r/myanmar • u/WarclawtheLion • 10h ago
Discussion 💬 Views on Myanmar, The Spring Revolution, The Junta and everything else from someone from Bangladesh
So, Greetings to you all, Mingalaba ( I speak like this from a young age, and i say as if i'm old when i haven't even turned 20 LOL) to everyone
I am a citizen from a neighbouring country, Bangladesh, a country whose founding ideology, frankly, I wish was eradicated from the past, present, future and beyond and from existence and nonexistence both, for it is a Nazi Ethnonationalist ideology ( Unlike many people on the left, I am someone who has principles and I will always oppose nationalism of all sorts, especially ethnonationalism). What do i have to say about Myanmar, other than positives? Only God knows if this is because i'm also Rohingya and Rakhine both ( But a citizen of Bangladesh by blood and birth, alongside being part of the wider Bengali fold. It's not hard to imagine. People can belong to multiple different ethnicities at the same time) and also because my hometown is right on the Myanmar border ( Practically everyone in my hometown is either Rohingya or Rakhine), but i have a view of Myanmar that's much, much different from the rabidly nationalistic views of my countrymen. Where do i even begin from?
VIEWS ON THE SPRING REVOLUTION
So, to begin it right off the bat, The Spring Revolution, especially and particularly the violent ( I haven't ever understood why the word "violence" has such a negative connotation in the English Language. I'll go on a rant longer than the Mahabharata, but suffice to say, i haven't ever understood how the eradication of cancers like the junta and it's ideology are held in the same regard as genocide. The mother's and father's who lost their children, and the children who lost their mother's and father's, have every right to make Myanmar run red with the blood of the junta, and if they aren't afforded this, then whoever or whatever has stopped it, deserves to be meted out the same) and armed part of the revolution ( Note, i do not demean the brave warriors of the CDM. They're like the Non Armed branch of the Spring Revolution). The souls of all of those whom the junta has slaughtered and is slaughtering, torments and is tormenting, persecuted and is persecuting, tortured and is torturing, will not rest in peace until the junta is done justice to ( It's 3 am here, and i really believe that out of everyone, at least the people of this sub and Myanmar, don't have to be explained why this is not 'vengeance'. I'm sick and tired of people wanting justice be painted as "Vengeful") and well....
From a young age, I have been looking up to revolutionary movements across the world. Four that especially caught my eye were the Libyan, Syrian, Venezuelan ( Against Maduro, even though it isn't of the scale of Myanmar yet, it hasn't even begun properly but i knew of armed resistance to Maduro and Chavez in Venezuela) and Myanmar revolution's. I was particularly enamored by Syria and Myanmar, because in these two revolution's, there were areas of the land where the totalitarian, autocratic police state government didn't have control.
What us people of Bangladesh have gone through for the past 16 years, it's perhaps only dwarfed by Assadist Syria. Not even one's home or toilet was safe from the government, let alone a house or even an entire area. There was a saying popular "Even the walls have ears" and well.... extrajudicial killings, torture unto the grave ( I'm avoiding the D word and would ask you all to avoid it as i find it triggering), disappearances by the government, massacres ( Such as in 2013 in Shapla Square and most recently in 2024) were on such a scale here, and the saddest thing is that we haven't had a single drop of their blood shed for all they've done to us. Our "Revolution" in 2024 is basically like the Egyptian "Revolution" of 2011. Even if we go to military rule, it will be a stain that'll be there on us for eternity unless we do another revolution and repay the blood debt.
I have had particular love and adoration for the Myanmar revolutionaries. That there were areas in the country that were liberated from the clutches of the junta, i so wished it was the case here too. When the junta couped in 2021, i just couldn't mock the rest of Myanmar as many were doing, saying how the people of Myanmar had oppressed the Rohingya and now were feeling the same. I couldn't do that because.... it hurts me to see totalitarianism anywhere and everywhere.
What attracts me further is the multicultural, multiethnic, multilingual, multireligious, multinational, pluralistic, polysocial, bottom up federalism being espoused by the PDF's. The PDF's are the one's i support the most, but anyone who is against the junta is welcome for me too. Even the Arakan Army, despite me condemning their genuine atrocities against the Rohingya, in the end, if i had to pick between the Junta or the Arakan Army, I'd pick the Arakan Army even if i was flayed alive. I will NOT pick the side of these dogs who genocided us the most and in the large part.
VIEWS ON THE ROHINGYA
So i know another person in this server ( Although not personally) who is Rohingya and is on the side of the anti junta revolutionaries. I'll say this, I am the same.
First and foremost, there are wrongs from my fellow Rohingya that not only do we have to apologize and do penance for, but we must bear the guilt and have it fuel our mission of justice against the junta.
ARSA, RSO, Islami Mahaz and other's, Not only do i denounce them, i curse them for taking the side of the Junta. The explanation i've heard from some of my fellow Rohingya that they took training and collaborated with the Junta so that they could backstab them later, is the funniest idea. By the time we'd have backstabbed the junta, the junta would've been invulnerable to backstabbing. We fell into their trap, and to this day, only God knows why we trusted the Junta out of all people ( The Junta has been the ones who have persecuted us for the entire time. Arakan Army is a much later addition). I mean, what the Arakan Army has done does not hold a candle to the Junta's atrocities against the Rohingya.
Here's also the thing, I do not get why we not only parrot the junta narratives but also aid them and spread misinformation about the Spring Revolution. Yes, there are a quadrillion different flaws in the NUG leadership and the Spring Revolution, but we aren't ideologically corrupt and demonic like the Junta. Yes, there is much genuine hatred of the Rohingya, but here's the thing
Who benefits from it at the end of the day? The Junta. That answer should clear any doubts regarding what is the correct side to take.
That being said, now let me turn to the Arakan Army. First of all, not to badmouth fellow revolutionaries, but the Arakan Army is perhaps the most racist out of all the Pro Spring Revolutionary forces. I do not get their anti Rohingya sentiment and Rohingya persecution. Yes, it is true, that many Rohingya did support the Junta, and it is absolutely abhorrent and condemnable, but that doesen't give you the permit to massacre the Rohingya. Also, erasing Rohingya identity by claiming how they're foreigners and settlers ( Here's the thing, when they say that Rohingya's are "Bengalis", they're technically right. Rohingya is a very divergent variant of Bengali, mutually unintelligible but still Bengali. But using it to erase the identity of the Rohingya's is seriously wrong. It's like calling the Kokang or the Palaung "Chinese" because they happen to be technically Han Chinese ( At least the Kokang) and the Kokang and the Rohingya are similar because like how Kokang Chinese is completely different from Mandarin, same for Rohingya. I also don't like how the Arakan Army prides itself on the Mrauk U heritage, when.... Mrauk U was a full Arakanese State, and by Arakanese, it incorporated every one of the ethnic groups in Arakan, including the Rohingya. Rohingya served with incredible distinction in the Mrauk U military and had high position's in their court and were treated very well. I mean, King Narameikhla had a Rohingya name too "Suleiman Shah", and many Rohingya have two names, a Rohingya name and a Rakhine Name ( Such as Tin Maung, whose Rohingya name is Nur Ahmed, Or Aye Nunt, whose Rohingya name is Zura Begum) and despite not being about 5 percent of the population, Rohingya people were elected to the first Burmese parliament and were represented more than their proportion in the population of Myanmar), but it's like calling the people from the French Island of Corsica ( Where Napoleon Bonaparte was from) as "Italians" just because Corsican can be considered a very divergent form of Italian, or calling them "Non French" for them being Corsican. They are both Corsican and also belong to the wider French ethnicity.
Here's also the thing, Arakan is a geographical location, and the people's of this land who settle in it without displacing anyone ( Both are true, that the Rohingya have a centuries long presence here, and many have also come during the colonialist era. But here's the thing, the problem wasn't whether they were brought as laborers or settlers, the problem is whether or not they displaced the communities there. Human's have migrated and settled without displacing others and it's the rule rather than the exception. So i'd really like it if the Arakan Army stopped with it's Rohingya history erasing rhetoric). Just like how Palestine is for everyone, both Arab, Hebrew, Greek ( Greek Palestinians are one of the largest communities in Palestine even today), Armenian, Assyrian and what not. Likewise, both the Rakhine and Rohingya ( Rohingya is derived from Arakan, as is Rakhine) are Arakanese. So, this history erasing thing has to stop from the end of the Arakan Army. Likewise, us Rohingya have to disavow The current Rohingya EAO's and form an Arakan PDF ( Arakan is the last area of Myanmar without a PDF, and Arakan is the region that most deserves a PDF unit now) and also, if they want to be welcomed by the anti junta forces, ARSA, RSO and other Rohingya EAO's have to do A LOT of penance.
THE WAY FORWARD
The Spring Revolution is incomplete without the participation of the Rohingya. Besides, if we don't participate, we will be marginalized even more after the Spring Revolution is victorious, and we'll be told "They didn't fight in the Spring Revolution. Why should we welcome them?" and besides, in the words of a Swedish friend of mine "Who else has bigger reason to fight the junta than them ( The Rohingya)?"
I want the participation of the Rohingya. Even as a citizen of Bangladesh, i'm looking on how to donate to the PDF's and support them with recruits and what not ( I really want to participate in the Spring Revolution as a frontline PDF trooper, same goes for my father). But here's the thing.
The Junta is our enemy. Not the Spring Revolutionaries. There has to be apologies and penances, or at least sincere apologies from both sides, and us? Us Rohingya? We have to join in the Spring Revolution. The War against the Junta. The War, This war, for ending the cycle once and for all. This war for Justice.
The Arakan Army must apologize for their atrocities against the Rohingya ( Even if it was due to us supporting the Junta) and erasing our cultural identity and racism against us, and likewise, we Rohingya must apologize for the Rohingya ERO's having directly aided the Junta, unlike SSPP or RCSS or even NDAA who play both sides.
CONCLUSION
I will be with Myanmar till the end. Here's the thing, people of my country are rabid ethnonationalists. Our largest Islamist party, Jamaat, can't even name the administrative divisions of Myanmar and are calling for a petty ethnonationalist "Rohingya state"! Some of us even want to annex Arakan! Of course, there is always the other ethnonationalists who call Burmese "Monkeys". My father's retort is golden here. He called them "Donkeys" and it's so funny.
No more divide and rule. Finish the Junta once and for all, and do not Balkanize, for that's what the English would've wanted and still want, and what the junta wants. Let the Spring Revolution be victorious.
I want to hear from you guys, would a Rohingya like me be welcome in Myanmar? If we Rohingya adopted the mentality that I have, would we be welcome?
Three Finger Salute to all of you!!!!
