Next Generation Myanmar > 37 ‘The regional Hluttaw is slow at working too. They are busy dealing with the old problems. They are stuck. Also, they are mis-co-ordinated with the government. It creates additional problems and prevents from solving past ones. ‘The representatives of the Hluttaw are not working well, even in Labutta township. Though they are representative, they are never doing any field visits. They spend most of their time in urban areas.’ A 25-year-old female lawyer in Taunggyi complained about the Shan State Hluttaw: ‘I am not satisfied with the Hluttaw, for example. There are a lot of things on the table, but nothing really happens. I am unsatisfied with all the Hluttaws in general. I see through the Hluttaw channel, they are talking no sense, about things that does not really concern about the people. ‘In the news, they talk about buying cars for the government but they do not discuss about what concerns the grassroots people and about what could be done to develop their constituencies.’ 18 > Community-based organisations. CSOs and NGOs When asked about organisations outside of government, survey respondents similarly favoured smaller local groups over larger organisations. Of youth surveyed, 75.8 per cent approved of the actions of CSOs and communitybased organisations operating in their areas. In contrast, only 48.9 per cent approved of those of NGOs. The activities of NGOs were approved of more by rural youth (50.6 per cent), but less than half (40.9 per cent) of urban youth shared their opinion. In interviews, some youth criticised NGOs, which are generally larger than local CSOs/CBOs18 and often supported with foreign funds. One youth activist did not mince words: ‘[Some youth] are attending [training] for getting the per diem. INGOs (international NGOs) can corrupt the youth. We need to prevent them from doing so.’ Others expressed sustainability concerns. ‘In Shan State, we have been trying to allocate the budget of the state for the youth in Shan State. We want the public money to be more sustainable,’ explained a 26-year-old in Shan State. ‘We do not want to depend on NGOs.’ These views may explain why NGOs had a disapproval rating of 16.2 per cent – the highest among non-governmental groups. Myanmar is a very religious country, and many important civil society organisations are religious bodies. Religious leaders from Myanmar’s many faiths lead charity and advocacy organisations, some of which are overtly political. Most Myanmar youth appear to approve of their work: approximately two-thirds of youth surveyed (66.9 per cent) said they approved of their religious leaders. This approval, however, varied between youth of different faith backgrounds. While 66.4 per cent of Buddhist survey respondents approved of the religious leadership in their areas, the proportion was even greater for those practising minority faiths: 69.9 per cent of Christian respondents approved of their religious leadership, while Muslim respondents approved of their leaders at a rate of 78.2 per cent. Survey respondents were also asked for their opinion of the Buddhist nationalist group Ma Ba Tha: 38.8 per cent of youth surveyed approved of the group, controversial for its hardline nationalist and anti-Muslim positions. More men supported the group than women, and less educated and younger youth were more likely to express approval. Predictably, approval varied greatly between different religious groups, with 41.9 per cent of Buddhist respondents reporting approval, compared to just 14.9 per cent and 2.2 per cent for Christian and Muslim respondents, respectively.