The corruption watchdog, Transparency International, in its 2009 report, ranked Burma as the third most corrupt country in the world -178 out of 180 - just behind Afghanistan and Somalia. The report also placed Burma at the bottom of the list as South East Asia's most corrupt country. According to the report the five most corrupt countries are Somalia, Afghanistan, Burma, Sudan and Iraq.

In its report TI said. "Bribery, cartels and other corrupt practices undermine competition and contribute to massive loss of resources for development in all countries, especially the poorest ones."

Enough is never enough - Burmese people pay bribes for education, health care, travel and even free government application forms.

Transparency International uses a Corruption Perception Index to measure the perceived levels of public-sector corruption in a given country and is a composite index, drawing on 13 different expert and business surveys. Transparency International noted that, "…countries which are perceived as the most corrupt are also those plagued by longstanding conflicts which have torn apart their governance infrastructure."

A special investigation by The Kantarawaddy Times shows that Burmese people are victims of government and institutional corruption at every level. Students have to pay money to teachers for exam papers, bribe hospital officials to get treatment, bribe soldiers and officials at checkpoints, pay inflated prices for air tickets and are victims of many forms of extortion by soldiers at a village level.

Villagers in Pru Hso district were amazed they had to pay the army to get their stolen cattle back. They said.

"In July the [Burmese army] soldiers stole six cows from our village and we had to pay them 30,000 Kyat for each cow and that was just to get them back."

The villagers allege soldiers from Light Infantry Brigade 428, based in Pru Hso, Karenni State were responsible for the theft and extortion.

Airline passengers flying between Rangoon and Loi Kaw were also targets of official corruption. According to local passengers, to get their air tickets they were forced to pay twice the normal price.

"It is hard to get airline tickets. I paid 15,000 more than normal to the ticket sellers. The [airline] officials run the place and those who can afford to pay the extra money can get tickets, we had to pay twice the normal price to get a ticket."

All transport users in Burma expect to pay the 'extra' demanded by officials so they acn complete their travel and even foreigner travelers are not exempted. A Thai visitor to Burma said.

"There are many checkpoints throughout the waterways, we were made to stop at every checkpoint. At HwayO, every passenger paid 2,000 Kyats, while passengers without any travel documentation had to pay 5,000 Kyats. And they [soldiers] demanded more if someone argued with them to pay less money."

Corruption in Burma is like a cancer. It tears at the fabric of the society and no one is immune. Transparency International's report only confirms what all Burmese people already know.