BANGKOK, Jan 9 — Ex-prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra on Friday criticised the impeachment process brought against her by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) over her role in the massively corrupt rice-pledging scheme that it would be unlawful to impeach her because she is no longer prime minister of Thailand.
Defending herself at Parliament, Miss Yingluck said what the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) members are considering is significant and would impact the country’s administration and economy in large-scale because she is no longer prime minister and that she had been impeached three times before.
The first time was when Parliament was dissolved, the second was from the ruling of the Constitution Court and the third by the announcement of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), she said.
The NCPO ousted her government on May 22 and scrapped the 2007 Constitution.
Miss Yingluck also chaired the National Rice Policy Committee when she was prime minister.
Her government-sponsored rice-pledging programme was accused by NACC of massive corruption, causing losses of about Bt680 billion to the country.
Ms Yingluck said she no longer held any political position and if the process continues it would be like a duplication of impeachment. She said it is against the law and creating an injustice for the future.
“NLA findings will not only affect me but every Thai agriculturist as well, especially farmers who are the majority of the people. Therefore, today’s impeachment process will impact mapping policy to assist farmers in future and it could be interpreted as breaking Thai farmers’ hope and future for a long time to come,” Ms Yingluck told the legislators.
Emphasising her innocence, Ms Yingluck asked ‘What is the use of attempts to achieve national reform as the current government and NLA wants to achieve when society feels that the ongoing process violates legal procedures.”
