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On Wednesday, videos shot inside a government building in Naypyidaw, Myanmar went viral in Southeast Asia.
The videos, purportedly shot on Tuesday, showed Myanmar government officials singing, partying, and dancing the night away in merriment.
Military and police having a party at parliament in Naypyitaw on Tuesday night. Later deleted their FB live #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar pic.twitter.com/0pCWEiNE9g
— soe zeya tun (@soezeya) March 9, 2021
While this was going on, armed bands of security officials patrolled the streets of the country’s major cities killing, arresting, and disappearing protesters and innocents alike.
Soldier shooting, swearing , life threatening at community in Sanchaung, Yangon on Monday night. #WhatsHappeninglnMyanmar pic.twitter.com/q36NqbZQel
— soe zeya tun (@soezeya) March 8, 2021
As our reporter in Myanmar told us:
“No one feels safe anymore, not even in our homes. They can come at anytime, kick down our doors and take us away. We do not know if those who are disappeared will come back or whether they are gone forever.”
One of the most chilling part of what is going on in Myanmar is the brazen way in which the military has conducted its operations and the nonchalance in which they defend their seizure of power. Their is no means unimaginable as they seek to justify the ends. Live ammunition, tear gas, torture, arrests, beatings, they have become the norma in Myanmar.
Meanwhile, the video of the dancing officers was captured from a Facebook Live streamed by those attending.
There was no remorse, no guilt, no shame over the suffering they have induced.
For the people of the region, the video should serve as a warning about the character of those who would rule us absolutely. There are many would-be despots and current despots who have laughed and sung their way into power while their people suffered and the will of the country is ignored.
There is a line of rhetoric employed by the dictators of the region, one of paternalistic benevolence. They feign that their rule is an attempt at protecting national sovereignty or age-old institutions when the truth is that any power grab is exactly about that, power.
The government cares not for the excuses and mental gymnastics that it performs to carry out a putsch, it cares only that it remains in power long enough to bleed the country dry while they sing and dance their way to enlarged Cayman Island accounts and second homes with a view of Hyde Park.
For the people of Thailand, do you imagine that our reality is much different from what is going on in Myanmar?
The people that masterminded the massacre of the red shirts in 2010 are now in power, singing and dancing as their pockets fatten from their special business partnerships and their time in power.
Now, more than ever, is the time to band together in solidarity. The dinosaurs and neanderthals that wear funny uniforms and rule at the point of a gun certainly show each other solidarity.
Now the people marching for change must do the same.