Myanmar’s outgoing government ministers have been lampooned online over stripping their houses bare, even carrying out plants, ahead of the handover to the new Suu Kyi led administration this week.
Technically, ministers in the country are only entitled to one AC unit in their free housing in the capital, Naypyitaw, but they might have expected a few mod-cons left behind. Not so.
“Once they end their ministerial appointments, [ministers] are allowed to take all interior fittings and hand over empty houses, not even leaving a plant they have grown,” wrote government spokesperson Ye Htut on Facebook on March 24, the date the new 18 ministers were approved by parliament.
He argued with NLD spokesperson U Win Htein who had complained earlier last week that the new ministers would inherit completely empty housing. Thousands of Facebook users echoed his complaints, while cartoonists mocked the unseemly scramble. One depicted ministers even carting off the toilet.
