Phumtham dared to serve cabinet members 10-year-old rice from govt stock

By Thai Newsroom Reporters

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER-cum-Commerce Minister Phumtham Wechayachai was today (May 7) dared to serve fellow members of cabinet the 10-year-old rice for lunch which he has strongly recommended for consumption though it had been put in government stock for a decade.

Democrat spokesperson Ramet Ratanachaweng dared Phumtham, largely known as a right-hand man of de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict on parole Thaksin Shinawatra, to manage to serve fellow ministers during their weekly meetings at Government House on Tuesdays the 10-year-old rice which, he suggested, should only be washed with water for no more than three times before steaming it and being served for lunch.

Too many rounds of water-washing of the 10-year-old rice would only deprive the rice of its nutritional quality, said Ramet who called on Phumtham and his fellow cabinet members to literally manifest the sustained qualities of the 10-year-old rice with themselves demonstratively eating it.

The Democrat spokesperson was responding to yesterday’s event in which the deputy prime minister-cum-commerce minister ate a dish of the 10-year-old rice which had been put in government stock in Surin under the scandalous rice subsidy programme  carried out by a previous Pheu Thai-led government under deposed prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, sister of the de facto Pheu Thai boss, over a decade earlier.

Moths had been evidently seen in the water which had washed the 10-year-old rice as many as 15 times before it was steamed and served to the deputy prime minister who had strongly recommended it, Ramet said.

Phumtham who had maintained that the rice subsidy programme had by no means incurred a huge loss of the taxpayer’s money which had financed it was seen spooning up more meat than the steamed rice during his rice-eating demonstration in the northeastern province.

Thaksin has earlier said Yingluck who has fled the country since 2017 in the face of a court verdict which had delivered her a five-year jail sentence for her duty-negligence charges pertaining to the loss-ridden rice subsidy campaign would likely follow in his footsteps by returning home as soon as later this year or early next so that, he said, she could attend next Songkran festival in their home province of Chiang Mai.

Since last August’s homecoming after 17 years of self-exile abroad, the de facto Pheu Thai boss had never spent a single day in jail and been instead allegedly provided double-standard privileges at Police Hospital where he had stayed for undisclosed illnesses the symptoms of which had remained a mystery to the public for six months until he was released on parole last February. Nevertheless, Thaksin had been accused by his critics of feigning the reported illnesses only to keep himself from being literally put behind bars.

Armed with a cellphone in his private ward at the hospital, Thaksin had allegedly played pivotal part in the power play by giving instructions to Phumtham, the Pheu Thai wheeler-dealer, over the jaw-dropping setup of a Pheu Thai-led coalition government and allocation of portfolios among coalition partners.

The de facto Pheu Thai boss had allegedly resolved to bring into coalition certain elements of the powers that be such as the likes of former coup leader-turned-prime minister/de facto Ruam Thai Sang Chart boss Prayut Chan-o-cha whilst dumping the Move Forward with whom his party had earlier looked to form a post-election government.

CAPTION:

Commerce Minister Phumtham Wechayachai eating 10-year-old rice, above, and alongside Democrat spokesperson Ramet Ratanachaweng, Front Page. Both photos: Thai Rath

Also read: MP slams using Central Fund to partly finance digital wallet project

Govt dared to dismiss Central Bank Governor over digital wallet row

Commerce chambers oppose nationwide 400-baht daily minimum wage

Man held for slashing woman at shopping mall car park

Another damaged manhole cover found in Lat Phrao

As temperature exceeds 43°C woman loses her entire durian crop