Long ago, an ogre ravaged the land and the people are in immense suffering.
One day, a hero arrived and got rid of the ogre.
The people were joyous, but only for a brief moment, for yet another ogre emerged.
Then, after a period, a sword-wielding hero arrived, and got rid of the ogre.
The people were joyous, but only for a brief moment once again, for another ogre wielding sword emerged.
Then, after a period, a spear-wielding hero arrived, and got rid of the sword-wielding ogre.
The people… eventually got oppressed by the spear-wielding ogre.
Next comes the archer hero to get rid of spear-ogre, and emerged archer ogre…
This is a well-known tale in Myanmar. We don’t know its origins, yet are fascinated with how its cautionary aspects are relevant it is to our ongoing revolution. Our key takeaways for this article are that reliance on one entity (be it individuals or groups) are risky, and that proper institutions and check-and-balance mechanisms are essential so that none can abuse power, and we can all together build a peaceful and unoppressed future for the people. We are not accusing that all revolutionary heroes would turn into ogres, in fact we believe in the complete opposite, and all our writings have consistently lauded the heroism, sacrifices and determination of the people risking their lives everyday so that we can write about the revolution from afar. However, it would be suicidal to rely in the good will of individuals or groups alone and not have safeguards.
Sadly, four years into Myanmar Spring Revolution, as more and more lands got seized from the junta, the appalling lack of institutional safeguards among the revolutionary forces and the myopia of “paramount importance is the removal of junta and we can sort out the rest later” became weak points for ogres in hero guises to exploit. Worse, the problem is chicken-and-egg conundrum, as the lack of centralized structure and strong chain of command among different People’s Defence Force (PDF) groups is yet to be fully formed. Worse, a huge number of PDF groups are under the National Unity Government (NUG) only in name, and NUG’s ability to command them is dubious. Moreover, a lot of PDF groups are running under self-financing models, and that created another problem of reliance to celebrity revolutionaries whose fame can raise funds better than others. This is when favoring heroes over institutions kick in.
Too frequently, news of embezzlement, sexual harassment and other criminal (yes criminal, we are not even talking about unethical or immoral things) acts being committed by powerful or celebrated members of different armed groups (both PDFs and ethnic armed groups alike) break out. Worse, in many cases, the respective armed groups turn a blind eye until the actions of these individuals become so egregious that the mother organizations have to issue statements basically implying “we are not sorry for the actions of these people, but they put us in a situation which we now must say that we don’t agree with their actions”.
Last month, one of the most shocking news among the overseas pro-revolutionary Burmese diaspora is how a revolutionary filmmaker, a famous member of Loikaw PDF, and the public face of Rebel Coffee (promoted as revolutionary product with profits going to the Loikaw PDF) is now facing serious allegations of being a serial sex offender, and how not all the profits of that “revolutionary product” is not going to the revolution. As shocking as it is, such is yet another case in a long list of problematic incidents for overreliance to individuals over mechanisms.
On the fate of the people of Myanmar to have an unoppressed and fair future, more concerning is the romanticism towards armed groups fighting against the junta. Would fighting the junta alone be enough to create an unoppressed future for everyone in the areas now these armed groups control?
As an example, just look at the atrocities committed towards the Rohingya people. Regarding the Rohingya people, while international community has consistently warned against atrocities to them as amounting to genocide, within Myanmar, the public perception shifted overtime. Before the 2021 coup, most people of Myanmar were skeptical that the atrocities happened or showed open hostility to the Rohingyas. Nonetheless, with the coup of 2021 and the brutality of junta’s military on full display, people turned sympathetic towards their sufferings. However, as the revolution gains momentum and as AA controls more and more territories at the expense of losing junta’s forces, human rights violations by AA committed towards the Rohingya populace has become more widely reported by watchgroups and media alike, by directly quoting Rohingya survivors or by quoting Rohingya activists. However, for the Myanmar general public, AA is a white knight in shining armor, and the thought of AA committing the same atrocities as junta’s forces on the minorities living on the territories under their control is unthinkable.
Here, we were only highlighting one example of how lack of safeguards mechanism and overreliance to individuals/groups could easily get wrong. Abuses and human rights violations are not limited to the aforementioned individuals or groups alone. It can happen to anyone. Additionally, with the lack of safeguards, the incentives are higher to pursue self-enrichment over building a lasting peace and unoppressed society. In the case of AA, they seem to understand the threat of critical views to their power and actively try to undermine these voices.
The problem of lack of check-and-balance mechanisms among revolutionary forces is akin to a common saying in medical practitioners and once referred by Machiavelli in “the Prince” as “In the early stage of the problem, it is difficult to detect but easy to treat. However, if left unattended, the problem becomes easy to see but difficult to treat.” For all people of Myanmar to have a future where we can live unoppressed, to fix the problem, the first stage of difficult-detection-yet-easy-solution is gone. Fixing now will be a painstaking effort. But it is something we cannot ignore, for it will only grow over time as it has grown tremendously over the past few years.
We know it’s easier said than done, especially considering how untouchable these celebrated individuals and groups are. But without establishing proper check-and-balance mechanisms, how can we say to our future generations that we strived towards an oppression-free society through this revolution.
