{"id":209756,"date":"2022-04-25T12:01:05","date_gmt":"2022-04-25T11:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=209756"},"modified":"2022-04-21T05:07:42","modified_gmt":"2022-04-21T04:07:42","slug":"myanmar-mothers-cries-do-not-bode-well-for-the-nations-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2022\/04\/myanmar-mothers-cries-do-not-bode-well-for-the-nations-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Myanmar Mothers\u2019 Cries Do Not Bode Well for the Nation\u2019s Future"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Tain Sway, Karenni National Defence Force Battalion One (against the genocidal coup regime)<\/p><\/div>\n

19 Apr 2022 – The musician of resistance Mun Awng reminded the viewers, \u201cThe revolution must prevail, against all odds.\u201d Tain Sway was seen nodding her head profusely when Mun Awng spelled out the pervasive sentiment \u2013 that \u201cit is better to die fighting for the cause than living under the boot, again\u201d.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWhen mothers cry it does not bode well for a (our) nation\u2019s future\u201d were the pained and perceptive words of Tain Sway, a young revolutionary woman from Karenni nation.<\/p>\n

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She made that observation during FORSEA Solo Concert<\/a> for Myanmar Nway Oo Revolution, which was launched by the country\u2019s youth activists after the country\u2019s military regime responded to peaceful nationwide anti-coup protest with its characteristic brutality and violence.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Tain Sway, a young revolutionary woman from Karenni nation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The young revolutionary woman, part of FORSEA\u2019s democratic struggle series, was referring to the mothers of the revolutionaries whose sons and <\/em>daughters were killed in the country\u2019s unfolding armed revolution as they sought to raid police stations, the regime\u2019s military outposts and arms depots across various regions including her native state of Karenni (pronounced Ka Rein Ni).<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tain Sway is chief administrator of the Karenni National Defence Force Battalion Number One, one of the hundreds of armed resistance groups that have mushroomed across the country since the February coup last year. She was previously active in the student union at her university in Loikaw, the capital of her predominantly ethnic Karenni region.<\/p>\n

Tain Sway talked of a Karenni mother who walked into her guerrilla base and, in effect, enlisted herself to be a revolutionary, before her tears dried over the death of her revolutionary son. \u201cI will do anything to advance the revolution. My son gave up his life for it,\u201d Tain Sway\u2019s recalled the words of the visibly bereaved mother who is now the chief admin officer of her PDF battalion.<\/p>\n

Some years ago I met leaders of the Mothers of Srebrenicia who admiringly sought accountability for the genocidal slaughters of their sons in Bosnia and Hazegovena during the violent break-up of former Yugoslavia. I have also heard of news reportage about the (dim) possibility of the mothers of Russian soldiers \u2013 killed in action in Putin\u2019s ongoing war against Ukraine \u2013 emerging as a force to end the Russian war. Recently \u2013 on 14 April \u2013 the New York Times\u2019s Amanda Taub, the author of The Times\u2019s Interpreter newsletter <\/em>discussed the enormous impact of the Russian war on Ukrainian mothers even against the backdrop of Europe\u2019s continentwide support, morally, logistically, politically and financially.<\/p>\n

The mothers of Myanmar\u2019s revolutionaries \u2013 and young war refugees \u2013 aren\u2019t that lucky insofar as support from neighbouring societies and governments.<\/p>\n

In a year, Myanmar\u2019s expanding civil war has resulted in a refugee population of estimated 800,000 \u2013 internally displaced persons or IDPs. The country\u2019s immediate or distant Asian neighbours \u2013 such as Thailand, China, India or the Association of South East Asian Nations \u2013 are not welcoming of the war-displaced mothers from Myanmar.<\/p>\n

Quite the opposite.<\/p>\n

Whiling forcing the war-fleeing mothers of Myanmar back to the war zones inside the country, the Thai authorities have built barbed wire fences along the Myanmar-Thai borders. These borders have seen intense fighting between the coup regime troops and the combined revolutionary forces of Ethnic Resistance Organizations and People\u2019s Defence Forces, including Tain Sway\u2019s Karenni People\u2019s Defence Force. The regime uses Russian- and Chinese-supplied combat helicopters and fighter-jets to bomb civilians and villages to break the morale of the resistance groups which draw their support from grassroots communities internally, in the total absence of any foreign support and solidarity.<\/p>\n

Still, the resistance is expanding and holding out \u2013 against all odds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Karen National Liberation Army General Bawt Kyaw Hae (right) and Maung Saungkha, Founder & Commander of Bama People Liberation Army (BPLA) seen at the 1st anniversary of BPLA\u2019s founding, Kawthulei or Karen State, Eastern Myanmar, 17 April 2022<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

To my ears, Tain Sway\u2019s words \u2013 mothers of revolution crying and what it signifies for the future of Myanmar \u2013 continue to reverberate, especially the tale of one Karenni mother who wanted to join the revolution after she lost her son to the cause.<\/p>\n

These crying mothers of Myanmar\u2019s revolution are in fact the ones who should be looking forward to attending university commencement ceremonies of their sons and daughters in universities and colleges or feeling hopeful about the prospects of their children\u2019s professional advancement, or a good harvest or small businesses, I thought to myself.<\/p>\n

When the regime\u2019s expected violent crack-down, which include summary executions, massacres, arbitrary arrests and torture in detention, began, Tain Sway and many of her peers from all walks of life numbering in the thousands decided to take up arms. Tain Sway\u2019s generation of activists see the armed revolution as the only way<\/em> to end the futile cycle of peaceful protests, accommodationist party politics, the coup, the protests and the crack-down.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

New Generation Z Recruits: Photo Courtesy of the Bama People\u2019s Liberation Force.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

That is an unprecedented feature and development of the 2021 Nway Oo Revolution, which is very unlike Myanmar\u2019s previous waves of anti-coup and anti-military dictatorship protesters \u2013 1962, 1975, 1988, and 2007 \u2013 largely peaceful, but also inconsequential.<\/p>\n

Mun Awng, the most acclaimed preforming artist of the revolution and former Burmese exile from Norway, chimed in. In his words of support for the new generation\u2019s resort to revolutionary violence:<\/p>\n

\u201cOur older generation from the 1988 nationwide uprising did not succeed. In my youthful days as a musician and anti-military activist, I was a minority voice who opposed revolutionary violence as a means to achieve our goal of a federal democracy. But now I am almost 60, and I unequivocally support the armed revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mothers of Generation Z \u2013 whom Tain Sway talked admiringly of \u2013 have become mothers of the revolution. They are also the peers of Mun Awng, and myself, who came of age in the decade before the fabled and failed 1988 uprising.<\/p>\n

During the solo concert, both my guest performer Mun Awng and myself registered publicly our deepest appreciation and respect for Tain Sway and her generation to take care of the unfinished business of ending the murderous dictatorship \u2013 which has turned 60 on 2 March.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Myanmar\u2019s young revolutionary networks such as Tain Sway\u2019s are loosely interlinked with one another and operate under the umbrella terminology of People\u2019s Defence Forces. The ranks of these PDFs swell when Gen Z from urban working class and rural farming backgrounds joined their more middle-class peers who left their university studies and professional lives to become fully-fledged armed revolutionaries. Most of them turned towards the nearest seasoned ethnic resistance organizations (EROs), which dotted virtually every region of the country. They looked for sanctuary, arms, training, battle supervision, and logistical support.<\/p>\n

Groups like Tain Sway\u2019s have become a newsworthy subject as some of the world\u2019s leading news outlets such as The Guardian<\/em><\/a> began reporting on them, typically with a mixed tone of unconcealed inspiration and painful realism.<\/p>\n

Four of the most politically and militarily important among the EROs who are staunchly opposed to the coup have attracted and served as main patrons to thousands of anti-coup Generation Z activists such as Tain Sway.<\/p>\n

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February \u2013 and the West\u2019s unprecedented support \u2013 If not defence \u2013 for Ukraine\u2019s resistance, the geopolitical equation has shifted, rather unfavourably, towards Generation Z-led Myanmar\u2019s armed resistance against the genocidal coup regime in Naypyidaw. Very recently, China has signalled to any state actors \u2013 particularly the United States \u2013 that Beijing deems Myanmar as part of its sphere of (imperialist) influence.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It is not simply the cries of the mothers of Myanmar\u2019s revolution that do not bode well for the country\u2019s future but Beijing\u2019s \u201cunconditional support<\/a>\u201d for Myanmar\u2019s murderous regime that has further stacked more odds against the anti-regime revolutionary movements.<\/p>\n

The musician of resistance Mun Awng reminded the viewers, \u201cthe revolution must prevail, against all odds.\u201d Tain Sway was seen nodding her head profusely when Mun Awng spelled out the pervasive sentiment \u2013 that \u201cit is better to die fighting for the cause than living under the boot, again\u201d.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=m0_joTwnzz0<\/p>\n

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___________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> <\/em>A Buddhist humanist from Burma (Myanmar), Maung Zarni is a member of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a>, former Visiting Lecturer with Harvard Medical School, specializing in racism and violence in Burma and Sri Lanka, and Non-resident Scholar in Genocide Studies with Documentation Center \u2013 Cambodia.\u00a0Zarni s the co-founder of <\/em>FORSEA<\/a>, a grass-roots organization of Southeast Asian human rights defenders, coordinator for Strategic Affairs for <\/em>Free Rohingya Coalition, and an adviser to the <\/em>European Centre for the Study of Extremism, Cambridge. <\/strong>Zarni holds a PhD (U Wisconsin at Madison) and a MA (U California), and has held various teaching, research and visiting fellowships at the universities in Asia, Europe and USA including Oxford, LSE, UCL Institute of Education, National-Louis, Malaya, and Brunei. He is the recipient of the “Cultivation of Harmony” award from the Parliament of the World’s Religions (2015). His analyses have appeared in leading newspapers including the <\/em>New York Times, The Guardian and<\/em> the Times. Among his academic publications on Rohingya genocide are <\/em>The Slow-Burning Genocide of Myanmar\u2019s Rohingyas (Pacific Rim Law and Policy Journal), <\/em>An Evolution of Rohingya Persecution in Myanmar: From Strategic Embrace to Genocide, (Middle East Institute, American University), and <\/em>Myanmar\u2019s State-directed Persecution of Rohingyas and Other Muslims (Brown World Affairs Journal). He co-authored, with Natalie Brinham, <\/em>Essays on Myanmar Genocide.<\/p>\n

Go to Original – forsea.co<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

19 Apr 2022 – The musician of resistance Mun Awng reminded the viewers, \u201cThe revolution must prevail, against all odds.\u201d Tain Sway was seen nodding her head profusely when Mun Awng spelled out the pervasive sentiment \u2013 that \u201cit is better to die fighting for the cause than living under the boot, again\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":209757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[240,1692,1924,2410,244,393,276,558,100,487,651,780,2411,171,527,985,2437,99,124],"class_list":["post-209756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members","tag-asia","tag-aung-san-suu-kyi","tag-authoritarianism","tag-burma","tag-china","tag-coup","tag-democracy","tag-dictatorship","tag-direct-violence","tag-human-rights","tag-justice","tag-military-intervention","tag-myanmar","tag-revolution","tag-rohingya","tag-social-justice","tag-southeast-asia","tag-structural-violence","tag-united-nations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}