Bangladesh media is erupting with reports on the civil military confrontation in Myanmar after the army took over. There was protest at first and now has become a confrontation. In what is clearly a well-funded campaign, the pro-SuuKyi political activists are able to stand up on their own.Western media are giving full coverage to them making it into a global war for democracy. So far so good.
What makes the confrontation and activism a bit troubling is that this is the same crowd who on stood on the roads of Yangoon and cheered the expulsion and genocide of the Rohingyas. Suddenly we have supporters of a great democratic fight by the very people who committed ethnic cleansing.
It’s disturbing that Bangladesh media has effectively erased the role of this protesting groups in promoting this crime against humanity.
The Western support against the military is obvious. It’spart of the bigger US-China conflict and all are aware that China is not too fond of Suu-Kyi. It’s not that she is anti-Chines as it’s not possible to be anti-Chines and survive in Myanmar. It’s because she is pro-West and even her economic adviser was an Australian and Australia is part of the quad that is directly in conflict with China.
There are many other indicators but it was key that SuuKyi had tilted to the West as she was going to anyway given her history. It’s why the departure has hurt the West so much and they are promoting the groups fighting the military. It has in every sense become a classical proxy war.
What no one is saying here is that Bangladesh media by focusing on the army-civil conflict in isolation has absolved SuuKyi and her supporters of the crime against humanity and the more underlying causes of ethnic conflict and conflict within the ruling ethnic group-the Burmans.
This group wants to control Myanmar but unfortunately Myanmar is not under anyone’s control. The ruling class –civil and military- is also the ethnic dominant class making it largely an inner group conflict. The army controls the business and the civilian elites want a share. The rest as elsewhere is window dressing for the crowd.
The issue is about how it is being projected in Bangladesh media. Suddenly, the Myanmar protestors are heroic beings and since Western media is running a very organized campaign, it has been easy to appropriate BD media who see this as part of a ”greater fight for democracy”. In the process they are increasingly ending up as part of the Western campaign part of the inner conflict of a group in whose hands Bangladesh has indirectly suffered a great deal. We are white washing the face of apeople who have participated in ethnic cleansing.
One must do the right thing but reporting and picking up stuff without giving a background is not a very mature way of going about representing fight where both sides are guilty of either perpetrating or supporting genocide and ethnic cleansing.
