Inside the Civil War in Buddhist Burma

(Daniel Ardouin)

Burma's Shwedagon Pagoda (full doc)

Shwedagon Pagoda: 2,500 years of Burma’s Buddhist legacy | full documentary

(SLICE Full Doc) According to legend, Shwedagon Pagoda was built 2,500 years ago at the top of the Burmese capital Rangoon (Yangon), and its aura still protects the former capital city today. The stupa (reliquary burial mound), which contains eight strands of the Buddha's hair, is the most symbolic and sacred site in the country, 90% of the population of which is Theravada Buddhist.

The Nine Wonders of the Shwedagon Pagoda

Its architecture is made up of circles and squares (a mandala), which in Buddhist cosmology represents heavenly planes and earth respectively and is further evidence of how sacred it is. The pagoda's vibrant atmosphere is created by the 20,000 gold plates that cover the building and the precious stones that adorn it. Workers and volunteers spend every day at the site continually restoring it and keeping the stupa beautiful. They do this in expectation that their dedication will cultivate good karma (merit) for their future rebirths. #freedocumentary #shwedagonpagoda #myanmar #burma

• VIDEO: Golden Temple: Shwedagon Pagoda, Burma

Documentary: Wonders of Men EP1: Myanmar, The Shwedagon Pagoda (2018). Directed by: Véronique Legendre and Alexis Barbier-Bouvet. Production: ZED & ARTE #documentary #freedocumentary #wondersofmen #shwedagonpagoda #myanmar #monument #yangon #buddhism

• SLICE Full Doc, Nov. 25, 2024; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

The Trouble in Buddhist Burma (doc)

Pfc. Sandoval, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Inside a Military Dictatorship (Myanmar documentary) | Real Stories

(Real Stories) Nov. 19, 2023: Burma/Myanmar’s path to democracy leads along the bumpy road of a 50-year military dictatorship. Long stretches were traversed with the incomparable endurance of the hopes of Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Finally in power after more than 20 years of house arrest, the grave human rights violations by the country against the Muslim minority of the Rohingya [who long ago sided with the British and were defeated, leading to hatred by many in the country who regarded them as foreigners from neighboring Bangladesh and traitors who fought against the Burmese] nevertheless continue across the country.

• [When finally in power and asked about the Rohingya, Aung San Suu Kyi spoke like a politician or a person in denial about the military's atrocities with regard to the Rohingya ethnic minority. She fell from grace in the eyes of the West and presumably the rest of the world, while still loved by the Burmese people who are barred from having her rise to lead the country because the military dictators behind the scenes and now in front again have made laws the forbid it.]

Myanmar provides the setting for a seemingly absurd political power game. Filmmaker Karen Stokkendal Poulsen pointed her camera at the former peace icon and the retired generals to provide a captivating investigative exploration of the opposing coexistence of a woman and the military.

The story of a political miracle which, unfortunately, ceased to be one.

Twitter: realstoriesdocs, Facebook: realstorieschannel, Instagram: @realstoriesdocs. Content licensed from [First Hand Films]. Any queries, please contact: owned-enquiries@littledotstudios.com

Protestants rise up against Burmese dictators

FRANCE 24 English, Sep 29, 2023; Pfc. Sandoval, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Theravada Buddhists and visitors enjoy the great Shwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon, Burma.

Burma: Inside the Protestant Chin ethnic group's armed resistance against ruling junta

Hateful nationalist monk Ashin Wirathu (AP)

(FRANCE 24 English) France 24 is a French public broadcast service. Since the February 2021 coup in Burma (renamed "Myanmar" by the new military dictators), the Protestant Christian Chin ethnic minority -- one of 135 officially recognized in Burma -- has taken up arms to defend its land, identity and ideals against the all-powerful ruling junta in the Theravada Buddhist-majority country. The team reports. Read more about this story in this article: f24.my/9p4i.y

Myanmar: How the Chin are fighting the Junta

(DW Documentary) DW is a German public broadcast service. Aug. 8, 2023:  After another military coup in Burma (Myanmar) in 2021, the Christian Chin ethnic minority took up arms. The Chin people are fighting to defend their territory, their identity, and their democratic principles against the junta (military dictatorship). In the mountains in the remote west of Burma, a bitter war is raging. The Chin, a primarily Christian minority, still control most of the area after putting up a fierce resistance against the Myanmar military. The resistance fighters train in the mountains along the peaceful Indian border. Hundreds of young people gave up their jobs or studies to join the battle. Although they’re equipped with little more than light weapons, they’re determined to stand their ground. But the civilian population is paying a high price for the war. Thousands of villagers have been bombed by the junta, their homes destroyed. Many have been forced to flee. Nevertheless, the Chin remain committed to the fight to overthrow the military regime. #Myanmar

COMMENTARY

As monks we oppose this bad gov't.

It is not quite correct to call the generals that form the military junta after the coup "Buddhists," they do tend to be Buddhists in name only, as they kill and oppress Buddhist monks and nuns (sayalays), as during the Saffron Revolution when Buddhist monastics stood up against the military dictatorship and were brutally suppressed.

Gen. Than Shwe: Come back, Hillary

That suppression came with the aid and blessing of U.S. presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, who was in the country making deals with Aung San Suu Kyi to fight a proxy war against China and exploit Burma's resources for the U.S. and Western markets.

As Clinton lost in a humiliating defeat to dumb Donald Trump, the whole plan of setting up a fake nominal democracy in the style of America's farcical one-party system (the Money Party with two wings, moderate and extreme-right) fell through.

Aung San Suu Kyi (Time cover)

After the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslim minority and their return, the Myanmar military committed more atrocities against perceived enemies of the junta (military dictatorship).

The Rohingya, Karens, and Chin are just three of the ethnic minorities so suffer at the hands of oppressive military rule in this police state (which has suffered troubles since the British invasion and arising of George Orwell, who was born here and served in the Royal Forces as a soldier who did not want to side with Great Britain. Much of what he wrote in Nineteen Eighty-Four was witnessed and learned in Burma under British rule and applied to England and the West.

Miraculously, Theravada Buddhism survives and is practiced, benefiting from its isolation from Western tourists and outsiders.

While the Burmese people are open to visitors, particularly Westerners, the country's rulers are not interested in anything but the foreign currency tourists bring. So visiting at this time may not be the best idea out of humanitarian concerns.

The Irish Buddhist: The Forgotten Monk

However, a closed Buddhist country, as for example Bhutan once remained closed, preserves culture. Burma has already been exposed to Western influences: British imperial oppression, the first Western Buddhist monk to be fully ordained being an Irishman more than a century ago who also opposed the British and Christian proselytizers and got in a lot of trouble as a rebel and excellent public speaker. (See the Western Dharma bum Ven. U Dhammaloka).

Then Burma was wooed by its Chinese neighbors, who advanced the corruption of new military leaders out to enrich themselves and their families. Then Burma was made promises by Secretary of State Clinton, promises that fell through, leaving Aung San Suu Kyi in the lurch and disgraced -- and the ASEAN country in turmoil.

Suu Kyi, after years of house arrest, entered government but was such a nationalist and patriot, she could not see the crimes of the real rulers behind the scenes (the junta left in place by Clinton as the country move toward the appearance of parliamentary democracy), the junta attempting to expel or annihilate the Rohingya.

So the world turned against this once great female peace activist who was the greatest hope of the majority of Burmese, as Suu Kyi's father was once a great national hero. She was destined for greatness, restoring the Buddhist country to greatness, but it was not to be. See Burma VJ for a look into the Saffron Revolution and the silly American movie Beyond Rangoon for a hint of what happened that led down this road.

• The Irish Buddhist: The Forgotten Monk who Faced Down the British Empire (Alicia Turner, Laurence Cox, Brian Bocking)

Monks and Muslim hatred in Myanmar (video)

TheGuardian.com (doc); Pfc. Sandoval, Seth Auberon, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The battle for Myanmar’s Buddhist spirit

The international Buddhist flag of unity

In Myanmar (Burma), different groups of Theravada Buddhist monks are battling with how to deal with the country’s minority Muslim (Rohingya) population. While some Buddhist monks advocate peace, others, such as the extremist Ma Ba Tha* or Patriotic Association of Myanmar, are stoking up racist hatred and violence. The Guardian visited Myanmar to investigate how the monks’ actions are threatening to destabilize the country’s new parliamentary democracy under discredited Aung San Suu Kyi.

• The Guardian
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The meat eating monks of Myanmar (video)

Host Sonny Side, Producer Lady Goo Goo, Shizuka Anderson (Best Ever Food Review Show, March 25, 2020); Ellen Page; Sayalay Aloka, Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Donated diet of Myanmar monks

Monks rise up to overthrow military dictator.

MANDALAY, Burma - Myanmar is a war-torn country under little known military dictator General Than Shwe, now hiding with his junta and billions of dollars of embezzled funds from resource-rich and utterly impoverished Burma, which Gen. Shwe renamed Myanmar after putting Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest after she won democratic elections.

Ellen Page introduces us to Asia's "Hitler" General Than Shwe of Burma

I sold out to be in Parliament.

(See Beyond Rangoon for the Hollywood version and Burma VJ for documentary footage shot during the subsequent "Saffron Revolution," as monks stood up in protest to bring down the corrupt government only to be met with extreme military violence and fake democratic reforms ushered in by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and best-fake president ever, B.S. Obama).

The Irish monk a century ago

ABOUT THIS EPISODE: Sonny goes to Myanmar, all the way to Mandalay, to see what they eat on the streets and, more importantly, in the temples. Buddhist monks and novices rely on alms, donated food prepared by the local community.

Although the country is very Buddhist, like neighboring Mahayana China, monks may eat most donated things -- even slaughtered animals -- so long as they neither "see, hear, or suspect" that such animals have been killed to feed them. (They do not seem to concern themselves too much with this rule from the Monastic Disciplinary Code or Vinaya, and the locals do not seem to know the rule at all).

• Buddhist vegetarianism
  
• Monks smoking cigarettes is allowed?
• Buddhist monastic rules for laypeople

InsightMyanmar's Western view on Buddhism

So as long as they are neither killing nor tacitly/implicitly approving of killing, all kinds of spicy and somewhat low-grade foods (white rice, stale oils, toxins, preservatives, chemicals, MSG, flavorants, etc.) are donated and consumed. The villagers are poor but generous, and they give the best they have.

To find out what that "mystery dish" the monks eat in the morning is, Sonny becomes a novice or samanera (a "little shaman," a wandering ascetic in training), a temporarily-ordained monastic, to find out. He gains rare insight into the Theravada monkhood, living conditions in the developing world, Asian customs, and the vulgar "street" food of poor countries. He ordained at AUNG MYAY THAR ZAN MONASTERY, Shwe Sar Yan Pagoda Road, Pathein Gyi Township, Mandalay.

There are no full nuns in Burma only sayalays..

BREAKFAST: Deep fried tofu, fish curry with tomatoes, fried chili with white rice.

At A MYE KAUNG RESTAURANT, 30th Street, between 66th and 67th Street, they dared him to sample stir-fried chicken butts (anus, entrails, offal, intestines, fecal matter tainted flesh) with chopped up veggies and heavy garlic mash. Smoking hot pan of low-grade cooking oil and ginger, garlic, chili, onion, chicken butts (anus tips), carrot, bell pepper, oyster sauce, soy sauce, chicken powder, and salt coated in sweet thick soy sauce and scallion and stirred.

Little has changed in ancient parts of Asia.

He also swallowed boiled beef (cow) tripe (anal tract) and tongue (with white coat of saliva, mucus, and film of bacterial colonies): Tripe and tongue doused in salt, garlic, ginger, and rice wine boiled served with the biel sauce (ground coriander, basil, herbs mix with biel juice).

He also got drunk and tore into grilled sparrows (little city birds) and doves (white pigeons) marinated in pungent garlic, ginger, paprika, and rice wine, then burned to a charcoal crisp headless.

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🥒ABOUT BEFRS: Sonny is from the U.S. currently calling Vietnam home. He’s been living in Asia for 10 years and started making food and travel videos to document his experiences. He travels [like murdered Anthony Bourdain] to different parts of the world, hunting down and documenting unique foods in each country.

If you spot any factual food errors in these videos, please feel free to politely let them know in the comments. Sonny is a huge fan of trying different, interesting foods in each country. This show is from a Western point of view, but more importantly, Sonny's point of view. It is never meant to offend any person or culture.

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Monks rise up: Saffron Revolution (video)

Anders Ostergaard, Joshua (Burma VJ, Oscilloscope/HBO); Andy Nguyen, Wisdom Quarterly

Whatever happened to Aung Saw Suu Kyi?

Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country is a 2008 Danish documentary directed by Anders Østergaard. It follows the Saffron Revolution against Gen. Than Shwe's military dictatorship in Burma, which the junta of generals renamed "Myanmar." The "VJ" in the title stands for "video journalist." Some of it was filmed on hand-held cameras. The footage was then smuggled out of the country, physically or over the Internet. Other parts of it were reconstructed, which caused controversy. More

Hypocritical monks call for ethnic cleansing of Muslim Rohingyas?

Burmese recycling: don't abuse, reuse (video)

Thida Nathalie, ThaBarWaWEB, L.A./Rangoon; Burma VJ (HBO); Editors, Wisdom Quarterly

Don't Abuse, Reuse

What could be made out of bamboo?

(Episode 3, June 20, 2020) One of the initiatives at the Thabarwa Nature Center in Los Angeles is to collect used goods and other donated items and ship them to Burma (Myanmar) by sea. One shipping container returns, and another is sent. The last one arrived just before the Water Festival.

Then the coronavirus lockdown was announced in Burma. Sayadaw Ottamasara had to stay in Burma indefinitely. But no crisis is too large. He began giving Dharma talks to calm the locals and the foreign volunteers. Then he started a new initiative to come up with a better alms food container.

He begins collecting discarded plastic water bottles to reuse them, as well as to manage waste and keep food separated better. Fifteen of the 17 daily almsround routes are cut off. And group size is restricted to just five.

It's an incredible feat what is accomplished, watching the innovation and speed of the main Thabarwa Center in Thanlyin, Burma, in outer Rangoon (Yangon Division). Sayadaw is at the helm, and 4,000 residents with special needs are fed, protected, and cared for. Unique initiatives develop daily.

Pacifica Free Speech Radio Los Angeles (KPFK.org 90.7 FM) recycles.

Free Speech, Hate Speech, or Right Speech?

LA.Shambhala.org/program...; Saffron Revolution in Burma VJ; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

Free Speech, Hate Speech, Right Speech: Communication in the Age of Social Media: A Conversation with Ven. Ashin Issariya

"The Buddha also made right speech a core principle of the Noble Eightfold Path. He stressed the importance of establishing a gentle and compassionate attitude when interacting with others. However, right speech may also involve more pro-active engagement."

- Ven. Ashin Issariya

In this age of social media, where the right of free speech has seemingly spawned a proliferation in hate speech resulting harmful acts, what can the Buddhist principles of Right Speech teach us about how we can begin to work with our minds, speech, and actions?

How can we promote kind, compassionate, courageous dialogue and communication around difficult subjects and conflicts rather than give into the laziness of aggression and hatred?

Join this special evening with Burmese Theravada monk Ven. Ashin Issariya, whose own courageous speaking out against the hate speech used against Muslim Rohingya in his own country, Burma/Myanmar, is a model of bravery and right action.

• May 1st, Westside Shambhala
• 3877 Grand View Bl., Mar Vista, 90066
• Register for May 1
• $20.00 program, $25.00 patron supporter price* 
• May 2nd, Eagle Rock Shambhala
• 963 Colorado Bl., Eagle Rock, 90041 
• Register for May 2

BIO: Known as “King Zero” for his role as a dissident during Burma’s 2007 Saffron Revolution, Ashin Issariya founded the All Burma Monks Alliance (ABMA) and established a network of Best Friend Libraries to help broaden educational opportunities for Buddhist monks. He spent years in exile in Thailand and now heads Wimoteti Thuka Monastery near the Burma-Thailand border. He is an outspoken opponent of the public hate speech often used against the mainly Muslim Rohingya and other ethnic and religious minority communities in Burma.
 

*The Shambhala Center of Los Angeles remains open because of the ongoing generosity of its community. One of the cornerstone policies is that no one be turned away for lack of funds. If you can’t afford a program, please call our office (323) 255-5472 to register based on what you can afford. At the same time, the Center relies on program revenue to cover costs. For those who are able to pay more than the program price, your generosity in paying the patron price helps cover the costs for others who are not able to pay the full price, and provides additional support to the Shambhala Center of Los Angeles. Thank you for your kindness! More
 

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Shambhala Meditation Center of Los Angeles offers a rich array of ongoing meditation programs free to the public including weekly public sitting meditation hours and dharma talks. No prior meditation experience required to attend.  All are welcome. More

Buddhist Burma’s gruesome purge of Muslims

Patrick Winn (The World, pri.org, Sept. 8, 2017; Editors, Wisdom Quarterly

Rohingya Muslim refugees walk through water after crossing from Burma by boat through the Naf River in Teknaf, Muslim Bangladesh, on 9-7-17 (Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters).

This story is a part of Seeking Security Human stories from a world in conflict (PRI)

 

Burma’s gruesome purge of Rohingya Muslims appears unstoppable

Theravada Buddhist Burma was once great.

It is Asia’s most vicious ethnic cleansing campaign, a purge that has driven Rohingya Muslims screaming from their Buddhist Burma (Myanmar) homeland into the marshlands of Islamic Bangladesh.

Now it is accelerating. Burma’s army, seemingly determined to rid the nation of this ethnic minority, has created a Rohingya refugee population in Bangladesh that has topped half a million -- larger than the population of the Bahamas or Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

The army’s method for driving them away? Torching villages, state-sanctioned RAPE offensives, and murdering children.

A group of Nobel Peace Prize laureates has warned this campaign has “all the hallmarks of recent past tragedies: Rwanda, Darfur, Bosnia, Kosovo.”

• Burma’s army brutal rape campaign on Muslims
• Burmese [Buddhists] Gone Wild: Suu Kyi's Burma

After a lull for much of 2017, the purge has re-commenced. As many as 270,000 Rohingya have poured out of Burma (now called Myanmar by the dictatorship that rules behind the scenes) in the last two weeks alone, according to the United Nations refugee agency.

 

What triggered this mass exodus?

When Burma became a dictatorship and draconian police state, its ancient monastic institutions continued. Two novices venerate large statue (notjustnut/flickr.com).

.

In recent years, a dysfunctional Rohingya rebel group known as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army has formed. They have staged sporadic attacks on police outposts.

Here is a statement the group issued this week, labeling Burma's government a "terrorist organization."

STATEMENT: #ARSA declares “#Burmese Military Regime” as a “Terrorist Org” causing terror and destruction to ethnic #Rohingya population. pic.twitter.com/dQerzIbfZO — ARSA_The Army (@ARSA_Official) September 3, 2017

The group has a Twitter account but far too few guns to take on Burma’s massive military, which wields rocket-propelled grenades and attack choppers. All evidence suggests new rebel recruits are handed clubs or blades in lieu of rifles.

The rebels' most recent strike, in the last week of August, killed a dozen men from Burma’s security forces. The army has responded with overwhelming force: razing whole villages, ostensibly to flush out militants.

#HRW's satellite imagery fr #Burma "level of devastation in #Rakhine State may be far worse than originally thought" https://t.co/nC6SYQxVK5 pic.twitter.com/OxhOAMKN3z — Phil Robertson (@Reaproy) September 2, 2017

The group are called “terrorists” by the government, but they have largely focused their violence on hard targets, namely, police and troops.

They've abandoned their original name, Harakah al-Yaqin, in favor of the current non-Arabic title -- apparently to ward off accusations that it would attract global jihadists such as Pakistani Taliban or ISIS, both of which have expressed sympathy for their cause.

Local man in Teknaf, Bangladesh, carries elderly Rohingya refugee woman unable to walk after crossing the border from Burma, on Sept. 1, 2017 (Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters).

 

What awaits the refugees when they reach Bangladesh?

Burma does not care about its Buddhists.

Extremely bleak [refugee] camps, battered by heavy monsoon rains, await Rohingya escaping brutality in Burma. New arrivals are directed to mucky fields where they must build their own shelter out of mud, branches, and plastic trash.

Bangladesh is already one of the world’s most crowded nations. Just imagine half of America’s population crammed into Illinois. It is not equipped to care for a massive influx of sick, traumatized people.

• You're welcome to visit the longest beach in the world [in Bangladesh] -- unless you're a refugee

Its government has tried to dissuade incoming Rohingya refugees by keeping its camps in a deprived state. One of the larger camps, Kutupalong, is a maze of clay huts, inhabited by naked children and malnourished adults. United Nations officials say this shelter site and others are at a “breaking point.”

 

So Bangladesh’s officials are now reviving a proposal to ship out all the Rohingya to a tiny island in the Bay of Bengal. This would be an extreme solution. The island is barren, roadless, and submerged during high tide.
 

Why isn’t Aung San Suu Kyi speaking out?

Well, she is -- but she’s not saying what her fans abroad [which includes her many Wisdom Quarterly fans] have hoped she’d say.

Aung San Suu Kyi -- the state councilor of Burma whose party won elections in 2015 after years of Western backing -- is not merely indifferent to the Rohingya plight. She oversees a propaganda machine that works to silence their pleas for help.

Her offices have told UN diplomats that Rohingya are burning down their own homes to make the government look bad. During a wave of well-documented army rapes against the ethnic group, they’ve accused Rohingya women of crying “fake rape.” Her team has even claimed that foreign aid workers are secretly supporting the “terrorists.”

Earlier this year, I asked close colleague of Aung San Suu Kyi whether he thought she privately sympathized w #Rohingya. "No," he said. https://t.co/uVtPCJIbyi — Poppy McPherson (@poppymcp) September 4, 2017

Suu Kyi: I'm kept in the dark!

Leading Western outlets -- like The New York Times and The Washington Post -- seem dismayed by the once-beloved democracy idol’s silence. But she isn’t silent. She’s repeatedly denied that ethnic cleansing is taking place while her staff works to discredit Rohingya grievances.

There's no reason to think Suu Kyi would suddenly reverse course and defend the Rohingya’s right to a homeland in Burma. Besides, she lacks the power to halt the military.

Forget or ignore US statements that Burma has “overcome decades of military rule to achieve a democratic state.” Burma is actually a hybrid military-civilian state in which the military has total control over the police and troops and veto power over the elected parliament.

 

So whom should foreign governments focus on instead?

Beyond Rangoon: Truth has a [US] witness

They should focus on Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing rather than Parliamentarian Suu Kyi. He is the commander in chief of the military -- an abusive institution that has Burma burning at both ends.

This is the person who could put a stop to what UN officials have called a “process of genocide.” It is this person -- not Aung San Suu Kyi -- who could meaningfully root out the soldiers guilty of raping Rohingya teens and women as a military tactic.

But nothing suggests he will reverse course, either. Instead, platoons under his control appear to be planting land mines along the border to prevent refugees from ever returning home [but some are being killed and injured by those mines simply trying to leave]. More

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One more thing…

PRI takes a global approach to the news of the day, helping readers understand how what happens around the world matters in Washington, DC and in our neighborhoods. Today more than ever, we need conversations, perspectives, and diverse voices.

Buddhists Gone Wild: Suu Kyi's Burma

Editors, Wisdom Quarterly; guests Tun Khin, Richard Weir, Rohingya Muslim Salma Begum, Hosts Nermeen Shaikh and Amy Goodman (democracynow.org, Sept. 7, 2017, KPFK.org)

When the military deposed Aung San Suu Kyi and took the Buddhist country into decades of military dictatorship, no one could have guessed she would one day join them. Has she?

Side with us, Suu Kyi! You'll never regret it. I'm pres., she's the future-pres. We'll put you in office. What could go wron? We'll rule as the faces of the real rulers.

Burma was, until recently, one of the most Buddhist countries in the world. This was because of it being closed off. It was the source of George Orwell's works: Burmese Days, Animal Farm, Shooting an Elephant (about the futility of imperial British rule in the third world), and Nineteen Eighty-Four. Orwell, a British citizen and imperial soldier in the service of the crown, was born in India, which then included Colonial Burma as another Asian colony.

Burma, now called Mynamar, got is name changed from Dictator Gen. Than Shwe, the "Asian Hitler." It is a police state that a few years ago took off its Orwell Sad Face and put on a Huxley Happy Face, pretending to be an American-style democracy instead of what it really still is, a totalitarian dictatorship with generals in the new super-secretive capital of Naypyidaw pulling the strings.

The formerly imprisoned and house-arrested heroine Aung San Suu Kyi is now a member of Parliament and the face of the country.

• Profile: Aung San Suu Kyi (BBC)

The ruling generals hide with the help of their stolen billions and prop up representatives in the new political system they set up with the help of former US Sec'y of State Hillary Clinton and Pres. B. Obama, who were trying to seduce Burma into a capitalist relationship so that it would distance itself from influential neighbor China.

Barry, you also have a Nobel Peace Prize, what does it feel like to be behind killings? - Uh... uh, Suu Kyi, Lady, umm, don't ask me that. You'll know when you do it. It's part of the Game. Let's hope they don't take our medals back (Pete Souza/White House).

.

Golden Buddhas in splendor in Buddhist hall

When the country was a closed society ruled by dictators, Theravada Buddhism could carry on an unspoiled tradition free of exterior influences (like Tibet once did).

But the Chinese exerted influence, and the ruling junta took advantage of the people. And the nation's heroine, Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of its hero Aung San, was put under house arrest. 

Soldiers and police beat peaceful monks.

Finally, the Buddhist monks rose up to join then lead the people in what came to be called the Saffron Revolution against the totalitarian government (as seen in the American movie "Beyond Rangoon" with Patricia Arquette).

It did not end well (as seen in the secret documentary "Burma VJ," the VJ standing for video journalist).

But she was not killed because the sheepish people would have risen up at such a provocation. Although she was once democratically-elected, those elections were cancelled when the military took over and declared martial law. She was never allowed to take the highest office. Yet, surprisingly, she was not killed even when she would not submit to the dictators. They had many chances to kill her, but they did not.

Now she is allowed to serve in Parliament. But she is banned from being prime minister. Sadly, recently, she has become a mouthpiece for the real rulers. There is talk of rescinding her Nobel Peace Prize, which they should certainly do for war criminal B. Obama.

• Aung San Suu Kyi defends her handling of Burma violence... (Guardian, 9/7/17) Suu Kyi: a post on her Facebook page earlier blamed "terrorists" for "misinformation" about the [state-sponsored rapes, ethnic cleansing, genocide and] violence.
• Take away Aung San Suu Kyi's Nobel peace prize. She no longer... (Guardian) ...But to Aung San Suu Kyi we entrusted our hopes. To mention her name was to invoke patience and resilience in the face of suffering, courage...  
• The Rohingya tragedy and Aung San Suu Kyi (slate.com)

Don't judge me too soon. I'm a paragon.

The Lady, Aung San Suu Kyi, whom WQ is devoted to, says it is all a misunderstanding, propaganda, or misinformation. But the long mistreated Rohingya minority is a tantamount to US blacks in the inner city surrounded by intolerant foes. The country is more than 90% Buddhist, but not its impoverished and obedient soldiers, police, and vigilantes.

The corrupt behind-the-scenes government still calls the shots, and they don't seem to tell Suu Kyi much about their real plans, so she is left to try to explain what the international media reports to her as happening on the ground.

 

Is [Buddhist] Burmese military carrying out genocide against Rohingya [Muslim] minority?

We meant well. It was all part of the plan.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has warned the brutal Burmese military operation against Rohingya Muslims is at risk of spiraling into an ethnic cleansing campaign, as the violence against the long-persecuted minority group continues.

This war criminal's my mentor and advisor.

The U.N. says almost 150,000 Rohingya have fled the predominantly [Theravada] Buddhist country into neighboring [Islamic] Bangladesh in the last 12 days since the military operation began -- with up to 15,000 more expected to flee every single day this week.

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Advocates say as many as 800 Rohingya civilians, including women and children, have been killed in recent days. For more, we speak with Tun Khin, president of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation in the U.K. He was born and brought up in Burma’s Arakan state. In 1982, he was rendered effectively stateless along with a million other ethnic Rohingya under a new nationality law. And we speak with Richard Weir, a fellow in the Asia Division covering Burma at Human Rights Watch.

Transcript

World-famous Shwedagon Pagoda, Rangoon, Burma, contains the Buddha's hair relics.

CO-HOST NERMEEN SHAIKH: We [now look] at Burma. The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has warned the brutal Burmese military operation against Rohingya Muslims is at risk of spiraling into an ethnic cleansing campaign as the violence against the long-persecuted minority group continues.

The U.N. says almost 150,000 Rohingyas have fled the predominantly [homogenous] Buddhist country into neighboring Bangladesh in the last 12 days since the military operation began, with up to 15,000 more expected to flee every single day this week.

 

CO-HOST AMY GOODMAN: Advocates say that as many as 800 Rohingya civilians, including women and children, have been killed [by Burmese soldiers and Buddhist civilians] in recent days.

This is Rohingya Muslim Salma Begum [speaking], one of the tens of thousands who have fled to Bangladesh following the army crackdown, which began last month.

SALMA BEGUM: [translated from Burmese] They burned our houses. We could not take our belongings. We were hiding near a hill for two days. We were there in the rain without food and with my children. When we heard the sound of shooting, we took a boat and crossed the sea to come here to Bangladesh. More

• Tun Khin is the president of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation in the U.K. He was born and brought up in Burma’s Arakan state. In 1982, he was rendered effectively stateless along with a million other ethnic Rohingya under a new nationality law.
• Richard Weir is a fellow in the Asia Division covering Burma at Human Rights Watch. He was based in Burma last year.