Call to Reject ADB Cash - Thailand Slammed for Being a Slave by Phairath Khampha 30 June 2000 The Thai government was on June 13, 2000 told to stop borrowing money from the Asian Development Bank and other international financial institutions. A Thai farmer representative burns a blow-up copy of an Asian Development Bank letter to a non-governmental organisation regarding a meeting last month. Farmers and local NGOs have opposed ADB loans for agricultural reform claiming certain conditions including a requirement that the government charge them for water use, were unacceptable. About 300 people who said they represented a large segment of Thailand's population gathered in front of the Office of Civil Service Commission while others went to Government House to submit their demands. They wanted the government to stop borrowing money from the ADB, revoke all loan conditions earlier made with the bank, scrap a waste water treatment project in Samut Prakan and make all loan conditions public. Mr Veeraphol Sopha, the group's leader, slammed the government for being a slave to the ADB. The leaders of the group took turns to criticise the government for agreeing to loan conditions made by their financial creditors. The protesters, who later moved to the Finance Ministry, also accused the government of ignoring the plight of the poor. They said that in effect the economic and political elite, corrupt politicians through their family contracting firms, and government officials enriched themselves on these loans after which the loan plus interest had to be paid back by the people through taxes. They also said that despite all the claims made by the ADB at poverty reduction, the reality was that the projects did little to address the needs and aspirations of the majority of Thais and that most projects were completely inappropriate because the foreign consultants hired to carry out the studies and implement projects for the most part not only could not speak Thai and therefore get first-hand information which often purposely was distorted by their interpreters, but they could not even comprehend Thai culture and issues in the rural areas of the country.