If reconciliation is the path in post-revolution, Myanmar will be back to the neoliberal pathway to corporate capitalism where NGOs, CSOs, and some other neoliberals will cosplay as leftists to create new political situations where a newly created bipartisan party politics is inevitable. The over-privileged, rich, western-trained academia and their fellow neoliberal opportunists, cosplaying themselves as leftists, will drive the pathway to defend the neoliberal status quo, which in turn protects their families’ wealth that were accumulated by exploiting the workers’ surplus value and labour.
Reconciliation should therefore be viewed as reactionary considering the true nature of the working-class revolution. With the proper reconciliation, the ongoing effort to overthrow military governments will end, nevertheless, in a liberal sense. The governing class, including the military junta and its oligarchs, as well as some opportunistic political parties, will gain from certain types of political agreements.
Since the 1960s, the military in Myanmar has engaged in brutal behaviour. They ruthlessly murdered many students and detonated a bomb at the capital city’s student union building. Numerous villages belonging to various indigenous ethnic groups, including the Rohingya, were destroyed by them. Many members of other indigenous ethnic groups, including the Bamar themselves, who attempted to overthrow the military, were mercilessly murdered. Villages were repeatedly burned down; women were raped; children were slain; men were tortured to death.
The Rohingya exodus awoke the world, although Shan, Kachin, and Karen ethnic communities had been subjected to comparable levels of oppression since the 1960s. None of these victims, including the Rohingya community, had received justice.
In 1988, Myanmar went through an event comparable to the 2021 revolution. Numerous militias tried to overthrow the military junta in 1988. Many political parties, labour unions, activists, student unions, and other groups of citizens joined hand in hand against the military government and its executive branches. However, Aung San Suu Kyi’s political debut fooled the entire movement.
Aung San Suu Kyi attempted to lecture the organic mass with the idealistic values of democracy, peaceful negotiation, responsibility, and political integrity despite having no idea what was going on in Myanmar, failing to acknowledge her privilege as the nation’s father’s daughter, and having received a western education. She was able to command the attention and support of the populace thanks to her status as the daughter of General Aung San, who was a founding father of Burma.
As a result, everyone gave up on all genuine revolutionary strategies, including mass protests and military conflicts. On the other hand, she tried to persuade the military chiefs through reconciliation, or peaceful negotiation. Her neoliberal approach contributed to the demise of the revolution of 1988.
According to Daniel De Leon, gradual changes or phases may represent a true era in a poodle’s existence. However, in essence, a poodle still exists as a poodle and always will be a poodle. Similarly, even after numerous reforms, a dictatorship still functions essentially as such. Myanmar started its reform process in 2010. Before the most recent coup, there had been substantial advances. However, the recent coup proved that the terrible political cycle of coups will continue whenever the military feels insulted or endangered. According to Daniel De Leon, a reform occurs whenever a modification leaves the internal system unaltered; a revolution occurs when the internal mechanism is altered.
To sum up, to transform into a true democracy, Burma must abandon its attempt to reform the political structure, military-centric constitution, and oligarch family members’ economic influence. All of these should be overthrown by the people and should be replaced by a genuine workers’ democracy.
Hein Htet Kyaw
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