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| Burma's Senior General Than Shwe has announced his retirement, but has not set a date. Photo: Mizzima |
Monday, 28 March 2011
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Retiring Burmese junta leader Senior General Than Shwe has advised outgoing and newly elected cabinet ministers in Naypyidaw to tackle corruption, according to sources close to the government.
In a farewell speech at military headquarters on Saturday, the 78-year-old junta leader said that bribery and corruption must end, and he acknowledged for the first time that Burma was below Laos and Cambodia in gross domestic product.
Sources said the comments were particularly noteworthy because of the admission that Burma is essentially at the bottom of all Southeast Asian economies.
The date of the final handover of executive power to president Thein Sein has not been announced. Than Shwe invited ministers to seek his consul and it is rumoured that he will retain an office at an unknown location.
A source close to the government said that the oath of office for the ministers of the new government will be taken on Tuesday, March 29. Earlier, lawmakers said the ministers would be put into office sometime during the first week of April.
Burma shares with Afghanistan the second to last place after Somalia in the world's corruption index report by Transparency International's 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI).
