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I& #39;ve been thinking a lot about how people talk about Tatmadaw soldiers, and I think the way people refer to them saying လူစိတ်မရှိ့ and calling them စစ်ခွေး 1) perpetuate the cycles of violence in Myanmar and 2) actively undermine the success of the anti-coup movement.
Point 1 - Myanmar culture has a dehumanization problem. Whether that is people supporting violence against "illegal Bengalis" or being extremely concerned when "students" were trapped by security forces in Sanchaung but not quite as concerned about the "gangsters" in Hlaingthaya.
We saw this tendency very clearly when 24,000 people were released from prison. Instead of having empathy for people who were clearly being used by the Junta and had nowhere to go, neighborhoods set up armed patrols that often kidnapped and assaulted the "criminals".
In using dehumanizing language against Tatmadaw soldiers, we are simply changing the group of people who deserve violence visited upon them in our minds. We are not changing the system that says that it& #39;s ok to destroy people because we think they are different or wrong.
A just Myanmar will be impossible until we build a society in which all people are seen as people, and even our enemies, especially our enemies, can count on their human rights being respected. We win when no one is oppressed, not when the "right" people are oppressed
Point 2 - Calling people sub-human and dogs is not a effective way of breading traitors and defectors. Getting soldiers to leave the Tatmadaw needs to be one of the main goals of the anti-coup, but that is made harder if people are telling soldiers they are animals or trash.
It& #39;s especially frustrating since so many Myanmar people have come out recently apologizing for ignoring the plight of ethnic and religious minorities in the country, saying they didn& #39;t know better and were "brainwashed". Are soldiers not even more likely to be brainwashed?
So many soldiers were recruited as children, or while they were very young, and brought up in a parallel society where they were taught that the Tatmadaw and their fellow soldiers are their family. Think of what it would take to convince you to betray your family.
The resistance needs to be convincing, and dehumanizing insults are not exactly persuasive. Of course there needs to be room for fun and jokes. I enjoy these sorts of memes as much as the next person, but we need to remember that these are people.
I& #39;m also not saying we need to be nice to them and hold hands and sing songs, but we can& #39;t dehumanize them. If we want to defeat the ideology that makes the Tatmadaw possible, we need to be better than them, tactically and ethically.
If we cannot find it in ourselves to work for the humanity of all the people of Myanmar, to work for accountability and restitution instead of revenge, we will lose. We lose our humanity and we lose the chance at a nation where all people can live with dignity and peace.