Lavish wedding sparks outrage in Burma
A video of an extravagant wedding for the daughter of impoverished Burma’s military leader has caused outrage in a country where many people struggle to afford a bowl of rice.
The leaked film shows Thandar Shwe, the daughter of junta leader Senior General Than Shwe, wearing a staggering collection of diamond encrusted jewellery and clothing. There is also a lavish bridal chamber, seemingly the size of a small ballroom.
The Irrawaddy, an online magazine published by Burma-exiled journalists in Thailand, said the total value of the wedding gifts was £26m (€38.8m).
The video of the July wedding at a military reception hall in the country’s main city, Rangoon, began circulating on CD about three weeks ago and Irrawaddy this week posted a link to it on the video-sharing site YouTube.
The groom shown in the video is Major Zaw Phyo Win, a deputy director at the Ministry of Commerce.
The government of Burma did not confirm the authenticity of the video, though people familiar with the principals found them easily identifiable.
The video shows the normally strait-laced, grim-faced members of the junta letting their hair down and wearing traditional clothing – though their security guards are uniformed and carry sidearms as they mingle with the hundreds of guests.
But many people are more angry than impressed by the display of luxury while most of Burma’s 55 million people can barely make ends meet.
Even in relatively well-off central Rangoon there are scheduled electrical blackouts because of fuel shortages and potholes dotting downtown streets,
“While some people can’t afford to buy rice and live on hta-min-yay (surplus water drained off while cooking rice), it’s shameful to spend so much money on this wedding,” The Irrawaddy quoted one unnamed Rangoon resident saying.
Unfavourable political comparisons are also emerging. To foreign eyes, the events bring to minds the excesses of the former Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines, or the avaricious family of Indonesia’s former strongman General Suharto.
How the video came to light is a bit of a mystery. The note accompanying the video on YouTube says it was originally obtained from a private blog in Rangoon.
How it was all paid for is another puzzle, since such luxuries are clearly not affordable on famously tight government salaries. The junta leaders purged their last prime minister, a military colleague, for alleged corruption, among other offences.
