the near future. "Farmers are now talking about raiding government warehouses and taking their rice back. All kinds of solutions are in the air. All of which are wild ... We are teetering on becoming an anarchic society."

To add to this, an opposing party which is delighting in the failings of the current government, which recently declared itself a "caretaker" government and hosted elections, has taken to sabotaging the elections by force.  Due to the sabotage, Thailand is in a state of disarray, and will not be able to host new elections for weeks while still being stuck with their caretaker governance.

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