미얀마 군부, ‘시대’를 착각하고 ‘세대’를 오해했다

Abstract

The work I present in this issue of the 『THE DONG BANG HAK CHI(동방학지)』 is to look into a critical development of Myanmar's struggle against the country' powerful military, that has staged yet another coup in the wee hours of the morning on Feb.1 this year. To begin with, I highlighted who did breaking the first bold move igniting a mass protest. Because, from then on, a 'protest' has been quickly turned as a nationwide 'uprising' - now in a 'revolutionary' form after more than seven months. It should be noted that people who braved the initiative bear some eye-catching characters. Those are : 'Generation G', 'Women' and 'Ethnic minorities'. The characters imply an important set of messages. The unfolding situation in Myanmar - called "Spring Revolution" - isn't just about reclaiming electoral process and the result to be respected. The message is more about upsetting regressive social and political orders to make truly democratic change happen. Such change would relinquish the existing 'democratic' system, under which racism and 'religious extremism' (read 'Buddhist nationalism' in Myanmar context) have been embraced by elements of mainstream democratic forces, notably the 88 uprising generation as well as National League for Democracy led by Aung San Suu Kyi. The charaters became even more significant particularly when the military council or SAC, which rebranded themselves "caretaker government" on August 1, and the democratically-mandated National Unity Government (or NUG), which generally tagged with "shadow government", are now involved in a die-hard competition to gain legitimacy - first stage has just begun at the UN General Assembly starting from September 14. One may revisit slogans chanted at the early stage of the protests. They were based on 'against the coup', thus "stop the coup" (or "reverse the coup") or 'respect the result of the 2020's election', otherwise "free our leaders". However, as time went by, "anti-coup" isn't enough to elaborate developing story. What has become clearer is that people fight against not just Feb.1 coup event. They are fighting against the decades-old oppressive 'military establishement' as a whole. That is to say people in Myanmar, at least significant part out of whole constituencies, are actively pursuing New Myanmar without Tatmadaw, local name for the military. Further, their bloody 'revolution', as they hope, would bring about fundamental change toward truly democratic society getting the old guard demised. One of the outstanding examples of that change is an emergence of 'Generation Z' (or "Gen Z"). For example, the two female activists who led a historical protest on Feb. 6, along with some five thousands participated in a protest against the military coup, can be catagorized into 'Gen Z'. Since the Feb.6, mass movement has become a daily scene for some time, then evolved into a nation-wide uprising. The 'Gen Zs' are also the ones who raised their voice on the issue of Rohingya Genocide, while almost everyone else in democratic circles keep silent. This had made the country's democracy movement very dark and grim. The words "Gen Z" would command symbolic lines, withno necessity of sticking to one's physical age. The words do not reveal any particular race or ethnic, or sexual orientation. The vagueness could be rather inclusive in principle. It is effectively denouncing racism, sexism or any kind of sectarianism as well as authoritarianism. Among 'Gen Zs' at protest sites were young female garment factory workers. Also ethnic Karen women can be 'Gen Z'. They all are just 'Gen Z'. Race, sex or sect are not required to be revealed. This new trend of evolution - while holding independece from the old 'democratic' guard- has been witnessed in a couple of recent events. One was a global campaign called "#Black4Rohingya" last June, for example. The trend also found in various events on the occasion of the 4th anniversary of Rohingya Genocide, as well as Karen Women's Organization's statement expressing solidarity with Rohingya women. It should be acknowleged that it was KWO who first came out to publicly issue a statement with their vocal criticism on Rohingya Genocide. Whilst, Aung San Suu Kyi and other mainstream arena in Myanmar kept silent on the Genocide, - if not cheering up the military act. They are the very people who have gone through rape and other form of sexual violences committed by Burmese military in their war-ravaged ethnic homeland. Ethnic women have every reason to express solidarity with Rohingya women by sharing their suffering as well. Youths in Myanmar have displayed their heart-felt regret and remorse for their silent past on Rohingya Genocide. They also tend to maintain afar from a country's dominant ideology, i.e. 'Buddist Nationalism', which played a pivotal role in successive anti-Muslims and anti-Rohingya hate campaign for the past decade. Despite all these enmities they have got from a society, some prominent Rohingya activists have shown remarkable tolerance and efforts in their coordination for a fight against the military since the coup. These are just a few but significant. Myanmar people are in progress of writing their new history as they revolutionize democratic uprising. In that regard, 'Spring Revolution' would realign women, workers, ethnic minorities and 'Gen. Z' youths crisscrossed or inter-sectionalized. All these actors have collectively stood up for the country's longing democracy, which won't do othering any minority but build a truly democratic new society.