• Burmese
Sunday, October 1, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Irrawaddy
26 °c
Yangon
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Features
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Features
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
No Result
View All Result
The Irrawaddy
No Result
View All Result
Home Opinion Commentary

Throwback Thursday, Flashback Friday: Repression Redux in Burma

by Kyaw Zwa Moe
March 6, 2015
in Uncategorized
Reading Time: 3 mins read
A A
Throwback Thursday

Police try to detain a female student protestor after a protest in front of a market in Letpadan on March 6

3.1k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Ugly scenes this week near Rangoon’s sacred Sule Pagoda and City Hall have further tarnished the reformist credentials of a government that should be ashamed of itself.

The violent crackdown in the heart of downtown, which conjured images reminiscent of similar repression in 2007 and 1988 under the former junta, offered a reality check for those who subscribe to the theory that Burma is on an inexorable path to democracy.

RelatedPosts

Myanmar’s Military Bogged Down in North as Resistance Rises

Myanmar’s Military Bogged Down in North as Resistance Rises

September 29, 2023
1.2k
Kachin Offensive Becoming a ‘Meat-Grinder’ for Myanmar Junta

Kachin Offensive Becoming a ‘Meat-Grinder’ for Myanmar Junta

September 28, 2023
3.1k
Myanmar Coup Leader Fires Two Members of Junta’s Highest Body for Corruption

Myanmar Coup Leader Fires Two Members of Junta’s Highest Body for Corruption

September 26, 2023
2.2k

On Thursday afternoon, about 200 students and activists staged a demonstration in front of City Hall to support student protestors elsewhere in the country pushing for a revamp to the National Education Law.

Their peaceful assembly was met with bullying and billy clubs as police and unidentified vigilantes cracked down on the protesters, arresting at least eight.

Tin May Thaw, in her 20s, was one of the victims, targeted by three plainclothes thugs. One of them put her in a headlock while another pressed his elbow to her throat. The third man was busy twisting one of her arms. The petite young woman and several other protestors were hauled and thrown her into the back of a truck like cattle. Her head hit the vehicle’s body in the mayhem.

Tin May Thaw gave her account of the incident in a press conference on Friday, hours after she and seven other protesters were released after being held in custody overnight. During the press conference, our Irrawaddy reporter noticed that Tin May Thaw found it difficult to speak due to the pain of her throat.

Kyaw Zwa Moe is editor (English Edition) of
the Irrawaddy magazine. He can be reached at [email protected].

A prominent women’s activist was among the victims of Thursday’s crackdown. Nilar Thein, who has served multiple stints as a political prisoner since 1988, was beaten and kicked by police and vigilantes.

The protestors in Rangoon were, ironically enough, demanding that the government not use violent force against student protestors who have set up camp in Letpadan, Pegu Division, on their way from Mandalay to Rangoon in a march for educational reform.

Our photographer Sai Zaw, who is in Letpadan covering the students encamped there, also became a target this morning. I phoned him to inquire about the situation in the town, which is located about 85 miles northwest of Rangoon. He told me that he was about to take photos of a small group of students protesting nearby. I hung up.

One hour later, we received word that Sai Zaw had been snatched by police while photographing the arrest of five students—being carried out, as in Rangoon the day prior, by a combination of police and plainclothes thugs.

When a man in plainclothes, who was helping to bundle one of the activists into a truck, spotted Sai Zaw taking photo of him, he ordered police to “arrest him too.” Police officers grabbed him and tried to put him in the truck, but fellow journalists’ quick reflexes allowed them to wrestle Sai Zaw back from the authorities.

He was lucky.

Minutes after his release, Sai Zaw told me that the police had first attempted to seize his camera before trying to arrest him.

This week the government, which has been dubbed “reformist” by much of the international community since early 2011, has employed tactics honed for decades by the junta, in which Thein Sein was a senior general and former prime minister.

Particularly disconcerting were the thugs, whose tactics and plainclothes get-up bore a striking resemblance to the group known as Swan Ah Shin. The latter group launched crackdowns against peaceful demonstrators in the 2007 Saffron Revolution and ambushed a motorcade of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in 2003, killing dozens of her supporters.

In 2007, government-backed ruffians dragged peaceful protestors through the streets of Rangoon like animals, exposing the brutality of the regime to much of the outside world for the first time. International condemnation swiftly followed.

And while the severity of this week’s repression has thus far not (yet) approached the previous regime’s penchant for bloodbaths in the name of maintaining stability, one would hope that the world continues to watch.

Consecutive military regimes that ruled the country since 1962 drove Burma’s people into poverty and isolation. That isolation made it easy for foreign powers promoting democratic values to ostracize Burma and vocally criticize its leaders’ governance.

Today, in the “New Burma,” growing Western investment and regional geopolitics make such chiding less palatable. There’s simply too much at stake to take a hardline democratic position.

Credit is due to Thein Sein on this point: A clever diplomatic makeover has allowed him to have his cake and eat it too, hosting foreign dignitaries and reaping the economic rewards of the country’s opening, on the one hand, while sending thugs out to the streets to rough up pesky democracy advocates, on the other.

The barbarism on display this week should serve as a wakeup call for those who continue to insist that all’s well in Burma.

Your Thoughts …
Previous Post

Rallies in Rangoon, Mandalay to Condemn Police Crackdown

Next Post

Rangoon Govt Power Supplier to Become Corporate Entity

Kyaw Zwa Moe

Kyaw Zwa Moe

The Irrawaddy

Similar Picks:

General Close to Myanmar Junta Boss Placed Under House Arrest, Interrogated for Corruption

General Close to Myanmar Junta Boss Placed Under House Arrest, Interrogated for Corruption

September 14, 2023
20.6k
Three Rebel Army Chiefs Predict Rapid Fall of Myanmar Junta

Three Rebel Army Chiefs Predict Rapid Fall of Myanmar Junta

August 18, 2023
15.7k
Three Myanmar Police Chiefs Sacked

Three Myanmar Police Chiefs Sacked

September 15, 2023
13.3k
Myanmar Junta’s Central Bank Had $6.8 Bn in Reserves at 14 Int’l Banks in March

Myanmar Junta’s Central Bank Had $6.8 Bn in Reserves at 14 Int’l Banks in March

August 21, 2023
13.2k
Power-Drunk Junta Tries Selling Myanmar Beer at Gunpoint

Power-Drunk Junta Tries Selling Myanmar Beer at Gunpoint

September 14, 2023
11.4k
Myanmar Resistance’s Next Steps are Clear; It’s the Junta’s that Aren’t

Myanmar Resistance’s Next Steps are Clear; It’s the Junta’s that Aren’t

August 8, 2023
10.6k
Load More
Next Post
Rangoon Govt Power Supplier to Become Corporate Entity

Rangoon Govt Power Supplier to Become Corporate Entity

Minister Predicts ‘No Losses’ in Public Service Media

Minister Predicts ‘No Losses’ in Public Service Media

No Result
View All Result

Recommended

Myanmar Travel Sector Mocks Junta Tourist Claim

Myanmar Travel Sector Mocks Junta Tourist Claim

15 hours ago
1.7k
Notorious Deputy Commerce Minister Purged in Myanmar Junta Price Probe 

Notorious Deputy Commerce Minister Purged in Myanmar Junta Price Probe 

6 days ago
1.7k

Most Read

  • Another Junta Flotilla in Upper Myanmar is Under Fire

    Another Junta Flotilla in Upper Myanmar is Under Fire

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Travel Sector Mocks Junta Tourist Claim

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • The Junta is Losing Control of Southeastern Myanmar: Report

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar’s Military Bogged Down in North as Resistance Rises

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Junta Watch: ‘Happy Yet?’ Citizens Polled on 3 Years of Rule By Gun; Dictator Fetes Failed National Truce; and More   

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Newsletter

Get The Irrawaddy’s latest news, analyses and opinion pieces on Myanmar in your inbox.

Subscribe here for daily updates.

Contents

  • News
  • Politics
  • War Against the Junta
  • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
  • Conflicts In Numbers
  • Junta Crony
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Asia
  • World
  • Business
  • Economy
  • Election 2020
  • Elections in History
  • Cartoons
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Commentary
  • Guest Column
  • Analysis
  • Letters
  • In Person
  • Interview
  • Profile
  • Dateline
  • Specials
  • Myanmar Diary
  • Women & Gender
  • Places in History
  • On This Day
  • From the Archive
  • Myanmar & COVID-19
  • Intelligence
  • Myanmar-China Watch
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Food
  • Fashion & Design
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • Photo Essay
  • Donation

About The Irrawaddy

Founded in 1993 by a group of Myanmar journalists living in exile in Thailand, The Irrawaddy is a leading source of reliable news, information, and analysis on Burma/Myanmar and the Southeast Asian region. From its inception, The Irrawaddy has been an independent news media group, unaffiliated with any political party, organization or government. We believe that media must be free and independent and we strive to preserve press freedom.

  • Copyright
  • Code of Ethics
  • Privacy Policy
  • Team
  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Burmese

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Letters
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Features
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Business Roundup
  • Donation

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.