Myanmar Spring Chronicle – November 02 Scenes
MoeMaKa, November 03 2022
Adverse effects that are unintended during an interim period of a dark era
If you read the morning news, you’ll see that the daily news headlines are the news of battles, armed casualties, civilians being killed, casualties due to weapons, properties being destroyed by arson attacks and even if not being destroyed, the properties being taken away, the numbers of people fleeing war, the numbers of people being killed, the numbers of people being arrested and statistics on the number of houses being burned.
There is not only news of battles, arrests, civilian killings and the torching of houses. In recent months, crime news has become a daily news article. The news of robbing and killing people in their homes, robbing houses in which elderly people or only one or two people are living, robbing people on low-traffic streets, gold shop robberies, and killing people to rob things have become daily news. It’s not just rural and urban areas that are being robbed. In large cities like Yangon and Mandalay, robberies are happening almost every day.
Just like the news from the previous day in which a retired teacher and his wife were killed, in today’s news, there was a robbery at a paint shop in the center of Yangon, where 3 people stabbed and took money and a car. Phone thefts, phones and wallets being robbed on the street or on the bus are becoming a daily occurrence in many places, so that it is no longer news, and the incidents of one or more people being killed are reported as news. Incidents of vendors selling with carts being killed to rob a small amount of money on the street are taking place in both Yangon and other towns.
On the one hand, the number of crimes is increasing significantly, and on the other hand, we read on the news that there are more and more incidents of people committing suicide after giving up their lives to hardships and stress. Last month, 2 people died by jumping from the Kama Kyi Bridge in Yangon, and we read in the news that there are also people who have died from suicide in other cities.
It is obvious that the increase in crime in the cities is due to the lack of law and order. However, under such circumstances, how to enforce the rule of law, and who are the keys to a solution are important questions. If we say there is a ruler, yes, there is, but he may not be in a position to take responsibility or he is letting this situation happen and intending people to rely on armed forces in a situation of lack of law enforcement.
In the 1988 uprising, there was an example of such situations creating chaos and portraying the military coup as a justifying act. The current situation may be intended for the public to draw the conclusion that there is no law and order due to armed clashes and attacks on the city after the coup.
On the other hand, as for the revolutionary armed forces dominating the rural regions, they need to consider and conduct law enforcement in those regions as an important responsibility. In the cities currently controlled by the military council, how to solve and prevent robberies and killings is seen as a point that needs to be urgently considered.
Do the public have to keep watch? Is it possible for the public to keep watch in the current situation? Do we need to form community monitoring groups in the neighborhoods, towns and villages to prevent crimes from happening? Do we need to develop a public monitoring and reporting system so that crimes can be prevented, arrested and identified? These are important questions and it is needed for responsible persons to cooperate. Otherwise, the revolution may unintentionally produce an interim period of dark era as an adverse effect, delaying political progress and outcome.