Myanmar Spring Chronicle – June 02 Scenes
MoeMaKa, June 03, 2023
When looking into the scenes and future of the Spring Revolution
When I read the news of the day, most of the news reports I read every day are the news of battle with how many casualties of junta soldiers, PDF forces, ethnic armed forces, or civilians, the news of the burning of houses in villages in Sagaing, upper Myanmar, and some regions, and the news of how many civilians are being arrested. The second most common news is the news of the assassination of those who are ward/village administrators in which town/village, members of Pyu Saw Htee, informants, dalans, veterans, non-CDM employees, members of the USDP party, or Mabatha nationalist activists, etc. Along with this news is the news of the arrests of those who oppose the military council based on their political trust and stance after their posts on social media were monitored. Similar to the news of the arrests of those who commented on social media, the news of urban guerrilla members being arrested and sentenced by the military council is often reported.
Besides these news topics, the news that is often included in the daily news is about robberies of banks, gold shops, and mobile phone shops, as well as crimes such as killings and discarding the bodies at roadsides in order to rob money, phones, and cars. In addition to these reports, there is news of restrictions on the import of goods to armed conflict regions, news of rises in commodity prices, and news of the loss of agricultural crops due to natural disasters.
Among these news topics, the news about people helping each other, helping individuals in hardships or helping those who are affected by natural disasters is rarely read.
As for the international news regarding Myanmar, there is news such as ASEAN and international governments urging all relevant organizations to stop the violence and to engage in peace talks, and news of some western countries blacklisting businesses that are supporting the Myanmar Military Council or individual members of the Military Council. Other international news is the visit of special envoys from Russia, China, and India to meet the leader of the Military Council.
After reading the news mentioned above every day, one can imagine how much those who experienced these incidents must feel. Even as a news reader, I am emotionally affected just by reading them every day. When talking about the feelings of some news readers, I have also heard that they feel depressed, hopeless, and don’t even want to think about the future, after reading the daily news.
More than feeling hopeless after reading the news, people are feeling that the situations in the country are moving towards the more severe ones than that during the past 2 years. Those who are actively participating in the Spring Revolution may be marching forward with full hope and confidence with the belief that the revolution will soon be won and over. Among the activists and supporters, there may also be those who are full of hope and encouragement. However, as mentioned above, there are people who are feeling hopeless, depressed and lack of confidence to overcome this situation, while reading and listening to the news.
In the early days of the Spring Revolution, there were cases of organizing people with the hope that the revolution could be successful within a week or a few months. This fact may be one of the reasons why the public’s hope has weakened over the years.
This kind of organization claiming that victory will be easily achieved in a short period of time may have resulted in unwanted consequences and results like this when the revolution has become a long-term one. In 1945, when the fascist revolution began, if you look at General Aung San’s Words at War, you will see that he put forward the words “will be poor, will be hungry, and will face difficulties” in his speech.
It can be seen that General Aung San had organized honesty as a basic principle in organizing the armed forces as well as in organizing the public. He didn’t do any organizing, giving the hope that the revolution would be easy and end tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.
As the organizations that led the Spring Revolution, I think that it is necessary to honestly show the public the road ahead from where we are today and to organize it, as well as to face the difficulties and challenges together in unity.