BANGKOK, Jan 23 — Thailand's former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra said Friday that the rice-pledging scheme sponsored by her toppled government was a good programme as it improved farmers’ quality of life and that she would “fight till the end.”
Posting on her Facebook page, Ms Yingluck stressed her innocence after a National Legislative Assembly (NLA) majority earlier in the day voted to impeach her, forcing her to be banned from political activities for five years.
Ms Yingluck was impeached after the National Anti-Corruption Commission petitioned the NLA to impeach her, accusing her of dereliction of duty for failing to stop corruption and losses in the rice-pledging scheme.
Moreover, the Office of the Attorney-General early on Friday decided to file criminal charges against her on the corruption-tainted scheme.
Reiterating that she still wanted to see national reconciliation in Thailand and the country’s democratic system strengthened, Yingluck said she was sorry for the farmers and Thais throughout the country who are losing opportunity as they will “return to poverty, live in debt and lose basic democracy” and laws which have now been twisted. (MCOT online news)
