MoeMaKa, July 18 2022
Two local admin were assassinated in Yangon. A hand-made mine accidentally exploded in Dala. A shortage of liquid natural gas for domestic use.
The news reported that 2 local administrator overseeing 100 house-holds in township aka Yar-Eain-Hmoo, were shot dead by Yangon Urban Guerrilla Army (YUGA) when they were at a tea shop in Shwe Pyi Thar Township, Yangon. They were Yar-Eain-Hmoo of No.15 ward and according to some news sources, they were members of Pyuu Saw Htee (Pro-Military Militia) and they accompanied the junta soldiers in inspecting overnight guest list and arresting people.
In Yangon, assassinations of Yar-Eain-Hmoo, local ward administrators and people who are assumed to be junta informants like this event frequently occured and one from Thamine ward of Mayangone Township was assassinated in previous days and two Yar-Eain-Hmoo were assassinated in Thin Gan Gyun Township few weeks ago.
Assassinations like this have become common incidents in cities like Yangon and Mandalay. It is necessary to reconsider whether assassinations of lower ranks of administration such as ward administrator and its lower rank Yar-Eainn-Hmoo with the justification of removing the supporting pillars of the military council, could actually stop the operation of the military regime. The major parts of the military regime are the armed forces and power is built by using state’s own financial resources, administration and communication mechanisms. If the people at the lowest level of the administration are targeted, such as ward and village administrators and Yar-Eain-Hmoo, the numbers of targeted assassinations will be range from thousands to hundreds of thousands all over country. One thing is that not every Yar-Eain-Hmoo, ward and village administrator are assassinated but only those who are informants, members of Pyu Saw Htee and members of Thway Thout groups (Pro-Military Assassin Squad). The facts that the victims were members of Pyu Saw Htee or Thway Thout may sometimes be in question. There may be baseless accusations due to personal hatred and some other reasons. So guerrilla forces, need to do proper process to verify the accusations. If not, the assassinations of Yar-Eain-Hmoo and ward administrators with the so-called unfounded accusations of members of armed forces or Pyu Saw Htee will remain as grievous scars in Myanmar’s political history for years.
Although it can’t be compared with the era of the Khmer Rouge ruled by Pol Pot in Cambodia, it may lead to a certain circumstance of civilian massacre similar to excessive killing by the Khmer Rouge in that era. During the Khmer Rouge era, the village ruler pointed the finger at people living together in the village and had them arrested and killed by the Khmer Rouge. The surviving family members of the victim, they had to live with mental trauma that every time they saw the village ruler who pointed the finger. It reminded of theirs family members killed because of him. This can be seen in news articles and documentary. Although the situation in Myanmar is not like that of the Khmer Rouge and it is not the situation to kill millions due to radical political ideology, it is necessary for armed groups, whether a guerrilla force or combat forces that operate in the field, to have basic concepts of justice and lawful justification. It is impossible to build a country by simply retaliation and killing people after branding them into two, supporters of the other side or supporters of own side. And it can only lead to a more complicated conflict and deeper adversarial revenge.
Another piece of news for today is that a bomb exploded on a trishaw in Dala, killing the passenger and seriously injuring the trishaw driver. Details about the incident are not yet known, but it is thought to have been an accidental explosion while carrying a hand-made mine. They both live in the same ward in Dala Township and it is not yet known whether they are members of which organization.
The other news besides the armed assassination and explosion is the shortage of liquid natural gas for domestic use in Yangon. Although Myanmar is a country that produces natural gas, there is a poor investment to produce liquefied natural gas and so the state has to sell raw material (natural gas) to Thai companies. Then the country has to import back foreign oil and gas. Although the reason for the shortage is not clearly known, according to the military council’s dollar control management regulations, dollars obtained from foreign exports, earned-wages sent back from abroad and international development aid are forced to converted into Myanmar currency within 24 hours at Central Bank of Myanmar. So importers have to buy them back from the committee controlled by the central bank with much higher exchange rate from Military council. It is believed that it has had an impact on this product shortage and caused price instability.
In addition to economic damage during the covid disaster and military coup, the military council tries to control the dollar strictly in wrong way after looking at the Sri Lanka’s economy failure.