Grim day for Myanmar: Execution of activists

Grim day for Myanmar: Execution of activists

Kanako Mita, Sawako Utsumi, and Lee Jay Walker

Modern Tokyo Times

Myanmar was betrayed by Western nations when politicians and so-called human rights activists condemned Aung San Suu Kyi because she sought to protect the indigenous of Rakhine – while knowing that authoritarians within the military elites sought to crush the path of democracy. Thus the execution of four activists who oppose the military elites ruling the country is another grim day for Myanmar.

The military elites – irrespective of their narrative that the four individuals had committed subversion or acts of terrorism – have opened up a can of worms. At the same time, they are closing the door on compromise and the need to break the cycle of despair and death. This will not only lead to increased hostility within Myanmar: it will further isolate the nation. Thereby setting the tone for internal and external intrigues -where death, poverty, and greater divisions will emerge unless the military comes to its senses.

Democrats in Myanmar will view the executions as being “cold-blooded murder.” The ultimate usage of tyranny by the state apparatus. Likewise, democrats outside of Myanmar who care for this nation will be repulsed by the death penalty. Therefore, the military elites have abandoned any notion of rationality – irrespective of their viewpoint being a million miles away from democratic forces within Myanmar.

Reuters reports, “Among those executed were democracy campaigner Kyaw Min Yu, better known as Jimmy, and former lawmaker and hip-hop artist Phyo Zeya Thaw, the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.”

Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw were also killed by the state apparatus – which rules by fear. Hence, the military elites are forcing Myanmar into a cul-de-sac of no hope and are crushing the next generation. Therefore, Myanmar – a nation that only recently had hope under Aung San Suu Kyi – is descending into complete darkness.

The United Nations Human Rights Chief (Michelle Bachelet) was angered by “this cruel and regressive step.“ Bachelet continued, “For the military to widen its killing will only deepen its entanglement in the crisis it has itself created.”

Aung San Suu Kyi was recently sent to solitary confinement. The BBC said, “Her move to solitary confinement makes her more isolated than ever – she became a global democracy icon during a previous period of military rule when she spent 15 years in detention, but almost all of it was under house arrest.”

However, Aung San Suu Kyi is the only national leader in Myanmar who could salvage hope – out of the spiraling nightmare of what is happening in Myanmar.

Democratic and non-democratic nations don’t hold the mantle of virtue. After all, America dropped Agent Orange on Vietnam and supported Indonesia in the brutal murder of communists – and this was followed by Indonesia butchering the East Timorese and West Papuans (persecution continues in West Papua). However, if America, China, India, Japan, and others seek to open a new chapter outside of petty geopolitics – then all must insist on the freeing of Aung San Suu Kyi and for the military elites to open a path of dialogue before it is too late (for many, it is already too late).

Yet the delicate ethnic and religious component – along with the colonial legacy and decades of past authoritarian rule: means compromise remains the only solution whereby the second path of democracy is supported by all nations who share good intent.

If a trade-off isn’t reached, Myanmar will face the darkest of futures: is this what the military wants? To crush the next generation and the following generation – and enforce a brain drain by stealth and the over-reliance on one or two nations?

Indeed, a failed state awaits Myanmar if the military continues on this sinister path.

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