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It Can Always get Worse: Myanmar

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    It Can Always get Worse: Myanmar

    https://twitter.com/reuters/status/1356017788989665283

    #2
    https://twitter.com/max_fisher/status/1356022361993179139

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      #3
      The internet being unavailable in two major cities is a really scary detail.

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        #4
        *Donald Trump adjusts large picture of Min Aung Hlaing on Mar-a-Lago wall, smiles and mouths "My kinda guy"*

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          #5
          Suu Kyi has rather more parallels to Trump than Biden, of course. Hollowing out the government of competent people just in case they were to threaten the leader's position, appointing cronies in their some of their places and leaving others unfilled, pursing an increasingly authoritarian agenda, intolerant of internal dissent within the ruling party, indulging in a cult of personality, openly suppressing access to the vote for members of ethnic minorites (to be fair, she did this better than Trump), pursuing other racist policies and mass murder of said ethnic minorities (again, she scores 'higher' than Trump on this particular metric).

          This coup is more like the Pentagon seizing power from Trump and arresting him, Ivanka, McConnell and co. But then saying they would rule themselves, rather than restarting democracy. Which they should do here, but clearly won't.

          No military coup is ever a good thing, of course and I don't mean to imply one was in this case. Have the generals got around to relinquishing power and restoring democracy in Egypt yet, like they said they would, say? And this is going to make like for the Rohingya even worse that it already was, presumably.

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            #6
            I was going to say something similar, but didn't really know how to phrase it. The media seems to have suddenly reverted Suu Kyi to her pre-2010 pedestal. Her being the victim of a coup has been more than enough for them to forget the last decade and, in particular, her defense of the genocide.

            Just because a coup is bad, it doesn't mean that the person its deposing is necessarily good.

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              #7
              Yes, this has been very apparent and profoundly weird

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                #8
                The media likes things with simple, straightforward messages. If the coup is bad, then the person it ousted must be good. And if the person ousted was bad, then how can we criticise the coup? The nuanced reality, the person ousted has been a disaster and massive disappointment who needed removing from power for something better, but her ousting in this way by this specific opponent is going to make things even worse, is just too complex for them to convey. Though ursus managed to convey this idea with just six words in the title of this very thread!

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                  #9
                  During my end of Empire spell in Palestine we lived in the same block as the Burmese military attache (IIRC he was a relative of UN head honcho U Thant). There was some simmering diplomatic tension, as my Ma and his wife had a row about her curries

                  Anyway, it's Su Kyi Yan Gone. I always thought the Brit media treatment of her a tad rum.just cos she went to Oxford, married a don and looks like Audrey Hepburn shouldn't give a free pass per se...

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                    #10
                    https://twitter.com/AdityaRajKaul/status/1356315137976672259?s=19

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                      #11
                      I was about to come on here and post that video. There's something so iconic about it. The jaunty music, the Covid-19 mask, the neon clothing, all while she's unaware of the black military cars streaming past her.

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                        #12
                        https://twitter.com/ejdickson/status/1356642628427800576

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                          #13
                          I visited it in 2013. One of the loveliest places I have ever been. And met some of the loveliest, most generous people. Even then though, they wouldn't discuss politics. Ever since (and indeed prior to visiting, whilst she was under house arrest) I have wanted to give ASSK the benefit of the doubt...even when she defended the actions of the Tatmadaw against the Rohingya I wanted to believe that she was being being coerced and acting for the greater good of the nation. But the more I have read the more I realise that I was drawn into the myth of her iconography. She was clearly a nationalist and of course her father established the Tatmadaw. Why would she undermine an organisation her (revered) father set up and go against her own ideas of nationhood? It's a sad day. The country (which she continued to call Burma during her arrest on the basis that the generals hadn't asked the peoples permission to change the name) has taken a giant leap back...

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                            #14
                            Not important to the story, but I was unaware that Yangon (Rangoon) was no longer the capital of the country.

                            Naypyidaw is going to take some remembering.

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                              #15
                              Is there any low to which they won't sink?

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                                #16
                                https://twitter.com/journotopia/status/1371356735223521282

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                                  #17
                                  https://twitter.com/myanmar_now_eng/status/1375854856775237636

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