Myanmar (Burma) - news and discussion

[teqniq]

Comms networks being shut down:

 

[not-bono-ever]

Hardly unexpected as the military have been blatantly and openly organising on the ground fior the past week

 

[Idris2002]

I know Judith B. and can vouch for her. . . further down that thread is a note about China's pipelines speeding up, and the PRC's "de facto control" of the Burmese north. Her best point there though is, don't bother about ASSK, think about the ordinary people who are going to get it in the neck as a result of this one.

 

[maomao]

I wonder how much of her popularity with the British liberal press thirty years ago had to do with her being married to a British public schoolboy. Probably gave her some decent establishment connections over here.

 

[butchersapron]

She was very popular with the liberati when she was under house arrest and the military ruled Myanmar but its easy to attract praise when you're not doing much but making statements and giving interviews. Her performance in office has been much less impressive and she seems to have been totally indifferent to the treatment of the Rohynga though I suppose we'll probably never know just how freedom to act she ever actually had.
She is apparently massively popular in Myanmar itself since the Rohynga are pariahs that no-one cares about. But I suspect there will be a lot less support internationally for her this time even if a few Govts including ours make the obligatory speech about respecting election results.

She wasn't indifferent to the Rohingya - to the increasing levels of official and informally encouraged attacks on them, leading to a full scale state led military assault and extermination/expulsion campaign. She was supportive of it via pretending to be above it and called Rohingya claims 'fake news' whilst vocally supporting a racial Buddhist-chauvinism that forms the ideological background of anti-Rohingya views and actions. The fawners will now likely say she had no power over the military and the latest moves by them shows this. They can never be wrong - over her, over the EU, over anything.

 

[kebabking]

I wonder how much of her popularity with the British liberal press thirty years ago had to do with her being married to a British public schoolboy. Probably gave her some decent establishment connections over here.

Given that she went to Oxford, worked for the UN, and her father was Burma's elder statesman, I'm not convinced that her marrying a minor historian who no one has heard of was the key to all those establishment doors.

I do love your spectacular sexism and racism though - because, of course, the only way that a woman of colour from some forrin part could possibly have any connections and status is through marrying an English public school boy who no one has heard of....

Twat.

 

[maomao]

Given that she went to Oxford, worked for the UN, and her father was Burma's elder statesman, I'm not convinced that her marrying a minor historian who no one has heard of was the key to all those establishment doors.

I do love your spectacular sexism and racism though - because, of course, the only way that a woman of colour from some forrin part could possibly have any connections and status is through marrying an English public school boy who no one has heard of....

Twat.

You know I can take the correction without the abuse. Cheers though. Really need it this morning.

 

[Pickman's model]

I think assk has played a blinder as any future atrocities will no longer be seen as her fault

 

[Idris2002]

I think the ASSK acronym makes her sound cooler than she is.

Oh, and re: her husband. He was a Durham graduate, which means he probably did have establishment connections in the upper echelons of British imperialism. But that imperialism deals in hard currency, not old school ties. These are people who will be BFF with a pig like the King of Saudi Arabia, after all.

 

[tim]

I do love your spectacular sexism and racism though - because, of course, the only way that a woman of colour from some forrin part could possibly have any connections and status is through marrying an English public school boy who no one has heard of....

Twat.

Having a middle-class, public-school-educated, English wife was enough to convince the media that Bashar al Assad was a decent chap.

 

[Idris2002]

The military is stepping up arrests, according to what I'm seeing on social media.

 

[Jeff Robinson]

Another round of genocider musical chairs in Burma.

 

[belboid]

The military is stepping up arrests, according to what I'm seeing on social media.

Muslim and Karen people locking themselves in and shitting themselves

 

[teqniq]

Thread here from a Reuters journalist:



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[likesfish]

As none of the original military government leaders ever left the scene how much power the civillian goverment ever had is debatable.

 

[ska invita]

Thread here from a Reuters journalist:



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gives the impression less of public anger and more of resigned inevitability

 

[belboid]

gives the impression less of public anger and more of resigned inevitability

My friend over there says much the same thing - about the Buddhist Burmese anyway. Internet is still intermittent so coordinating and communicating about possible action is v limited

 

[purves grundy]

It’s a very different situation for the military to manage than was the case 10 years ago, before the first elections under the new constitution. There’s been a decade of political party organising, especially for the NLD - it’s now a colossal machine that extends the length and breadth of the country; business has been booming, massive infrastructure projects are on the go and major IFIs and agencies are in town; digital penetration is very high and the internet taken for granted, even well outside of the main towns and cities. Where you once had a thoroughly demoralised, isolated and hopeless population, you’ve now got something more like a typical Southeast Asian nation (with the exception of parts of ethnic regions). Mass protests are inevitable - how will the Tatmadaw respond?

 

[skyscraper101]

 

[Yossarian]

The view from Beijing:

 

[Idris2002]

So it goes.

 

[Jeff Robinson]

Peak Adam Curtis footage.

 

[belboid]

some ‘civil disobedience’ in response, but mostly just banging pans together so far

 

[AnandLeo]

Regardless of the tattered international credibility and popularity of Aung San Suu Kyi, she has won a landslide victory which has ironically led to been taken prisoner by her power sharing partner of military state. Myanmar is a military state with façade built of democracy led by Aung San Suu Kyi. News suggest this time she might be imprisoned barring her from office.
What is at jeopardy is the democracy bragged in the western world led by US; and the safety and wellbeing of the ethnic minorities, predominantly the remnants of Rohingya Muslims. The UN has responsibility to see that ethnic cleansing does not recur in Myanmar. The western nations have a duty to apply diplomatic pressure to shun military usurp and assault on democracy they treasure.

 

[ska invita]

have the words "election fraud" always been used so freely as a green light for a coup? Three times in the last year or so I can think of ( US*, Bolivia, and here), but maybe its always been like this

*yeah i know

 

[editor]

It must be absolutely terrifying to have your freedoms snatched away from you bunch of unaccountable military cunts.

The inevitable digital lockdown has begun too

Myanmar coup: army blocks Facebook access as civil disobedience grows

Instagram and WhatsApp – owned by Facebook and used to organise protests – also restricted as UN secretary general condemns coup

www.theguardian.com

 

[purves grundy]

Connectivity is up and down. Lots of panic downloading of VPNs, Signal and Telegram but also much still going on Facebook - check the #we_want_our_elected_government and other hashtags, plenty of hospitals, universities, schools and other institutions coming out in defiance (including schools attended by generals' offspring). Small-scale street action as of now.

 

[Pickman's model]

It must be absolutely terrifying to have your freedoms snatched away from you bunch of unaccountable military cunts.

it's not that much better when it's done by mps

 

[purves grundy]

A few fair-sized protests around Yangon today. All peaceful so far.

 

[belboid]

Useful summary

Pressure mounts inside and outside the country