The Little Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin Of Burma – OpEd

As the world is glue to the Ukrainian crisis created by non other than dictator Vladmir V Putin of Russian, the populace may seem to forget the unwritten Russian empire in Southeast Asia where the little Burmese Vladimir V Putin men in green uniform like their Russians counterparts are having a tough time in exterminating the people of Burma led by the pro democracy movement. With the latest military coup last year, the civilized world had witnessed how the Burmese army known by its notorious, disgraceful, disreputable, and ignominious name of Thatmadaw meaning never satisfied of killing its own people may construe that it is time for the demise of Myanmar Thatmadaw.

Through out, its existence of three quarter of a century, to be exact from 1948 up to this day (74 years) this Myanmar Thatmadaw has never fought a foreign enemy. Instead, it is used only to quell its own compatriots the non-Myanmar ethnic nationalities. Thus, when the local population, who were demonstrating peacefully whether they are farmers, or working people or university students, they just simply shoot them. Their first strong man was General Ne Win who has never being a university student abhor the idea of a university student knowing full well that “What Rangoon University think of today, Burma will think of tomorrow.” Hence, he closed the University for decades, so that his generals can run the country until it reached to the lowest strata of the world better known as “the least developed status.”

Hence, currently these young generals led my Min Aung Hlaing are working hard to put up a new record in Guinness Books of World Records as of the longest civil war in modern history of the world. Only then they can make their presence felt in the world.

The current, third generation of the Burmese Generals, following the footsteps of their ancestors, like Ne Win and Than Shwe are very much desirous to prolong that status and is out and out against the duly elected government of the people chosen by consensus and have implemented the coup last year. But this time the younger generation of the people better christen as the Z generation who have seen and heard the stories from their older generation were categorically against the army.

Knowing full well the psyche and the rationale of this hated Thatmadaw that the non-violent means of protesting will not dislodge the military junta, just like the nonviolent patriotic Germans were unable to dislodge Adolf Hitler. Hence, they have no choice but to come to the peripherals and joined the non-Myanmar ethnic forces for training and for arms. But in the meantime, a lot of lives have been sacrificed in more than a 1,600 deaths and imprisonments and this time the entire people of Burma realized that they cannot take on this terrorist Tatmadaw without killing weapons as there is an imbalance of power. So, many of the people flee to the territories of the non-Myanmar Ethnic Armed Organizations to get military training to return to fight the military as this is the only option left. One does not accept arms unless it is forced to do, if we were to look at the history of struggles of peoples of the world. 

In the international community especially at the UN level, with the blockages of big dictatorial countries like China and Russia at the UN Security Council, compounded with the regional level like ASEAN the mainland dictatorial countries of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, there seems little or no hope, to reject another dictator like them from the ASEAN countries even though there may be a pressure from the US, EU and the likes. This finally led to the conclusion that the only way; is to fight the Junta with whatever weapons they could marshals. The impotency of the pro-democratic island nations of Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines including Brunei and Malaysia could not make their presence felt as they do not have the will nor the courage to follow their morale in this most densely populated area of the world.

 It is rather sad to witness that history is repeating itself in the Union of Burma, where General Aung San, the father of the Noble Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, was cruelly denied witnessing the fruition of his labour in as much as his daughter was denied by the current Tatmadaw. This is because the generations of the Burmese Generals completely believe in the dictum of Chairman Mao Zedong “That power comes out of the barrel of the gun.” with the sly indirect encouragement from the dictatorial regimes of Russia and China paving the way for the implementation of the military coup.

Even, as the world slowly moves from dictatorship to democracy, Myanmar’s military ruler has vowed to “annihilate” the anti-coup protesters during a speech at the recent Armed Forces Day. In fact, since the putsch last year more than 1,700 people killed in crackdowns on dissent, according to a local monitoring group. Ironically it was a case when a “thief himself is shouting stop thief ”. Ironically now the Burmese Junta is shouting at the top of their voices accusing the pro democratic forces, stop thief when he himself was a thieve having stolen power from the legally elected government. This depicts the mentality of the Thatmadaw since its founding days. Either ‘by hook or by crook,’ they will have the power no matter what the cost is.

Their mentor Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is now eating a humble pie in the civilized international community, as he was caught red handed and was unable to help the little Burmese Putin, Min Aung Hlaing who imitate him thinking that the Russian will continue to shower him with modern weapons to kill the Burmese populace. The patriotic solders have switched sides and is now training the young revolutionaries and it is a matter of time before we visualise the end of this Burmese Putin and the hated Tatmadaw. The young people of Burma have a vision of the real Pyidaungsu (Union) where everyone will work according to his/her ability for the Union without exploiting another and that there would be a level playing field whether it is in uniform or in mufti to work for the Union of Burma. There will be no Mahar Myanmar race as they all will be the members of the Union,

A five-point peace plan by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) calls for talks on all sides has gone to the grave even before it was propose to Burma because it was no back up by force. The “People’s Defence Force” fighters – often armed with homemade or rudimentary weapons faced this genocidal Tatmadaw with a hit-and-run tactics. The shadow government known as the National Unity Government (NUG) will soon rip out the Thatmadaw and its fascism from its root. “Together with the souls of our lost heroes, we will fight to the bitter end,” commented the NUG spokesperson Sasa. 

The vice defence minister of Russia – a major arms supplier and ally – had been due to attend this year’s parade but he could not because of Ukraine war and a United Nations expert on Myanmar said Russia – along with another major ally China – was continuing to supply the military with weapons, including fighter jets and armoured vehicles. Burma’s top general has vowed to intensify action against homegrown militia groups fighting the military-run government, saying the armed forces would “annihilate” them. So far, the Thatmadaw has killed more than 1,700 civilians, according to a detailed tally compiled by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners and have detained hundred of children. The people have are forced to turn away from peaceful protests as they have no choice but to accept any available arms and joined the People’s Defence Forces in lieu of the battle-hardened ethnic armed groups, which have been fighting for greater autonomy for decades.

Despite a huge advantage in equipment and numbers, the Thatmadaw is having a tough time to crush the new militia units. Outgunned and outmanned, the PDFs have relied on support from local communities and knowledge of the terrain to conduct often surprisingly effective attacks on convoys, patrols, guard posts, police stations and isolated bases in remote areas. It seems to me that like its mentor Putin, this little Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin of Burma, his days are numbered like that of his mentor the real Putin of Russia.