Lei Lei Maw ( my, လဲ့လဲ့မော်; also spelt Lae Lae Maw) is a Burmese politician and a medical doctor who served as

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

Tanintharyi Region Tanintharyi Region ( my, တနင်္သာရီတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; Mon: or ; ms, Tanah Sari; formerly Tenasserim Division and subsequently Tanintharyi Division, th, ตะนาวศรี, RTGS: ''Tanao Si'', ...

and Taninthayi Region Parliament MP for

Thayetchaung Township Thayetchaung Township ( my, သရက်ချောင်းမြို့နယ်) is a township of Dawei District in the Taninthayi Division of Burma (Myanmar) Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's ...

Constituency No. 1. She was removed from her chief minister position for corruption on 11 March 2019. She is the second of only two women chief ministers appointed by President

Htin Kyaw Htin Kyaw ( my, ထင်ကျော်, or ; born 20 July 1946) is a Burmese politician, writer and scholar who served as the ninth president of Myanmar from 30 March 2016 to 21 March 2018. He was the first elected president to hold the off ...

. Lei Lei Maw is the first chief minister to be charged with corruption since the NLD government, led by

Aung San Suu Kyi Aung San Suu Kyi (; ; born 19 June 1945) is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as State Counsellor of Myanmar (equivalent to a prime minister) and Minister of Foreign Affairs from ...

, took power in 2016.

Early life

Lei Lei Maw was born in 1965 in Thayetchaung,

Taninthayi Division Tanintharyi Region ( my, တနင်္သာရီတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; Mon: or ; ms, Tanah Sari; formerly Tenasserim Division and subsequently Tanintharyi Division, th, ตะนาวศรี, RTGS: ''Tanao Si'', ; ...

, Burma. She is an ethnic Karen-Bamar, and practicing Christian. She worked as a medical doctor for 25 years and has delivered free health care in remote villages.

Political career

Lei Lei Maw joined the NLD party in 2012, quickly becoming a member of the central executive committee of NLD. After taking office as an MP for

, she said she would work to develop the region and solve land disputes. After taking the office, she has launched a sweeping review of oil palm plantations and has tried to ensure the sustainable development of tourism in the

Myeik Archipelago The Mergui Archipelago (also Myeik Archipelago or ''Myeik Kyunzu''; my, မြိတ်ကျွန်းစု) is located in far southern Myanmar (Burma) and is part of the Tanintharyi Region. It consists of more than 800 islands, varying in ...

Arrested under section 55 of the Anti-Corruption Law

On 10 March 2019, Lei Lei Maw was charged with corruption along with three local company officials of Global Grand Services after an investigation by the

Anti-Corruption Commission of Myanmar The Anti-Corruption Commission of Myanmar ( my, အဂတိလိုက်စားမှု တိုက်ဖျက်ရေး ကော်မရှင်; abbreviated ACC) is a 15-member body responsible for investigating corruption allega ...

. According to the investigation report, Lei Lei Maw abused her authority as chief minister in granting several projects to a construction company for clearing bushes in

Dawei University Dawei (, ; mnw, ဓဝဲါ, ; th, ทวาย, RTGS: ''Thawai'', ; formerly known as Tavoy) is a city in south-eastern Myanmar and is the capital of the Tanintharyi Region, formerly known as the Tenasserim Division, on the northern bank of ...

campus in November 2016, and in the

Dawei Airport Dawei Airport is an airport serving Dawei (formerly known as Tavoy), a city in the Tanintharyi Division in southeastern Myanmar. Facilities The airport is at an elevation of above mean sea level. It has one runway designated 16/34 with a concre ...

on 15 December 2016. It stated that she allowed a budget of 400 million kyats ($263,000) without inviting tender and approving in the regional cabinet. The commission also found that she asked a director from the regional Department of Highway to build a wall around two plots of land in Dawei owned by her husband but didn’t pay the cost in October 2018. The investigators also discovered that Lei Lei Maw sold her two-story house to a local company at a much higher price in exchange for granting the company permission for several construction projects. She was sentenced to a total of 30 years in prison on 22 May 2020.

References

{{reflist 1965 births Living people Government ministers of Myanmar Burmese physicians Burmese women physicians 21st-century Burmese women politicians 21st-century Burmese politicians Burmese people of Karen descent