Little of substance has been heard from the handful of party officials axed by the USDP on Wednesday in what is being described as an internal coup by just about everybody but the USDP.
But U Aung Ko, one of those pushed aside, is sort of speaking his mind.
By channeling the soul of reggae legend Bob Marley.
The ousted official posted nearly accurate lyrics to Marley’s “Get Up, Stand Up” song on his Facebook page yesterday.
“Get up, Stand up,” he wrote, then “follow up your right.” The actual second part is “stand up for your right,” but maybe this isn’t the time to quibble.
He attributed the lyrics to “Bob Merley.”
The post didn’t go viral or anything, but he did receive plenty of support on his page, with someone commenting “Free from harm…take care…Respect…” and another writing “We must stand together with you.”
The song, from the 1973 album Burnin’ by Bob Marley and The Wailers, is a call to resist injustice and inequality.
It was inspired by a trip to Haiti where Marley witnessed destitution and poverty.
Could Get Up, Stand Up” turn into the ousted USDP anthem? Probably not, but perhaps the ruling party should pay attention to some lyrics later in the song when trying to spin this thing as anything other than an internal coup.
“You can fool some people sometimes, but you can’t fool all the people all the time.”
The quote is itself a paraphrase of something attributed to Abraham Lincoln.
Hey Aung Ko, are you at all familiar with The Five Stairsteps? Well, this tune might come in handy:
Photo / Wikicommons / Ueli Frey
