By SAMANTHA MICHAELS / THE IRRAWADDY

RANGOON — The mornings were full of walking, says Khin Mar Shwe, a nurse near Burma’s biggest city, recalling her days as a midwife under the former military regime.

She was a young woman then, and would begin a few days every week walking from village to village in Taikkyi Township, knocking on doors to find expectant mothers who required assistance.

“Early, at 8 am, I would start my journey, and I would return at 4 pm, depending on the distance between villages,” she tells The Irrawaddy. “In the evening if a mother was about to go into labor, I would stay overnight.” The midwife, who has since become a nurse, was responsible for covering six villages, some about four kilometers apart. Sometimes she would ride by bicycle, and she almost always traveled alone.

By NYEIN NYEIN / THE IRRAWADDY

Burma’s Ministry of Labor has announced plans to start issuing regular passports to Burmese migrants in Thailand from next month.

The passports, which are the same as those issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs in Rangoon, will replace temporary passports that are valid only in Thailand.

The goal of the new policy is to treat migrant workers like other Burmese citizens, Kyaw Kyaw Lin, the labor attaché at the Burmese embassy in Bangkok, told The Irrawaddy.

An advertisement in the Myanmar Ahlin newspaper says the new cadets must be single, at least 5 feet, 3 inches (160 centimeters) tall, between 25 and 30 years of age, and weigh no more than 130 pounds (59 kilograms).

Though they won’t be called on to fight, the ad said successful candidates would be offered commissioned posts, starting as second lieutenants.

Myanmar’s army once enjoyed widespread popularity for fighting for independence from British colonial rule, but support plummeted following military coups in 1962 and 1988.

Naing Ko Ko
Special to The Nation

Instead of focusing on low-salaried bureaucrats as the main cause of graft, advocates need to go after those at the very top of the centres of power

When I started to write about anti-corruption issues in Myanmar on the East Asia Forum, a number of scholars suggested that corruption in Myanmar is principally linked with low wages at governmental institutions. But the logic that the low salaries of public officials increases the amount of corruption does not work accurately in Myanmar. What about corruption among the state’s leadership? There are many factors which underpin corruption in Myanmar, such as the lack of a robust political system, weak governmental institutions, opportunity for corruption, monopolistic leadership mechanisms and a moral and value system based on corruption.

By JACK GOODMAN

British MP Valerie Vaz addressed the House of Commons last week to discuss the findings of an eight-day cross-party delegation to Burma in August. She met afterwards with DVB’s Jack Goodman to discuss the delegation, British foreign policy towards Burma, and Aung San Suu Kyi.

INTERVIEW

Question: Am I right in saying that your relationship with Burma began before you were elected as an MP?

Answer: As a lawyer I was interested in human rights before I became an MP. I thought Aung San Suu Kyi’s story was very similar to Nelson Mandela’s. It was one of the campaigns I thought was important to be involved in.

On a political level I felt I had to raise my voice as well, which is why when I was elected to parliament in September 2010 and had my first opportunity to ask the Prime Minister [David Cameron] a question, I asked what he was going to do about Burma.