Dictator Min Aung Hlaing has increased the pensions for retired officials from previous juntas, which had been as low as 2,000 kyats per month, to as much as 1.5 million kyats (US$ 715) a month effective immediately.
The move was announced in the junta’s gazette on July 21, less than one month after the World Bank issued a dire warning about malnutrition in Myanmar.
The pension increases will only flow to those who held important offices under juntas before April 1, 2006, and their widows or widowers. Among the beneficiaries are the successive junta leaders who ruled the country under cognitively dissonant titles—the Burma Socialist Program Party, the State Law and Order Restoration Council, and the State Peace and Development Council.
Officials in these military governments who held one of more than 20 ranks will also benefit from the higher pensions. They include presidents, prime ministers, ministers, chief justices, attorney generals, auditor generals, chairs of civil-service commissions, mayors of Yangon and Mandalay, and council members of the successive juntas.
The move serves the military, critics says, pointing out that almost all the beneficiaries—from coup leaders Ne Win and Than Shwe to Yangon Mayor Ko Lay—are former soldiers.
The Political Pension Law enacted by Myanmar’s first military dictator Ne Win in 1980 set the political pension at 2,000 kyats for presidents, 1,800 kyats for prime ministers and 1,500 kyats for ministers.
With the increase, former presidents will receive 1.5 million kyats, former prime ministers 1 million kyats, and former ministers 400,000 kyats. Other ranks will also receive a significant increase.
If a pensioner has died, family members are entitled to 75 percent of their tax-free pension payments.
Members of the government led by Myanmar’s independence hero General Aung San, and the subsequent Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League government and its parliament, were entitled to political pensions under the law enacted by Ne Win.
But Min Aung Hlaing’s notice did not mention either government. The higher pensions will only benefit those with ties to the military starting from the country’s first coup in 1962.
While the junta boss has been using his propaganda machine to urge people to spend less money on food, electricity, fuel and other necessities, he has been squandering public funds on vanity projects. These include lavishing honorary titles on dictators and generals of previous regimes, from Ne Win and Saw Maung to Than Shwe, as well as himself.
Min Aung Hlaing conferred the country’s two highest honors on himself last year. The titles were originally intended for those who made immense and selfless contributions to Myanmar and the welfare of its people.