{"id":66365,"date":"2015-11-16T12:00:40","date_gmt":"2015-11-16T12:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=66365"},"modified":"2015-11-13T12:51:17","modified_gmt":"2015-11-13T12:51:17","slug":"myanmar-rulers-exit-successfully","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/11\/myanmar-rulers-exit-successfully\/","title":{"rendered":"Myanmar Rulers Exit, Successfully"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"zarni<\/a>\"zarni<\/a><\/p>\n

People, let me be blunt.
\nUn-ashamed, the usurpers seem to have stopped their election game,
\nHaving chosen the moral high ground and leaving the landsliders to be blamed – for a country lying in ruins.
\nAfter all, they have in fact raked in everything and vacuumed anything
\nThat is, everything which is worth anything.
\nSo, for the Big Bosses, there are no losses to speak of.
\n“Let the new game begin,” they say smuggedly.<\/p>\n

Alas, Myanmar now is our barren land.
\nBut, but … what’s left erect in this barren land of ours?
\nNo more forests, no real people’s assets.
\nAll they have left us is People’s Global Debt.
\nEmpty-handed or empty-headed,
\nThat’s all there is left of us.<\/p>\n

Gone are vast quantities of natural gas.
\nClaiming the proceeds back?
\nBut there is no recourse yet.
\nAll has been grabbed.
\nLand, land, land. …
\nVirtually every plot of land, mini, medium, large, mega.
\nYour land, my land. his land, our land, aunty’s land, Mommy’s land.
\nAll leased, sold, grabbed ….
\nForget those winding rivers and longish creeks
\nCommodified and privatized, they have all been the rulers’ instruments of greed.<\/p>\n

City Parks, Virgin Plots. Fertile farms.
\nLet’s reclaim them, please.
\nThere must be a recourse, at least.
\nAlas, they call themselves “patriots:
\n– the generals, the ex-generals, the cronies, presidential advisers –
\nThey all say they are Buddhists, with Gotama on their sleeves.
\nLook what they have achieved:
\nUs, the People on the streets
\nWe are intellectually neutered with many of us morally bankrupt
\nMilling about, strolling around or simply hanging out
\nwith nothing positively spiritual in our Karmic accounts.
\nThe rulers say, “Hey, none of this is your business. Keep your nose off my business. Eat a meal a day. Be content. And go away.”<\/p>\n

They say to themselves, “let’s get on with our patiotic loot”
\nFor us, We the People,
\nDo we actually – and finally – win through?
\nTell me, Sirs! What really is left after your treasure chests?
\nTell me Madam, What really is left after their Grand Theft?<\/p>\n

Didn’t they slaugter our fellow civilians?
\nWhy did not spare even the robed holly men? The good monks, that is.
\nRemember Letpadaung? Have we forgotten the white phosperous and firebombed monks?
\nBrother, protests are bad for the “Rule of Law”
\nThat was what Mommy Suu told us all.
\nIn international business, we are to trust, she said.
\nSo, sit back, relax and just accept the generals’ ban on anti-mine-protests.<\/p>\n

Here comes the (rulers’) Grand Strategy
\nTurning “democracy” on its head, that’s the generals’ war chess.
\nOthers wage ‘war on poverty’ ‘war on drugs’
\nThey wage “war on people”, no matter what faith, race.
\n“People Power” means pitting us all one another.
\nMedia reforms mean state propaganda, deformed.
\nBad Monks, Unleashed.
\nFake Monks are there
\nTo lead the Buddhist Nation to Hell.<\/p>\n

Nothing is out of bound,
\nBrother, can’t you see?
\nOn fire have our neighbors been
\nAnd towns are burned down by the shaven-heads in gown.
\nAlas, their killers and arsons are only duty-bound.
\nPower! Power! Power!
\nThat’s the generals’ mantra.
\nNothing is out of bound.
\nLet a thousand Rohingya drown.<\/p>\n

Were I reborn in the next cycle of life
\n“Discipline Flourishing Democracy,” I would not like.
\nOh, how I long, you know, how I long
\nfor our fellow wretched
\nto be spared of Myanmar’s Nwa (selfish animal) Presidents
\nWho radio-addresss us as “Dear Esteemed Benefactors and Beloved Masses”
\nBefore proceeding to screw our collective a-r-s-e-s.<\/p>\n

Here is my hearty toast to you all:
\nYou, You, You. Yes, you Myanmar’s Wretched<\/p>\n

“In Samsara (in the coming cycle of life)
\nMay you\/we all be free
\nFree from these Ruling Thugs and Thieves
\nTrouble-givers, Looters and Hell-creators
\nAnd all the perils of being “the Generals’ Beloved People”!
\n___________________________________<\/p>\n

Mr Swe Moe is a Burmese poet and commentator. <\/em><\/p>\n

Dr. Maung Zarni <\/em>is a Burmese activist blogger<\/em>, Associate Fellow at the University of Malaya,<\/em> a <\/em>member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment<\/a>,<\/em> founder and director of the Free Burma Coalition (1995-2004), a visiting fellow (2011-13) at the Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit, London School of Economics, and<\/em> a nonresident scholar with the Sleuk Rith Institute in Cambodia. <\/em>His forthcoming book on Burma will be published by Yale University Press.<\/em> He was educated in the US where he lived and worked for 17 years. Visit his website http:\/\/ww.maungzarni.net<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Adaptive English translation by Maung Zarni.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

People, let me be blunt.
\nUn-ashamed, the usurpers seem to have stopped their election game,
\nHaving chosen the moral high ground and leaving the landsliders to be blamed – for a country lying in ruins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry-format"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66365","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=66365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66365\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}