A man of many letters

U Kaung San Hla is, by his own admission, not much of a businessman. So profound is his distaste for corruption and bribery that it stood in the way of what might otherwise have been a flourishing career in logging. In 2008 he landed in Sittwe Prison for 40 days for complaining about corruption in the forestry department.

“If I was a representative in the parliament my first work would be to solve corruption and bribery,” he told The Myanmar Times in Sittwe last week.

However, he won’t be giving up his day job taking tourists around the temples of Mrauk-U yet, and he’ll have to continue expressing his frustration with graft the way he always has: writing many, many letters.

U Kaung San Hla, 50, joined the National League for Democracy in 1996, and ran on the party’s ticket in the November 8 elections for the state seat in northern Rakhine’s Buthidaung – arguably one of the tougher sells the party faced nationwide. He was defeated by a candidate from the Arakan National Party, which also came close to winning a majority in the state assembly. Still, he doesn’t feel it was all for nothing.

“I want to give knowledge to the local people, even during my electoral [campaign] time. I am very satisfied because I gave knowledge about freedom, rights and democracy. The people were very happy,” he said.

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