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.

By Sumit Ganguly

By LAWI WENG / THE IRRAWADDY

RANGOON — Muslims hiding out in Rangoon say they are among more than 100 followers of Islam who fled religious violence in Arakan State’s Thandwe Township last week to seek refuge in Burma’s biggest city.

An argument between an Arakanese Buddhist and a Muslim in Thandwe spiraled out of control on Sept. 29 and eventually led to the spread of violence in surrounding villages over the next three days. Five Muslims were killed and more than 100 houses were burned to the ground.

South Asia Revealed

The Nobel Peace Prize awarded to a global chemical weapons watchdog on Friday has prompted a call for Myanmar to ratify a key international treaty banning the arms.

New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Myanmar must ratify the Chemical Weapons Convention two decades after signing if it wants to prove to the international community it is serious about reforms.

by Anthony Kuhn, NPR

Despite progress in its transition to democracy, Myanmar has struggled to end all the ethnic insurgencies that have long divided the country.

Now the Kachin — the last of the insurgent groups that have been fighting the government — have signed a preliminary agreement that could end the conflict.

The agreement falls short of an actual cease-fire, but calls for both sides to work “to end all armed fighting.”

Two years ago, Myanmar’s army broke a cease-fire and launched an offensive against the Kachin Independence Army, or KIA. The fighting displaced more than 100,000 Kachin people, a hill tribe who live on both sides of the Myanmar-China border.

Lamai Luseng is one of those who was forced to leave. She lives in a refugee camp in northern Myanmar’s Kachin state. Many of the refugees have lived in the camp’s wooden shacks since two years ago, when the fighting resumed.