A slice of Myanmar pie Please!
A foibles to foibles story of a divided country
No man is an island: no country is an island, we all need friends and allies. Who is Myanmar’s?
No man is an island: no country is an island, we all need friends and allies. Who is Myanmar’s?
Do you remember the newspaper clippings and news about the Buddhist monks protesting and being set on fire? Or the Tiananmen Square Tank man?
If you do, then this article might make some sense to you. We failed as a world to help them. Do we fail again to help now?
Myanmar is the country that is a majority Theravada Buddhists, that is a whooping 87%. The Christian and Muslims in Myanmar are at a ping pong 5% ballpark. It also has wavering Socialists, and Communists trying to make it a country of no religion.
Theravada Buddhism is the oldest practicing Buddhist school ideologically similar in conservatism like that of the Sunni Muslims and Catholics, who follow stricter conservative doctrines and monastic life.
Gautham Buddha was born in the Indian diaspora, and the tenets of this religion have Hindu Vedic roots in it too.
Theravada Buddhism states that enlightenment cannot be attained while living as a layman, an ideology parallel to Catholics, who do not allow married priests. They also think of Buddha like the Sunni Muslim think of Prophet Muhammed, and do not acknowledge any others before or after him.
In Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand, it is the main religion. It is practised by minorities in India, Bangladesh, China, Nepal, and Vietnam.
China and Russia had been vying for years to promote communist ideologies in Myanmar, just like it did in the neighbouring Laos (a former French colony). China had gone one step further by indirectly funding the Kachin insurgency in Myanmar. Min Aung Hlaing had met with Chinese President in early 2020, and based on the relationship built on these negotiations, has found support for the coup from China. So, is this cease-fire between Myanmar and China based on a big bully finding opportunity and grabbing it? When the whole world is against Myanmar just now, the new coup regime is clutching at straws that might burn the country down, just like it happened with Tibet.
The dying of democracy and its descent into hell in Myanmar also started with the death of freedom of expression. The build-up was gradual, with the policing of the ‘Thangyat’ performances by the State, curtailing freedom of speech in 2019 and the Rohingya genocide from August 2017.
An icon of peace Aung San Suu Kyi was on trial at ICJ (International Court of Justice) for the genocide of the Rohingya in Myanmar by its military, which she denied. (Myanmar was not a member of ICJ, but Bangladesh was, and that’s where the Rohingya took refuge running away from Myanmar.)
Aung San Suu Kyi (Nobel Peace Prize laureate): Her father was Aung San, the lifelong anti-imperialist, founder of Burma Communist Party and Burma Socialist Party. Her husband, Michael Aris was British, with a Canadian mother and English father. Her two sons are British, having been denied Burmese citizenship, as the military feared they might enter politics.
Aung San Suu Kyi was an honorary Canadian citizen, stripped of the same after the Rohingya genocide allegations. After leaving her family in Britain, when her youngest son was 11 years old, she never left Myanmar after being under house arrest initially, and further down the years because of the fear of being denied entry back into Myanmar. Aung San Suu Kyi is a practicing Buddhist.
Min Aung Hlaing(Army General): The Young Men’s Buddhist’s Association awarded him with the title of Thado Thiri Agga Maha Mingalar Zawtika. The association itself was created to preserve the buddhist way of life in Burma during British colonialism. A practicing Theravada Buddhist himself, with extensive business assets, his motivation for the coup is unclear, and is understood to be for grabbing power for himself.
The country is fraught with political motivations based on opposing ideologies. The resulting chaos is endured by ordinary citizens. But, whatever the motivation, democratic elections and its results should be respected. In America, Trump rallied behind election fraud, but eventually Biden’s win was ratified and the country righted itself from the far-right. Patriotism won after the ‘Capitol building storming’ was seen as anti-constitutional. What happened in Myanmar is far worse. There was no fail-safe to stop the military from taking power.
Min Aung Hlaing cried election fraud, but took matters into his own hands, leading to the military coup a day before the members were to be sworn into the Assembly of the Union in Myanmar, hindering with the democratic process.
Patriotism in Myanmar is complex, pulling the country in different directions. The young patriots of the country are rallying for democracy. But the military has buried these voices to serve their own self-interests, denying the people to voice their choice and hard-won democratic elections.
If Aung San Suu Kyi is the face of democracy, the military coup is the face of self-interest.
Democracy or military rule? Religion or No religion? Will Myanmar win over the battle of ideological beliefs? Only time will tell.
Author’s Note:In an ideal world, the removal of ideologies from politics is a potential solution. But in a world of polar-opposites, we are pro-something or anti-something.
And we as humans are yet to develop the maturity to evolve from our tribal instincts, to understand that our identity is a rental that we cannot own for life, it is ever-changing.
- Will the world ever get past states adopting the ideological beliefs of anti-religious bigotry paraded as secularism, and religious bigotry paraded as moral living?
- Is this a coup poaching the national ideologies of a country that is yet to establish one of its own?
- Was this coup based on China’s help?
Originally published at http://britishandconfused.wordpress.com on February 4, 2021.
