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Editorial: State Patronized Dirty Corruptions

The ruling military regime is the Patron of all corruptions in Burma_ no wonder that every aspect of government machinery in Burma is in total chaos.

Traditionally, mid April sees New Year in Burma; and on every Burmese New Year, business-men in Burma have to give multi-million dollar worth of gifts to Senior General’s wife as New Year present.

In fact, there are only two ways for Businessmen to survive in Burma; to bribe or to be related, somehow, with the Generals. Burma’s top Tycoon, Tayza, who is also an illegitimate son-in-law of the Senior General, has to take his mother-in-law frequently to Singapore for shopping trips. Top business-men in Burma usually try to marry their daughters with Generals’ sons, to ensure business favours from Generals.

When former Agricultural Minister, who was responsible for building dams in Burma, was detained during an internal power struggle of the regime in 2004, a huge collection of diamonds were captured from one of his many houses. And grape-vine says that as soon as the wife of Senior General heard the news, she reportedly ordered military police to send those diamonds to her!

Usually, Generals who oversee construction projects of roads and bridges, which nobody really needs, and building of dams, which just do enormous damage to the environment, can stash away tens of millions of dollars in overseas secret bank accounts during their stay in those lucrative posts. Moreover, to be able to steal more money from project funds, they usually use forced labour in the construction projects. Usually, poor unfortunate people from nearby villages are ordered to work at least three days a week, without any wages, in construction projects. If they fail to work as forced labourers or if they ever dare to speak out against forced labour practice, they are promptly thrown into jail, and tortured more or less.

And another good opportunity for Generals to make easy money in Burma is by selling permits_ import permits, export permits, logging permits, mining permits, and planning permits for housing projects, etc. The Generals never make any transparent policy for any sector of business in Burma. All sorts of business permits are always there for anyone who are related to Generals, or anyone who can bribe large sums of money to Generals.

Even for the simple things in daily life people in Burma need all sorts of permits from generals, and to get those permits they have no alternative but to bribe the authorities.

You cannot buy a new car without a permit, and you will probably have to buy a car permit from a son of a General. Sometimes the price of car permit is higher than the real price of a car.

Likewise you need to be prepared to pay a good bribe if you want a new phone line or a mobile phone or a fax modem. But however frustrated you become with the need to give bribes, never ever try to use a fax modem or a satellite-linked mobile phone in Burma without an official permit. Such offences can make you rot in Burmese jails for up to ten years.

And wherever they go inside Burma, Burmese people have to carry their ID cards with them. And to get an ID card (called national registration card), people have to pay bribes to authorities. Sometimes, poor people in ethnic minority areas are not issued national ID cards, probably because they cannot bribe or probably due to racial discrimination by Burmese authorities, and they become people without country although they are naturally entitled to be citizens of Burma. But on the other hand, illegal Chinese business men who just recently migrated from China can easily buy Burmese national ID cards from corrupt officials.

And when a person has committed a crime in Burma, the severity of his punishment depends not on the seriousness of his crime but rather on the size of his money bag. Even when he goes into jail, the easiness of his life in jail is determined mainly by how much he can pay to his jailers.

From getting a birth certificate for a new-born baby, to obtaining a death certificate to carry out a funeral, Burmese people have to deal with corrupt officials. Bribe, bribe, bribe and suffer endlessly.

Only after we have overthrown the military regime, we will be able to end the misery of poor Burmese people suffering under corrupt authorities. So it’s our duty to overthrow military regime by any means_ repeat here, BY ANY MEANS.  

Dr. Tayza

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Comments

Soe Min Aung said _

Dr. Tayza, your namesake, the tycoon Tayza, is described as an illegitimate son-in-law of the general.  Is he a bastard who married his daughter or did he sleep with his daughter without marrying her, or maybe, both?  Very interesting phrase, illegitimate son-in-law.  Son-out-of-law, maybe?
Very glad to know that despite all his money, he cannot change his status in life. 

U Myo Nyunt, Myanmar Studies, Australia said _

Dear  Dr. Tayza, please, Bogyoke Aung San was Bo Teza too. Your nom de plume or name is  good.

Shwe Ba said _

Dear Dr Tayza, when we were young we had to learn some of the Buddha’s reincarnation life forms in 10 Jattaka. We need to memorize, if I am not wrong, Te Za Thu Nay Ma Boo Sanda Wi Way. Tay = Tay Mi, Za= Za Nekka. So Tay Za symbolized the TWO very important periods of Lord Buddha’s struggle to get Enlightment. I agree with U Myo Nyunt.  Tay Za name always reminds me of Bo Teza, our Bogyoke Aung San.

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