There is a saying in Myanmar that you “can touch the hair bun on top of my head, but don’t you dare touch the wallet tucked away at my waist”. When the country's all-powerful military controls a vast business empire, “touching the wallet” can lead to a military coup.
In Myanmar, the two big business conglomerates --- namely --- Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC) and Myanmar Economic Holding Ltd (MEHL) are military-owned. They in turn used the privatisation process to grab publicly-owned enterprises at fire-sale prices, in the decades leading up to 2011's political reforms. Military leaders and the associates of military leaders have also grabbed licenses, land and economic concessions.
Myanmar’s military-owned conglomerates control businesses and investments in sectors ranging from beer, tobacco and consumables to mines, mills, tourism, property development and telecommunications. From SIM cards to beer, from skydiving to jade mining, there are few areas of Myanmar’s economy that escape the long arm of the country's military, the Tatmadaw.
The United Nations Fact-Finding Mission, set up in the wake of the Rohingya crackdown, detailed the military’s business interests in a 110-page report that was published in August 2019. The report laid bare the extent of the armed forces’ involvement in the economy – exposing 106 MEHL and MEC-owned businesses as well as 27 close affiliates to the military. The Tatmadaw’s web of commercial interests enabled it to “insulate itself from accountability and oversight,” the UN said. “Through controlling its own business empire, the Tatmadaw can evade the accountability and oversight that normally arise from civilian oversight of military budgets.”