The human toll of corruption in Burma

Today while I was in a meeting of students preparing to return to the Thai-Burma border next month and record the perspectives of Burmese youth activists studying, living and working in secrecy, avoiding the Thai police or else facing a possible deportation to Burma, I thought about the culture of corruption that exists in Thailand. However, it was only seconds later that my thoughts shifted to Burma, where corruption not only exists, it is ever-present. It is arguable as to how high corruption pervades Thai politics, but it is a certainty that in Burma it pulsates at every layer. I remember when I was in Rangoon last summer I visited Shwedagon Pagoda and was guided by a man of about the same age as me. He had a ripe sense of humor and took a great deal of pride in his work, answering all of my questions thoroughly and often providing his own commentary and not just plainly giving the scripted tour he had probably given many times before. After our time together was over he asked that I walk with him to have a seat underneath a large tree out of the sight of a nearby military guard casually wielding a large machine gun. When we sat down I compensated him for the tour and he kindly explained to me that if we had made the exchange plain view of the guard, then he probably would have had to give the guard half. It occured to me how sadly ironic this situation was that the very man who was supposed to be guarding us was instead our biggest threat. My guide briefly told me in a faint voice that he had grown tired of his life. He said he worked all day long and still could barely make enough money to get by. He also told me about his girlfriend whom he wished to marry and how he could not make enough money to support her so at best his wish could only be a distant dream so long as he stayed in Burma. I listened to his story intently, pretending to not know about the events of 1988, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi or the SPDC's stranglehold on a country that once flourished so proudly. It was difficult for me to sit and feign ignorance because I feared that this man might secretly be a military intelligence operative hoping to expose me as an activist. On the other hand, if this man were telling the truth I felt like I had only confirmed his worst fears, that the outside world was completely blind to what has been happening in Burma. Whether he was genuine or not, his final words were some that I would hear several times more before I left the country. He told me with a trembling in his voice, "Burma is a very good country, but it has a very bad government."