Myanmar in no mood to forgive and forget

As much as they sometimes regard one another with disdain bordering on hatred, Thailand and Myanmar have in common at the moment governments that brook no public criticism of their policies.

In Mandalay, Nyi Nyi Lwin – the jailed former monk popularly known as U Gambira, leader of the 2007 “Saffron Revolution” – has been relocated to the notorious Insein Prison facing additional charges. These include trespassing at monasteries in Yangon that were sealed off during the monk-led uprising nine years ago. Nyi Nyi Lwin has been serving six months at hard labour for attempting to cross the Thai border without a visa and was supposed to be released today, but the authorities have produced fresh accusations that are likely to keep him behind bars.

The fact that hundreds of thousands of Myanmar nationals have illegally crossed into Thailand and are working here without documentation is indication enough that the charges against Nyi Nyi are politically motivated. The migration of the masses is acceptable to both countries simply because the workers send money home and provide cheap, often slavery-like labour to Thai businesses.

Rather than pursue a solitary if outspoken ex-monk on a minor violation of the law, the prosecutors in Mandalay should be levelling charges against former president Thein Sein. It was he who – as military chief of the Triangle Region Command headquartered in Kengtung in the late 1990s early 2000s – had troops shell Karen refugee camps just across the Thai frontier and actually invade Thailand to burn down homes in the camps. Also illegally crossing the border from Myanmar are millions of amphetamine tablets manufactured by armed ethnic groups like the Wa that are allied with the government. The huge volume of pills is transported into Thailand while Myanmar officials turn a blind eye.

Nyi Nyi is reportedly suffering from mental health issues stemming from severe beatings he endured while incarcerated after the 2007 pro-democracy uprising. His mother is baffled by the latest charges, telling The Irrawaddy magazine, “We don’t understand why the authorities still want to keep him in prison and are unearthing cases from 2012 just days before his release.”

Aware that its neighbour’s criminal dealings with some of the ethnic minorities are in essence politically motivated, Thailand doesn’t always hold the Burmese military accountable for the actions of the ethnic armies along the frontier. Myanmar applies the same logic to Thailand’s support for certain anti-government forces. Our countries don’t trust one another, and nor do they have any qualms about deploying proxies to do their dirty work for them.

That despicable situation is gradually changing, however, as the traditional rivals and foes seek to improve relations in the pecuniary interest of increasing licit trade. They have decided to move on in that regard – but the question now is whether Myanmar is also able to leave its dictatorial past behind. It has a great many hatchets that must be buried for the sake of the national reconciliation to which the country aspires. 

First and foremost among necessary shifts are making peace with the ethnic peoples and forgiving those who battled the government in the name of democracy.

As well as the case of Nyi Nyi, three Muslim-Hindu interfaith activists – Pwint Phyu Latt, Zaw Zaw Latt and Zaw Win Bo – were recently sentenced to two years at hard labour for illegally crossing into India in 2014. Prominent media columnist Htin Lin Oo, former information officer for the National League for Democracy, earned the same brutal sentence for arguing that “discrimination on racial and religious grounds is incompatible with the central tenets of Buddhism”, according to The Irrawaddy. He stood accused of “deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings”, surely an odd accusation to level against a man who sought to promote religious tolerance in a country that sorely needs it.