In a video circulating widely on social media, a military captain can be seen admitting to reporters that a rally held yesterday in Naypyidaw in support of the Myanmar military was, well — ordered by the military.
Oops.
In the version uploaded by Mizzima Burmese, the chapter president of Zabuthiri township’s Myanmar Veterans’ Organisation, U Yan Myo Win, happily explained their motivation for holding the rally.
“There have been rallies held across the country in support of the military, and Naypyidaw is one of the few places left. Naypyidaw gave us an order to hold a rally from the central office of the Myanmar Veteran’s Organisation,” he told reporters before being cut off by a rally organizer.
The unnamed organizer jumps into frame as Yan Myo is finishing his comments, and tells him on-camera: “You’re not supposed to say that.”
Well, no. He probably wasn’t.
Since August 2017, when the Myanmar military launched a brutal military campaign that drove out 730,000 Rohingya Muslims into neighboring Bangladesh, Myanmar’s international reputation has suffered heavily. The UN has led global condemnation against the Southeast Asian country, calling the military campaign a “textbook” example of ethnic cleansing.
In response to the global backlash, rallies in support of the Tatmadaw — the name for Myanmar’s military forces — have cropped up all over the country since 2017, drawing tens of thousands of demonstrators to the streets in a show of support for a once-hated institution that ruled with an iron fist for more than 50 years under various military regimes.
Unfortunately, for the Tatmadaw, yesterday’s unscheduled flub makes you wonder just how many demonstrators were there of their own free will.
