From Auschwitz to Myanmar
FORSEA Co-founder Dr Maung Zarni shared his thoughts on the recurring genocides around the world, despite the Genocide Convention of 1948 and the Security Council, tasked to maintain peace in the world, 26 November 2021.
Why Have Myanmar Activists Begun Talking, Approvingly, about Balkanizing Their Country?
I want to spell out clearly my stance on this taboo subject: I see the Balkanization of Myanmar as the only viable end to what the overwhelming majority of Burmese public, including religious and ethnic minorities, experience as a home-grown Fascist occupier.
After Afghanistan, Time to Review and Reset ASEAN & International Policies Towards Myanmar
The vicious dialectic of “failed international policies AND failed Myanmar state”, will need to be placed at the right, left and centre of the new international policy debates on Myanmar. Repeating the same strategy of dangling the sweet discourse of mediation before the intransigent mass-murderous generals of Myanmar without the serious stick of international accountability will simply not do.
Media Continues to Orientalize “Buddhist Myanmar”
Add “Buddhist Terror” to the standard duo of Sex/Scandal and War/Violence as the media angle that sells. Yet unlike these, “Buddhist Terror” is rooted in the distorted invention of Buddhism and Buddhists as peaceful (vis-à-vis Islam and Muslims as violent). This is so deeply troubling with mainstream media picking up the old trend – Orientalizing hatred and racism in non-Europe, non-Christian spaces, in Wirathu’s case, “Buddhist” Myanmar.
US and UK Usurp Rohingya Voices while (mis-)framing Myanmar Genocide as “Ethnic Cleansing” Slobodan Milošević Euphemism
it’s one thing for the United States and its British poodle to abandon dissidents worldwide during their hours of needs, yet it is a moral low for the British and American officials and leaders to coordinate acts of genocidal denial as they have done with their official statements on the 4th anniversary of “Ethnic Cleansing” in Rakhine State.
Transnational Activism vs White Saviourism in Myanmar Affairs
As a Burmese who has been angry – very angry – for decades over numerous forms and countless instances of oppression and injustices in Myanmar, and emphatically, around the world, I am less concerned about the morally corrupt desire of revenge and vengeance of the oppressed towards their oppressor or the System than the enveloping White Saviourism with its corrupting coloniality.
Myanmar Coup Regime’s Handling of COVID-19: Is it Genocidal?
it is conceivable that the Myanmar terrorist regime of the SAC may be genocidally minded in its approach in tackling COVID-19 within the military and its sub-social system, while deliberately putting at risk the lives of millions of anti-military Burmese of all ethnic and religious backgrounds.
Josef Silverstein, The Death of A Fine American Scholar who “Gave Back” to His Subjects
Joe was one of the very few western scholars who made compassionate efforts to give back to the people or “the subjects” whom they study. This last quality alone of Joe, the scholar, will etch his name in my memory, and the memories of those, who had the great fortune of knowing him as a friend, a colleague, a fellow scholar, a teacher, and a comrade in the people’s struggle...
Myanmar anti-coup opposition’s Happy Birthday Parties for Aung San Suu Kyi do not augur well for the country’s future
The mass hysteria around Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday is the clearest indication of deeply entrenched cultist neo-totalitarian thoughts, mental habits and political behaviour among Ms Suu Kyi’s populist base. It confirms how indifferent this base is to the democratic ethos, international law, and normative principles of human rights.
Engaging with State Power, without Losing Principles or Head · Part 2
"In those years, the Burma policy world was caught in the emerging Orwellian duality of 'Sanctions Bad, Engagement Good' of international debates which took place with respective proponents talking past one another, pursuing their own concealed interests." Read Essay 2 from Maung Zarni in the new FORSEA Democratic Struggle Series.