Yingluck Shinawatra
Yingluck Shinawatra was prime minister of Thailand from 2011 to 2014. She was removed by the Constitutional Court on May 7th amid mass protests; while the government began appealing the decision, protests worsened. A coup on May 20th ended her regime with finality.
Contents
History
Yingluck led the Pheu Thai Party to victory in the general elections of July 3rd, 2011.
In November 2013, a law was proposed to dismiss the corruption convictions against Thaksin Shinawatra. This led to mass protests including the seizure of several government buildings.
Yingluck survived a vote of no confidence on November 28th, but on December 8th all opposition MPs resigned in protest. The next day, Yingluck dissolved parliament and scheduled snap elections for February 2nd.
The mass protests did not stop in the interim months. A state of emergency was declared on January 21st. Nonetheless, the government failed to administer the election in several districts.
The government began scheduling new elections in the affected districts for April 27th. The Constitutional Court heard two appeals arguing that the elections were invalid. While the first (argued on February 12th) was dismissed, the second (argued on March 21st) was accepted. In what was described as a judicial coup, the court also heard appeals to remove Yingluck from power, which it accepted on May 7th. Niwatthamrong Boonsongpaisan was appointed interim prime minister while the government appealed.
On May 20th, the royal army declared martial law. The Peace and Order Maintaining Command was formed under Prayut Chan-o-cha. Two days later, on May 22nd, during negotiations between the POMC and Niwatthamrong's government, Prayut declared that he was seizing power. The POMC reformed as the National Council for Peace and Order. Yingluck was arrested and held by the army throughout this process.
In 2016, Yingluck was tried for her failed rice subsidy program. She fled the country ahead of her conviction and sentencing, and now lives in exile with Serbian citizenship.
Policies
Yingluck instituted an aggressive subsidy of rice. The government bought 54.3 million tons of rice at roughly double the concurrent market rate. Not only did the program run over budget, and not only was it was exploited by international traders (i.e. importing rice to sell as domestic product), the administration of this stockpile was plagued with corruption. Rice of lower quality was swapped in. Rice was stolen and sold on the black market. Fraudulent government-to-government contracts (i.e. private buyers claiming to represent the government of China) were signed and executed.