Government Corruption in Burmese Days

Thinking about Burmese Days since our last class meeting, I could find no motivation for the atrocities that U Po Kyin commits. After re-examining chapter 1, I found this passage:

"U Po Kyin's earliest memory, back in the eighties, was of standing, a naked pot-bellied child, watching the British troops march victorious into Mandalay. He remembered the terror he had felt of those columns of great beef-fed men, red-faced and red-coated; and the long rifles over their shoulders, and the heavy, rhythmic tramp of their boots. He had taken to his heels after watching them for a few minutes. In his childish way he had grasped that his own people were no match for this race of giants. To fight on the side of the British, to become a parasite upon them, had been his ruling ambition, even as a child." (Orwell, 5)

The range of motivations people have for becoming involved in corruption are many and its characteristics are well documented by Orwell. At the start of the book, Kyin thought that he was equal to or better than some British. Kyin saw the British for their true nature and imitated it. Governmental characteristics of corruption mentioned in the novel are low economic and political competition, as well as no enacted punitive measures for dealing with corruption. U Po Kyin could take brides from both sides in a legal case that he oversaw, while still being able to try the case fairly. He had no fear of being caught if his cases are reviewed and the litigants in the cases had no one to complain to regarding the bribes they were forced to pay. Other schemes includes thefts in which he received kick-backs and required payments in the form of a "ceaseless toll...from all the villages under his jurisdiction."

Orwell does an excellent job of explaining that colonialism is inherently corrupting through Kyin. Kyin explains that the bribes he accepts are a form of patronage and he is preventing social unrest by collecting them. Inherently, Kyin fears that at some point he may lose his position (if the British leave or somehow relinquish power), so the brides are a form of personal employment insurance.

Other attributes that Orwell depicts which support this corrupt society include the lack of transparency in the local government, no free press, no formal accounting procedures, a ruling society of individuals largely concerned with profiteering, a strong belief of entitlement among the ruling class, moral qualities (such as integrity and honesty) that are not deemed as desirable as wealth, an illiterate or largely uneducated Burmese population, acceptance of nepotism, discrimination and xenophobia, societal benefits which exclude the Burmese (the Club), and suppression of power among the female population (both British and indigenous).

In U Po Kyin's case, his primary reasons for being corrupt were that he felt that he would never truly be punished if he performed good works in the form of building pagodas and that he personally enjoyed having power over others.