Myanmar Spring Chronicle – August 19 Scenes
MoeMaKa, August 20, 2023
The lives of Myanmar people that are being abducted
The lives of the people in Myanmar are similar to those living in the abducted areas. When I think about it carefully, I imagine that the people living in Myanmar are similar to those trying to meet their livelihood, education of their next generation, religion, social life, and development under the condition of being unable to decide their own lives and destiny. They do not have the right to speak openly about their political beliefs, the right to do economic activities freely, or the freedom of speech in education, social, or religious beliefs.
Their desires, efforts, and freedom of speech are controlled by the rulers, the military dictators. Only if they do not oppose them politically are they allowed to make efforts to improve their livelihood and development. On the other hand, only if they do not encroach on the mismanagement and political power of the military dictators are allowed to do economic, social, and religious activities and make personal development.
For instance, imagine Myanmar as a big house. The people who live in that big house are locked up by the landlord, and only with his permission can they leave or enter the house. Even if the people living outside the house want to help those needing help inside the house because of conflicts in this house or due to a natural disaster, they can only do so if the military dictators who hold the key to the house allow them to provide humanitarian aid. Even if the people who live in the house want to go out and visit, even if the people living inside the house want to leave the house temporarily or permanently, they have to consider the possibility of danger and blockade by the military dictators.
The people of Myanmar have lived in a situation similar to those who had been abducted while living in a country, just like the example of the big house mentioned above, after the 1962 military coup until 2011. During their reform period after 2011, they were free to a certain extent, but on February 1, 2021, the situation returned to the status quo.
There are individual and collective efforts to escape from this troublesome house filled with conflicts, attacks, economic crises, arrests, tortures, and killings. The collective effort to free the whole house has not been successful so far.
In this house, food insecurity, armed attacks, the number of people fleeing the war, and the number of people who could not work in agriculture, breeding, or manufacturing in order to earn a living have increased exponentially after the military coup. It is not wrong to say that it is a house of trouble with more than 1.9 million displaced people.
As international humanitarian aid organizations, if they want to help those who are suffering in this house, they will have to deal with and talk to the military dictators who hold the keys to this house. It can be said that the event in which the Under-Secretary-General of the UNOCHA agency visited Myanmar and met with the military council leader a few days ago has the same nature as the one described above.
When the UN wants to help people who are suffering in this house, they are in a situation where they have to deal with those who guard the house and hold the door keys, even though they do not want to deal with them. Some of the rooms in the big house have been able to manage on their own to some extent due to the attempts of the people in those rooms to attack them.
Whatever it is, it can be said that under the control of the person who hijacked and abducted the whole house, the strong-willed, tenacious, and energetic young and healthy people from the public are struggling and fighting, and they will continue to try to loosen the grip of the military dictators holding the power before the whole house collapses.