Get Ready to be raped by US Strikepower Omnipresent!
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: alashchandrabiswas@gmail.com">palashchandrabiswas@gmail.com
Get ready to be raped by US strikepower omnipresent. Asia has already witnessed it happening in Vietnam, Korea and Iraq! bangladesh had been raped by Pakistany Army during liberation war in 1971. Submissive ruling comradors in Asia, weakest as well as so called emerging superpower japan provides enough space and scope for US adventure. India has been least aware of developements around since the first day of Independence or rather the rulers never cared for the suffering people as it allowed to happen partition holocaust. It was never moved to witness the persecution and refugee influx across the border. Moreover, military rule under AFPSA covering kashmir to northeast has enough cause to justify the raping phenomenon. Indian Ruling Class has never been ashamed of the events like naked parad in Manipur very recently. dalit and minority women are often subjected to sexual exploitation as it turns as joy for the consumer Corporate culture prevailing!
A top United Nations official has suggested that incentives backed by strong encouragement might persuade the Myanmar's military junta to move towards national reconciliation and establishment of democracy. While, Japanese authorities are investigating the alleged rape of a teenager by four U.S. Marines in southwestern Japan last weekend, officials and media said Friday.Police in Hiroshima prefecture are working with U.S. military officials to investigate the allegation, which the 19-year-old woman made to police, top government spokesman Nobutaka Machimura told reporters.
"It would be unforgivable if this turns out to be true," Machimura said.
The U.S. military has about 50,000 troops based in Japan under a bilateral security treaty. Many Japanese complain of crime, pollution and noise associated with the bases.The rape of a schoolgirl by three American servicemen in Okinawa, which has the largest U.S. military presence, sparked large protests in 1995.
The woman in the newly reported incident allegedly met the men, believed to be Marines from the nearby Iwakuni Marine Corps Air Station, at a restaurant or bar in Hiroshima early Saturday morning, local media reports said, citing unnamed police officials.The men allegedly took the woman outside to a car and drove her to a parking lot about a mile away where they raped her, according to the reports.
The U.S. Embassy said that it was "aware of the reported incident" and, together with U.S. Forces Japan, was cooperating fully with Japanese authorities.
"We take reports of this nature very seriously," it said.
USFJ spokesman Master Sgt. Terence Peck made a nearly identical statement.Neither officials nor the media reports named any of the people involved in the alleged incident.Hiroshima is about 430 miles southwest of Tokyo.
"The world is not just there to punish Myanmar, but to see that there is engagement to address the root cause of discontent," said UN Secretary-General's special envoy Ibrahim Gambari, who is in the region to hold consultations with the neighbouring countries including India.
Gambari, who has just concluded discussions in Indonesia, now heads to India, China and Japan to discuss the situation in Myanmar.
He has already held discussions with officials of Thailand and Malaysia.
Gambari, is scheduled to go to Myanmar in the middle of November for another round of discussions with the military leadership and the opposition seeking a democratic set up.
Polls must be held, elected govt will run the country : Gen Moeen
Friday October 19 2007 01:08:05 AM BDT
Army Chief General Moeen U Ahmed on Wednesday said the next general election is a must, as an elected government will run the country.He was addressing an opinion-exchange meeting with the Bangladeshi expatriates(Bangladesh Today)
at World’s Fair Marina in this US city, explaining the situation that led to the 1/11 changeover and the changes now underway.
"Election must be held. An elected government will rule the country," he told the gathering of over 200 Bangladeshi people living in America.
He urged the Bangladeshi expatriates to work for ensuring participation of honest candidates in the next general election. After his speech, the Army Chief, whose force is acting in aid of the present caretaker government, replied to a volley of questions from the audience.
Replying to a question as to what if Awami League or BNP assumed power again or they boycotted the election, General Moeen said, "The people of Bangladesh don’t want to go back to the situation prevailing before 1/11."
As a purge is going on against corruption in high places, he hailed the activities of the Anti-Corruption Commission.
Naming the names of detained ex-premier Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia, he said the ACC during the time of the last elected government could not do anything. " But, after getting independence, the ACC has been successful in bringing the big corrupt to justice."
The visiting Army Chief said the past governments amended the constitution to serve their own interest. " That’s why the MPs could not work for the welfare of the state. Now time has come to put an end to such practice."
Responding to another question whether the government is sparing Jamaat leaders in the current anti-corruption drive, Moeen pointed out that there are several Jamaat leaders on the list of 222 corruption and terror suspects.
"So it is not correct that the government is exempting Jamaat leaders from the anti-corruption drive. The ACC is being run by completely neutral persons." He urged the Bangladeshi expatriates not to create any divisions among them and to work together for the welfare of Bangladesh.
General Moeen said if there is no problem or crisis in future, all works of formulating voter list plus ID cards would be completed before July.
He said it is expected that some 9 crore genuine voters would be enrolled in the new list.
Referring to separation of the Judiciary from November 1, General Moyeen hoped that many changes would come in the country’s law-and-order situation after the execution of the decision. About the recovery of smuggled money, he said the past government had taken initiative to take back the smuggled money, but could not bring back a single penny.
Replying to another question about the distortion of history of liberation war, the army chief said it is beyond all doubts that Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is father of the nation. "In fact Bangabandhu and Ziaur Rahman both are respected persons. There should not be any controversy over them."
Explaining the political situation during the takeover by the present caretaker government, General Moeen said there were three options open before the Jan 11 changeover. The first was to hold back and not to intervene in politics.
The second was military takeover and the third was to declare a state of emergency to create a proper environment for the elections.
Moeen categorically said that he did not follow the footprints of past military rulers.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Appointment of consultants to CG under consideration: Mainul
Staff Correspondent
The government is considering the appointment of consultants to help the advisers in discharging their duties as the present government would continue for another year as per election schedule.
"We are mulling over how some people can be included in the caretaker government to help the over-burdened advisers in discharging their duties", said Law adviser Mainul Hosein while talking to The Bangladesh Today.
As per constitution there is no scope to appoint more advisers so the government has no intention to appoint advisers, he added.
Referring to Army Chief Moeen U Ahmed’s proposal to expand the advisory council, the law adviser said, "We will discuss the matter his return home from abroad".
Earlier, Communications adviser M A Matin and LGRD adviser Anwarul Iqbal at the secretariat on Thursday said, "We have not discussed it at the advisory council meeting".
Bangabandhu remains Father of the Nation: All freed, except 222 listed corrupts: Jamaat leaders were not spared
Friday October 19 2007 02:33:21 AM BDT
Army Chief General Moeen U Ahmed has said that all are freed except 222 corrupt persons whose names were published by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).(New Nation)
General Moeen was speaking at a civic rally at New York in the United States on Wednesday.
Responding to a question by an expatriate Bangladeshi, he said the list of corrupt individuals published by the ACC also included the names of several leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh. So, the allegation is not true that Jamaat leaders were spared from the corrupt list.
"In fact, those who looted the state's wealth have been sent to jail and it will continue, because the anti-graft watchdog is now being run by completely neutral persons," he said.
The Army Chief said movement of a single individual, except these 222 corrupt persons has not been restricted. "So, it would be a blatant lie if someone claims that the caretaker government was trying to restrict the movements of all," he said.
Replying to a question of Shah Shahidul Huq, president of World Human Rights Inc, General Moeen said formation of a human rights commission in Bangladesh has already been completed.
This commission now awaits a formal announcement.
The Army Chief called upon the expatriate Bangladeshis not to create divisions among themselves over trifle matters. "Perhaps, the caretaker government could not take right decision in one or two cases. But, the entire Bangladesh ought not to be blamed for it," he said.
"Such incidents might happen due to the failures of the persons concerned. So, those who are at abroad must give priority to the interest of Bangladesh."
General Moeen said, "Bangladesh is a country which is all of us. It is not a country of any particular individual or political party. Lack of good governance does not mean that the entire country is bad."
Responding to a question of Colombia University teacher Dwijen Bhattacharya, General Moeen asked, "What's the minority community? We've only one identity and that is we're Bangladeshis. No one would be able to create division among us identifying us as majority or minority."
Replying to another question, the Army Chief said Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is "our Father of the Nation." "There is no scope to create any controversy over this matter. It has already been included in the textbooks. In fact, Bangabandhu and former president Ziaur Rahman are the respected personalities to us. So, it would not be wise to create any controversy bringing them into politics," he said.
The Army Chief addressed the civic rally of eminent persons of the Bangladesh community on the first day of his weeklong visit to the United States at the invitation of globally renowned Harvard University.
The Bangladesh Embassy at Washington organized the rally at World Fair Marina Restaurant at Queens in New York City. It was also addressed by Bangladesh Ambassador Humayun Kabir.
Bangladesh's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ismat Jahan was present at the rally.
General Moeen will hold talks with the president of current session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at the UN Headquarters this morning. Later, he will exchange opinion on various issues with the media in New York.
The Army Chief is scheduled to hold talks with Congressman Joseph Crowley, who is the co-chair of Bangladesh Caucus in the US Congress tonight.
Later, he will visit Florida, where his son and brother live.
General Moeen will hold a breakfast meeting with eminent persons in Florida tomorrow and address a rally of the Bangladesh community on Sunday morning. Afterward, he will leave for Harvard University in Boston to deliver an address on Bangladesh situation.
From Information Economy To Marketing Economy
http://www.calicocat.com/marketing_economy.htm
The decline of the manufacturing economy and the rise of the information economy
The traditional explanation of our nation?s economic development is that we have moved from an agricultural economy to a manufacturing economy, and then from a manufacturing economy to an information economy.
It was technology that moved us from an agricultural economy to a manufacturing economy. Technology automated and improved farming so that a much smaller number of workers could grow a much greater of food. So jobs moved from farms to factories.
One should point out that most of the factory jobs weren?t all that great. The term ?sweatshop? arose from the harsh working conditions in factories. At most of these factory jobs, the workers were mere automatons, instructed to do a repetitive task over and over again. These were not jobs that gave meaning to people?s lives, they just put money in their bank account. For these reasons, many have trumpeted the arrival of the information economy as a good thing, an improvement to the lives of most working Americans.
With respect to the decline of the manufacturing economy in the United States, the numbers speak for themselves. In 1950, 34% of non-farm workers were in the manufacturing sector, and that has declined to only 13% in 2002 (see USA Today, 12/12/2002: U.S. manufacturing jobs fading away fast).
Unlike the switch from the agricultural economy to the manufacturing economy, in the switch from the manufacturing economy do the information economy, it hasn?t simply been a matter of the manufacturing jobs being replaced by technology. Some of that has happened, but the bigger story is that most of the manufacturing has moved overseas. And the reason it has moved overseas is because there are people in other countries willing to work for only a small fraction of what American workers gets paid.
Some argue that this is a good thing. From the article cited above:
It's good for us to displace low-wage, manual kinds of labor with higher-skill, higher-tech, higher-education-content labor," says Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President William Poole, who compares what's happening with the decline in agricultural employment of the early 20th century.
The economic boom we experienced during the 1990s was driven by the information economy. The computer chips and software that the rest of the world uses were designed here in the United States.
But now we see a new trend in the move to overseas sourcing. It?s not just manufacturing that?s moving overseas, the information jobs are moving there also! Thanks to the internet and inexpensive long distance phone service, the barriers to doing business with someone on the other side of the world have mostly been eliminated. Already we see call centers moving all over the world. When you call up customer service or technical support, you may very well be connected to someone in the Philippines or in India. And the biggest new trend in software development is using computer programmers in India who work for one third the salary of American programmers.
There is no reason to think that this trend will not continue. Any type of job that could be done overseas will be done there. There are 1.3 billion people in China and one billion in India, and they are willing to work for a fraction of what Americans get paid. They may not speak English in China, but that is not a barrier. With more information jobs being exported from the United States, the people in other countries will discover that if they learn English they will enjoy a huge salary increase. Money talks. People will learn English if it means that they can double their salary.
The new marketing economy
What happens when all the information jobs move overseas? What we will have left is what I call the marketing economy. Nearly all jobs that involve creating actual value, such as manufacturing, computer programming, engineering, or just answering the phone at a call center, will be moved overseas. The only jobs left in the United States will be marketing jobs.
Instead of creating real value, marketing merely creates the perception of value. But perception is a very powerful thing. The weekend before Christmas in Manhattan, I spotted a vendor on the street selling sweaters for only $5 each. But a Polo by Ralph Lauren sweater at a mid level department store like Macy?s sells for $99. What?s the difference between the two sweaters? Even if the Polo sweater costs more the manufacture, I guarantee you that it doesn?t cost twenty times as much to manufacture. It?s doubtful that it even cost twice as much to manufacture. Nope, that $99 sweater is actually only a $5 sweater that has a higher perception of value. The manufacture of the sweater takes place in Macao and costs only $5. Then $85 is spent marketing the sweater in the United States, with $10 of profit for Macy?s and Polo.
The marketing economy, like the information economy, has many tiers of jobs. There are low paid workers manning the cash registers at Macy?s, and high paid models who pose in the ads for the sweaters. There are advertising people who think up the ads and salesmen who attempt to get stores like Macy?s to sell the sweaters. All of these people are working in the marketing economy, magically turning a $5 sweater into something that someone is willing to pay $99 for.
Another good example of a marketing industry is the investment banking industry. What most people know about investment bankers is that they make a lot of money. Few know what they actually do. To find out about what investment bankers really do, the best source of information is the book Monkey Business which gives out the inside scoop on investment banking. What the investment bankers actually do to earn their huge salaries is to pitch deals to companies. Investment bankers are nothing but salesmen who understand accounting and the lingo of Wall Street, that?s all. One shouldn?t be surprised to discover that they are making huge amounts of money from doing sales, because mostly all of the very high paying jobs in our economy are sales jobs.
Once the company agrees to the deal, the actual work is done by a much lower paid workforce, including lawyers. Lawyers are among the highest paid of people doing real work, primarily because their jobs are protected by law. It?s illegal to do legal work unless you are a member of the bar. It?s too bad for computer programmers that they don?t have similar legal protection; then their jobs wouldn?t all be moving to India. It should be noted too that the very highest paid of lawyers, the partners at the big law firms, are mostly doing rainmaking activities (marketing in other words), while the real work is done by associates who get paid a much lower salary.
The sustainability of the marketing economy
I recently explained my theories of the marketing economy to a friend, and his response was that it?s impossible for our country to sustain itself if we don?t actually create anything that has real value. But he?s wrong, the economy can sustain itself, because at the top of the economy we have capitalists, people who own assets. The assets are now in other countries, but the capitalists still get rich, and the money from the capitalists trickles down to people working in the marketing economy.
How it works is that the capitalist invests his money in a business where the real work is done overseas. He makes a return on his investment that can be quite substantial. The capitalist doesn?t have to personally work in order to make money. His money makes money for him.
I might even go so far to say that we are moving towards a new mercantilism. What exactly is mercantilism? It?s ill defined, but prior to the 1800s, nations believed that their wealth was based on how much gold they had in their treasuries. Adam Smith, who wrote the book The Wealth of Nations , helped to change that viewpoint, and afterwards it was understood that a nation?s wealth was based on it?s ability to produce valuable goods. But this leads to a conundrum, because how can the United States be the world?s richest country if nothing is actually produced here at all? The answer is that we own all of the assets, and now that the U.S. dollar has replaced gold as the worldwide medium of exchange, we can create dollars a lot more easily than the Spanish could plunder gold from the new world. So our wealth is now based on the supposedly discredited system of mercantilism.
It is still worthwhile to ask how long can the United States be the world?s richest nation if we no longer contribute anything of real value to the rest of the world? I think it can be quite a long time. Decades, not years. But eventually our failure to contribute anything of real value to the rest of the world will catch up with us. The next world superpower will probably be China with its 1.3 billion people.
Paper presented at the Parallel Session II ,
" Reform in Agriculture – Country Experiences from Asia"
http://www.gdnet.org/pdf2/gdn_library/annual_conferences/fifth_annual_conference/okamoto_paper.pdf
GDN the5th Conference
28th, Jan. 2004
Agricultural Marketing Reform and Rural Economy in Myanmar
The Successful Side of the Reform
Ikuko OKAMOTO
Institute of Developing Economies, JETRO
3-2-2 Mihama–ku Wakaba Chiba, Tokyo
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of marketing reforms implemented
in the late 1980s in Myanmar. Particular emphasis is placed on the impact of the reform on the
rural economy and its participants, namely farmers, landless laborers and marketing
intermediaries. The reform had a positive effect on all these participants through the creation of
employment opportunities and increased income. The driving force of this success was "market
forces," generating virtuous cycles in the transition economy. At the same time, the "absence of
bad policy" is emphasized as a key for the success in the context of Myanmar, where excessive
and murky government intervention often resulted in failure to induce private sector
development.
2
I. Introduction
Agricultural marketing reform in 1987–88 was the very first measure taken in the process of the
transition to a market economy in Myanmar (Burma). At the same time, it was the sole reform
measure adopted in the agricultural sector under the present regime.1 The major feature of the reform
was a reduction of the state’s intervention in the marketing of major agricultural commodities. It
marked the end of the so-called "Burmese way to Socialism" which had been in place for over a
quarter of a century. It is extremely symbolic that the reform efforts began in the agriculture sector,
which is the mainstay of the Myanmar economy. The agriculture sector (the crop sector alone)
accounted for 35.2 % of GDP and 62.8% of the labor force as of 1997/98iADBC2001j.2
If we postulate that one of goals of marketing reforms in general is the transformation of the
production and marketing system into a market-oriented one, the experience of Myanmar is rather
mixed. The most "positive" response to the reform can be found in the area of pulses and beans. Table
1 shows changes of the sown acreage of pulses. It shows a clear increase in the sown acres in 1990s,
which is quite dramatic in comparison to other major pulse/beans producing countries.
Table 1. Changes of Sown Area for Pulses
of Major Producing Countries
70's 80's 90's
World -5.2% 11.4% -1.1%
China -28.7% -30.0% -11.7%
Australia 272.2% 636.5% 60.1%
India 2.5% 2.2% -9.7%
Pakistan 22.9% 3.1% -16.1%
USA 28.2% 2.7% -14.9%
Bangladesh 117.1% -24.9% -32.5%
Brazil 30.7% 0.1% -8.5%
Mexico -12.9% 29.0% -26.6%
Myanmar -8.0% 26.3% 247.8%
Source: FAO STAT
1 The present regime is called the SPDC (State and Peace Development Council). It was reorganized in 1997
from the SLORC (State Law and Order Restoration Council), established in 1988.
2. The structure has not basically changed much since Independence in 1948.
3
Figure 1. Share of Pulse Production
0.0%
5.0%
10.0%
15.0%
20.0%
25.0%
30.0%
1988 1993 1998 2002
Year
India
China
Brazil
Myanmar
Source: FAO STAT
As a result, Myanmar’s share in world production of pulses increased throughout the 1990s
(Figuire1). Among the various pulses and beans produced in Myanmar, black grams, green grams and
pigeon peas are the major exports, and their main destination is India. Pulses have also become the
prime foreign exchange earner among agricultural commodities, accounting for 72% in 2000/01
(Table2).
Table 2. Changes of Agricultural and Pulse Exports
1985/86 1989/90 1990/91 1992/93 1994/95 1996/97 1998/99 2000/01
Agricultural Export Value
iMillion Kyatsj 1,126 432 942 1,299 2,478 1,981 1890 2312
Share in Total Export Value 43.9% 15.2% 31.9% 36.2% 45.8% 36.1% 28.0% 18.9%
Pulse Export
Volume (10,000 tons) 8.9 5.6 19.5 44.9 42.5 59.5 62.2 83.1
ValueiMillion Kyatsj 238 123 515 667 799 1,272 1135 1658
Share in Total Agricultural Export 21.1% 28.5% 54.7% 51.3% 32.2% 64.2% 60.1% 71.7%
Source:@1985/86-1993/94 Statistical Yearbook 1998
1994/95-2000/01 Statistical Yearbook 2001
4
This contrasts sharply with crops such as paddy/rice, cotton and sugarcane, where the
liberalization policy had to be modified, with a re-imposition of state controls, due to the food
security or budgetary concerns.3 As a result, the response in the latter category of the crops has been
rather week.
To simplify the argument, this paper’s focus is on the most positive side of the reform, namely the
cases of pulses and beans, one of the few areas that generated a successful outcome. The objective is
to demonstrate the effects of marketing reforms for pulses and beans on the development of the rural
economy. Specific attention is given to the diffusion of the new production system and income
creation both for farmers and non-farmers and the development of the rural marketing system. The
discussion is based on the findings of a field survey conducted in one of the newly developed
producing areas from 1998 to 2003. It shows the potential of Myanmar’s rural economy to generate a
positive reform outcome. It is also expected to provide some insights for other crops that still face
problems stemming from the socialist legacy.
This paper is organized as follows. In Section II, we explain the nature of the agricultural
marketing reform, together with details on the specific reform measures, in order to provide general
information on the system transformation. Section III provides a detailed examination of the impact
of the reform on the rural economy. In Section IV, we explore the factors that induced the "positive"
response to the reform. The final section tries to draw some policy implication for the general
agriculture sector reform in the context of Myanmar.
II. The Nature of Agricultural Marketing Reform
The system before the reform
During the socialist regime, the state control over agricultural marketing ranked as a prime
component of the agricultural policies (Takahashi 1992). No private trade was allowed. Farmers had
3 Reversal or incomplete policy reform during the implementation phase has frequently been observed in other
countries. See Kheralla et.al (1994).
5
to sell a prescribed amount at the official price, which was designed to absorb almost all the
marketable surplus (compulsory delivery system) (Saito 1981, Mya Than and Nishizawa 1990). The
objective of the state monopoly was threefold: to maintain food security, gain foreign exchange
earnings and achieve the "Burmanization" of marketing channels, which were once dominated by
other ethnic groups. Behind the system was a strong political/economical belief, that existed within
the government, that control over the production and marketing of rice and other major agricultural
commodities would be the key to staying in power. Therefore, every measure was taken to sustain the
monopoly over the domestic and external marketing of these major commodities. For example,
farmers were basically given no freedom of crop choice, to prevent them from switching to crops
without any quota requirements. Farmers were sometimes threatened with the loss of their tillage
rights4 if they failed to meet the quota. Traders who managed to operate in the parallel market faced
stiff regulations from time to time.
Motivation
The government’s motivation for the marketing reform lied in the following two aspects. One was
the long-term stagnation of the agricultural sector. This was especially evident in paddy production,
where the export levels of the colonial period had not been maintained.5 It was natural that the state
monopoly worked as a disincentive for farmers to increase production or to improve quality, since
any potential surplus was absorbed by the government at fixed price. The second was the difficulty
faced by the responsible state agency, as shown by its cumulative deficitiTin Soe 1994, 21j and
inability to achieve annual procurement targets. However, it is questionable whether the Socialist
government had any intention to promote the commercialization of agriculture or to promote the
private sector aggressively at that stage. As evident by the demonetization carried out one month after
the liberalization of agricultural marketing, the motivation seems not to have been very positive in
4 The state land ownership was another measure agricultural policy. Officially, farmers cannot own the land.
They are granted tillage right. However, as a reality, as long as the household continues the cultivation, the right
can be inherited. Moreover, the "illegal" transfer of the right seems to be also increasing among farmers in the
area where the commercialization of agricultural production proceeds.
5 The peak of rice exports was in the 1930’s, when they reached 3 million tons per year. However, during the
Socialist system, it was around 300,000 to 400,000 tons per year.
6
nature. It may be have been a more passive one, namely, the abandonment of the previous
institutional setting.
Contents of the Reform
The agricultural marketing reform proceeded in two steps. One was domestic marketing reform, in
1987. The second was export liberalization in 1988.
The first step, domestic marketing reform, had two components. The first was the abolition of the
compulsory delivery system. This meant that farmers no longer had to sell their produce to the
government. Instead, they could sell it freely in the market at prevailing market prices. The second
component was the admission of private traders in agricultural marketing. Basically, no legal
regulation was introduced to prevent them from engaging in every stage of trading.6
Under the second step, private traders gained permission to export commodities freely upon
registration as exporter.
These two steps were literally applied to pulses and beans, culinary crops, and some oil seeds
crops. This stands in great contrast to other crops such as paddy/rice. We will not go into the details,
but for paddy/rice, the procurement system was revived with fewer quotas, and no private exports
was allowed. Some other crops also saw the imposition of sudden export regulations without any
advance notice, leading to the disruption of the market.7
III. The Impact of the Reform on the Rural Economy
This section will take a closer look at the responses of the participants of the rural economy towards
the marketing reform in one of the major pulse (green gram) producing areas, township "T" in Lower
Myanmar. "Participants" here refers to those who constitute the economy and who are potentially
under the influence of a particular policy, either directly or indirectly. In the context of Myanmar’s
6 In the initial years, wholesalers were required to apply for trading licenses. However, it soon became nominal
and there is no registration requirement at the wholesaler level at present.
7 A good example was sesame. A sudden export ban in 1998 caused a drastic price drop, and farmers and
traders suffered.
7
rural society, the producers, landless laborers and marketing intermediaries (traders or agents) make
up the participants. There is no need to explain why farmers and marketing intermediaries are
"participants" in this context, but agricultural laborers may require some explanation.
