I had a conversation with my mom regarding the current war going on in Myanmar.
She's a Burmese immigrant, so this topic has been something she holds dear to her heart. I'm a Burmese daughter, but I hold no love for something I cannot remember. I want to try though.
There's a lot we talked about, with my mother answering many of my questions. I could write a couple pages going into detail about it, but here are some of the main points.
My mom lived a solid 18 years in Myanmar, yet she did not have access to any journalism of any sort. This was because freedom of speech was not recognized as a human right, and anyone who attempted to practice it was either jailed or even executed. This meant that she had no idea the situation was this bad. In fact, most of what she had told me about the war, she had learned after settling into the United States.
Political officials are greedy assholes. They bask in the luxury of their country's economy and send their sons and daughters off to Thailand to receive education, whereas the civilians live in very, very poor conditions. Dreary and terrible conditions that still remain bright and vivid in my parents' minds whenever we ask them about their motherland.
Me and my mother have different hopes of where salvation may come from. When I heard that the political officials sent their sons and daughters off to Thailand, I suggested perhaps the children of said officials may do better, if they are receiving an education and experiencing what a more developed nation looked like, perhaps they would be than their predecessors and fix this mess. My mom disagreed. She believed they would become dictators, just like their parents. "When Min Aung dies is when this war ends," she bitterly stated.
The people are suffering because of their leaders, who don't know fucking social science. Because of the exploitation of government funds by the military coup and political figures, the school system suffered heavily from neglect. Apparently, some schools have been closed since 2021 and only those who have money are able to access online classes to pursue their education.
Education, despite having a rough reputation, is vital. In my opinion, without education, the democracy movement in opposition to Myanmar's dictatorship is fundamentally lacking. In the U.S. History, specifically the making of their government, the public have educated themselves through newspaper forums all these vast and sound concepts of how their government should function, taking inspiration from the British government. While the civilians may be on the right track, advocating for democracy, I fear that there may be much more discourse on what "normal" would like for them. Even if the civilians, or the PDF (as my mom called them) wins, if they cannot secure a strong foundation the military coup may take advantage of this weakness and restart this war anew.
I reached an epiphany about the power struggle while we discussed. The difference between the United States government and the Myanmar government is that there is no balance of power. Myanmar's government is a tree with no branches, save for a large singular one at the very top. It receives most of the sunlight and relishes in early rain, but soon, it will grow too heavy. When it eventually snaps off, it will go tumbling down, and may take the whole tree down with it.
Power does not corrupt. It never did. Rather, as Jack Weatherford had preached in his novel 'Emperor of the Seas: Kublai Khan and the Making of China', "Power purifies. It magnifies and exposes the essential character, whether for good or bad... absolute power reveals absolutely." In this case, power revealed that Myanmar had a bunch of gluttons and nut jobs sitting on their thrones.
This civil war could be resolved. Although it's not a verifiable solution, perhaps if the military coup and PDF reached an agreement that evened the military coup's political power while giving more attention to the civilians current conditions, this civil war could end. But I don't know, it feels like there should be a simple solution for this but there's not and I don't know what to do about it.
If there is any, any information here that is incorrect, please correct me. Now, what can you do with this information?
I'm going to be honest: I don't know.
I learned so much in this conversation but throughout it all I felt such helplessness, so I decided to share this in hopes that maybe someone more capable can do something with this and help fix this mess.
I'm so goddamn sick of politics and adults.
