YANGON — The budget for the Myanmar Police Force should be increased to ensure its members can do their work more effectively, a National League for Democracy MP has told the Yangon regional assembly.
U Yan Aung (Mingalar Taung Nyunt-2) told the assembly on October 11 that as well as its members being underpaid, the MPF was under-manned and under-resourced and lacked modern equipment.
MPF members deserved to receive better pay and conditions, he said, acknowledging that budget allocations for the MPF, under the Ministry of Home Affairs, were the responsibility of the Union parliament.
The MPF played a critical role in law enforcement and upholding the rule of law and its members should be adequately compensated for their work, Yan Aung said.
He later told reporters that the government housing in which many police lived was deplorable.
Support more independent journalism like this. Sign up to be a Frontier member.
“The situation where the police are living is very sad; we can’t even call it a house,” he said, adding that they should receive government assistance towards buying their own homes.
Yan Aung also said the police needed to have better weapons, as well as shooting ranges for firearms training. It was the government’s responsibility to ensure the MPF had the resources necessary to fulfill its role, he added.
A challenge the MPF was to overcome lingering distrust among the public because citizens had been treated badly during the country’s “dark time”, Yan Aung said.
In the past criminal cases were resolved through money and power, rather than application of the law, and this was still causing problems for ensuring the rule of law, he said.
