Discussing the Forgotten Civil War in Myanmar 🇲🇲

 

(This is the current of flag of Myanmar 🇲🇲, AKA Burma 🇲🇲. It was adopted in 2010, and has sort of become unpopular ever since the 2021 coup. Anti-coup protesters 🪧 often waved the two old flags, the red and blue ones, to show their opposition to the junta, since this yellow, green, and red flag 🇲🇲 has become so synonymous with the military. So has the name, Myanmar. After all, it was the military that renamed the country to Myanmar in 1989, and changed the flag to the current one 🇲🇲 in 2010. A lot of the anti-junta activists and rebels want the name of the country to be changed back to Burma, and want the one of the old flags to be readopted. The same goes for the name of the capital city. It used to be called Rangoon, but the military changed the name to Yangon. And ever the military seized back full control in 2021, there have been calls to change the name of the city back to Rangoon. Most want the first flag, the Union of Burma flag to be readopted, not the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma flag. So, take this flag 🇲🇲 as you will.)

 

I haven't really written about the Myanmar civil war 🇲🇲. I have mentioned it in other things that I've written, but in general, I really haven't dedicated anything to do it. But now, I'm making up for it since this is a topic rarely gets discussed in the media, even though Myanmar 🇲🇲 is one of the main hot spots in the world right now. Everyone talks about the war in Ukraine 🇺🇦, and the war in Gaza between Israel 🇮🇱 and Hamas, and rightfully so, but hardly anyone talks about the civil war going on in Myanmar 🇲🇲. People talk about there being a war in Asia, between China 🇨🇳 and Taiwan 🇹🇼, but there already is a war going on in Asia, and it's the civil war in Myanmar 🇲🇲.

Now, I'm sure many of you have probably never heard of Myanmar 🇲🇲. All you really need to know is that it's a Southeast Asian country in the Indochina region that borders five countries, including China 🇨🇳, Thailand 🇹🇭, Laos 🇱🇦, India 🇮🇳, and Bangladesh 🇧🇩. If you don't know it by the name, Myanmar 🇲🇲, chances are you know it better by the old name, Burma 🇲🇲. If that's still not enough, then it's the country that Burmese pythons are named after. Even though there are technically more Burmese pythons in Vietnam 🇻🇳, Laos 🇱🇦, Cambodia 🇰🇭, Thailand 🇹🇭, and of course Florida than there are in Burma 🇲🇲. Burma/Myanmar 🇲🇲, like a lot of countries in Southeast Asia was once a colony of a larger power. In this case, it was the British Empire 🇬🇧. 

There were many rebellions against the British 🇬🇧 during their colonial rule over Burma, but they were always put down by the British colonial authority 🇬🇧 with the help of Karen colonial troops, which fostered resentment towards the Karen ethnic group from the majority Bamar population that would last up until the present day. The biggest event to happen to Burma prior to independence, like a lot of Southeast Asian countries and colonies, was World War II.

 

(This is the flag of Burma, when it was under British rule 🇬🇧. It was first adopted in 1938, and was used until 1941 when the Japanese 🇯🇵 invaded and occupied the territory. It was readopted again after the Japanese 🇯🇵 were defeated, and the Second World War ended, and was until Burma gained its independence in 1948.)

 

British Burma 🇬🇧 was invaded and occupied by the Japanese 🇯🇵, with the help of the Bamar, who collaborated with the Japanese 🇯🇵 and set up their own independent government called the State of Burma, which was really just a Japanese puppet state 🇯🇵. It was apart of Japan 🇯🇵's so-called "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere," which was effectively just a euphemism for their empire. The other ethnic groups inside of Burma resisted the Japanese 🇯🇵, and were assisted by the Allies in their efforts, especially since Burma was so strategically important. It was the area in-which the Allies were sending weapons and supplies to the Chinese 🇹🇼 in their war against the Japanese 🇯🇵.

 

(This is the flag of the State of Burma, the puppet government that the Japanese 🇯🇵 set up after they invaded and occupied the former British colony 🇬🇧. They had the help of Bamar collaborationists, which included Ne Win, and many of the other individuals who end up being apart of the military dictatorship that took power 15 years after Aung San was assassinated. The fact that the Bamar accepted the Japanese 🇯🇵's occupation of Burma, and many of the Bamar elite collaborated with the Japanese 🇯🇵 during the war is one of the reasons why some of the ethnic groups inside of Burma resent them, especially the Karen, who faced persecution by the Bamar and the Japanese 🇯🇵 during the occupation. Of course, one of the reasons why the Bamar collaborated with the Japanese 🇯🇵 is that they hated the British 🇬🇧, and resented the Karen for assisting the British 🇬🇧 in their subjugation of Burma, and the Bamar people. So, the Bamar saw their collaboration with the Japanese 🇯🇵 as an act of revenge against the Karen, and any other ethnic group that assisted the British colonial authorities 🇬🇧. It was a pretty messy situation. You had various ethnic groups inside of Burma that sided with one colonial power over the other, and were killing each other to secure their own positions.)

It also became the site where a lot of British and American 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (but mainly British 🇬🇧) POWs who were captured by the Japanese 🇯🇵 were sent to do forced labor. A lot of them worked on what became known as the Burma Railway. It's what that book 📖 and movie 🎞️, The Bridge on the River Kwai was about. There's another movie about the construction of the Burma Railway called To End All Wars, which came out in 2001, and starred Kiefer Sutherland in one of the lead roles.

 

(These are the posters for The Bridge on the River Kwai and To End All Wars, the two World War II movies about the construction of the Burma Railway. Now, I haven't seen either of these two movies, but from what I understand, The Bridge on the River Kwai is more well-known and respected of the two. You know, it's considered a classic, it's in the National Film Registry, and it's very influential, and has likely been referenced by other movies. I mean, Alec Guinness, Obi-Wan Kenobi himself was in that movie, that should tell you something. To End All the Wars on the other hand, received mostly mixed-to-negative reviews upon its release in 2001, and has largely been forgotten about. Despite the fact that it's based on book 📖 that is non-fictional and is actual somewhat based in fact, whereas the book 📖 The Bridge on the River Kwai is based on is a work of fiction, making the movie a work of fiction. So, The Bridge on the River Kwai is historical fiction, whereas To End All the War is a true "based on a true story" film based on a factual book 📖 about the Burma Railway. I guess that just goes to show that just because your source material is a work of pure fiction, that doesn't mean your film will be bad, in fact, it'll be good, and will be considered a classic in the years that follow.)

Despite some misconceptions, it was not a remake of The Bridge on the River Kwai, but an adaptation of another book 📖 that also happens to be about the construction of the Burma Railway called Through the Valley of the Kwai. The Bamar didn't turn against the Japanese 🇯🇵 until 1945, when Japan 🇯🇵 had pretty much lost the war by that point. That was something that also fueled mistrust and resentment towards the Bamar in the hearts and minds of the other ethnic groups inside of Burma.

 

 

(This is the flag of the Union of Burma, the first independent Burmese nation state that took shape after the British 🇬🇧 granted independence. It had a democratically elected government that lasted until 1962, when the military overthrew the democratically elected civilian government, and set up a military dictatorship in its place. This is probably my favorite flag of all the ones that Burma 🇲🇲 has had throughout its history since independence, even if it does look a little bit like the Republic of China flag used by Taiwan 🇹🇼.)

After the war, Burma was granted independence by the British 🇬🇧 in 1948. However, things did not go well after that. The would-be leader of Burma, Aung San was assassinated just one year before independence was achieved, there was a weak democratic government that didn't last for very long, the military took over, and established a military dictatorship with General Ne Win at its head. And Burma has effectively been under the control of the military in some form or another ever since.

It was the military that renamed the country from Burma to Myanmar, under the guise of removing the last vestige of colonialism from the country. But, a lot of the other non-Bamar ethnic groups saw it was a Bamar supremacist move since the name, Myanmar was very similar to the name of a previous empire in Burma's ancient history. A lot of the other ethnic groups inside the country wanted to keep the name, Burma, but because the country was under the control of the military, and the military is made up of mostly ethnic Bamars, they had no say in the matter.

 

 

 

(This is the flag of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma, the military dictatorship that took over Burma after the 1962 coup. They adopted a form of socialism called the Burmese Way to Socialism, which is why the country's name was changed to the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma, and had changed its flag slightly to have more socialist-type iconography. However, despite this, Burma was not aligned with the Soviet Union ☭ or China 🇨🇳, and mostly just a Non-Aligned country. After 1988, the military junta abandoned any form of socialism, and had renamed the country first back to the Union of Burma, then they changed it to the Union of Myanmar, and then they changed it again to the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, which is the name the country had until 2011. However, it still kept the same flag, until 2010 when the current flag 🇲🇲 was adopted.)
 

It was also after the assassination of Aung San, and the establishment of the Union of Burma that the decades long civil war started. It is said that the war in Burma/Myanmar 🇲🇲 is the longest civil war in history, as it has continued on and off in the decades since 1948. Various ethnic groups fighting against the Myanma military 🇲🇲 known as the Tatmadaw for greater self-determination, either for more autonomy or outright independence. A lot of the time, the ethnic armies known as the Ethnic Armed Organizations (EAOs) were fighting against the Tatmadaw using weapons from past wars, mostly from World War II and the Vietnam War 🇻🇳.

But, despite that, the quite a few of the EAOs have managed form into massive conventional-style armies in their own right. And all sides of this forever war are able sustain their war efforts using the vast natural resource that are inside of Burma/Myanmar 🇲🇲, including timber, jade, gold, rare earth minerals, and natural gas 🔥. Some of them have also been able to fund themselves via the drug trade. Myanmar 🇲🇲 has become the main drug-trafficking hub in Southeast Asia, as poppy plants are cultivated, and used to make illegal drugs like opium and heroin.

But, Myanmar 🇲🇲 isn't the only place in Southeast Asia where opium is grown, Thailand 🇹🇭 and Laos 🇱🇦 also have their own opium trade, and together with Myanmar 🇲🇲, they form the "Golden Triangle," an area where opium is grown, and where heroin and other opioids are made, and are shipped across the borders of these three countries. Or at least, that's my understanding of it. The "Golden Triangle" is that thing I was referring to at the beginning of my companion piece to "My Thoughts" review of Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045. The Golden Triangle is the name given to the area inside of Southeast Asia where illicit opium production, and drug trafficking takes place.

Anyway, even with this decades-long civil war still raging all these years, many of the states inside of Myanmar 🇲🇲 pretty much operate as de facto independent states such as the Kachin state, the Kayin state (formally known as Karen state), and the Shan state, among others. This is the reason why some say the the nation-state of Burma/Myanmar 🇲🇲 is kind of a false creation since it is so ethnically divided, and large parts of the country operate as de facto independent states with their own conventional militaries and everything. There really isn't a true universal Burmese or Myanma national identity 🇲🇲 that's been able to take shape, and even after the current war against the junta is over, that's still likely to be the case.

With all this turmoil, Burma/Myanmar 🇲🇲 was never a real player in the Cold War. Despite the fact that Burma was "officially" a socialist state under the military dictatorship (it was really socialist in name only), it was never at the center of any Cold War fighting between the United States 🇺🇸 and the Soviet Union ☭. Even during the Vietnam War 🇻🇳, Burma was ignored, and left to its own devices, other than that some of the weapons from the war were smuggled into the country, and ended up in the hands of the EAOs. The military junta even stated that they officially rejected Cold War politics, and just decided to stay out of that whole mess, and be a Non-Aligned country. I would say good for them, but they were fighting a decades long civil war, so, were they really all that much better off than anyone else in the Cold War?

Things seemed to get better in Burma/Myanmar 🇲🇲 after the infamous 8888 Uprising, where nationwide protests 🪧 against the military junta broke out, about the junta government violently cracked down on them, killing hundreds or even thousands of people; the Burmese/Myanma authorities stated that only 350 people died, but others say that thousands of people were killed by the military. The best way to describe the 8888 Uprising is it was like the Tiananmen Square protests 🪧/massacre, only a thousand times worse.

I mean, the military was literally hunting people down in hospitals, and then slaughtering them all, or at least, slaughtering as many as they could. As you expect, the military junta received widespread international condemnation for their extremely violent crackdown on the protests 🪧, and became more isolated than it already. Burma/Myanmar was already a pariah state before the 8888 Uprising, but it was even more of one after it.

But, despite all the bloodletting 🩸of the 8888 Uprising, something good came out of it, or at least, everyone thought. One figure to emerge from the uprising was Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of Aung San, the guy who was supposed to be the leader of the independent Burma, and was assassinated just before it gained independence. Her political party, the National League for Democracy (NLD) won an election held by the junta in 1990, which the junta themselves did not recognize the results of, and they placed her under house arrest. And that is where she would stay for the next 20 years until 2010, when the junta finally decided to release her, and let her be the leader of Myanmar 🇲🇲.

A lot of people at the time, saw this as a win. They saw this as a sign that Myanmar 🇲🇲 was finally transitioning towards democracy, and that the military was relinquishing some of its power and influence over the government. But, everyone who thought that was proven wrong over the course of the 2010s, as the military still maintained considerable influence over the government, and there were no changes to the constitution.

Even Aung San Suu Kyi just fell in line with the military as she defended their actions in committing ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya people, in what became known as the Rohingya genocide, and basically denied that a genocide was even taking place. She received a lot of criticism and condemnation for this, especially since she's a Noble Peace Prize recipient for pro-democracy activism inside of Burma prior to her house arrest and prior to her being released, and allowed to become the leader of the country by the military. All this really showed that was that the military, the Tatmadaw were the real ones in charge, and that Aung San Suu Kyi's efforts to bring democracy and rule of law to Myanmar 🇲🇲 were fruitless.

Then, in 2021, the military completely seized back control, deciding to no longer hide behind a toothless civilian government, and just rule over the country themselves. They deposed Aung San Suu Kyi in a bloodless coup, and imprisoned her once again. Her party, the NLD would be banned a couple of years later in 2023. This sparked international condemnation and sanctions from western countries. Most of the world chose to continue recognizing the previous government under Aung San Suu Kyi, known as the National Unity Government over the junta government, known as the State Administration Council. The only major powers that officially recognize the junta government are Russia 🇷🇺 and China 🇨🇳, no surprise there.

 

 

(This is the flag of ASEAN, or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Like I say in the main text, it is essentially the Southeast Asian equivalent to the EU 🇪🇺, and is supposed to serve the same purpose in theory, but hasn't really in practice. It includes pretty much every Southeast Asian country including Thailand 🇹🇭, Laos 🇱🇦, Cambodia 🇰🇭, Vietnam 🇻🇳, Malaysia 🇲🇾, Singapore 🇸🇬, the Philippines 🇵🇭, Indonesia 🇮🇩, Brunei 🇧🇳, and of course, Myanmar 🇲🇲. Despite being designed to deal with things like this, ASEAN has proven to be ineffective in dealing with the crisis in Myanmar 🇲🇲. This has made some question ASEAN's legitimacy, and question whether or not it should still exist.)

 

ASEAN, the Southeast Asian version of the EU 🇪🇺, was pretty much powerless to do anything about the coup, as the organization lacked any consensus about the coup and the resulting civil war and how to address it. Some ASEAN members like Thailand 🇹🇭 actually supported the coup, and the junta government, while others didn't, and rejected any efforts to normalize relations with Myanmar 🇲🇲 so long as the junta was in power.

The coup also sparked protests 🪧 all over the country. But, just like with the 8888 Uprising, the junta violently cracked down on these protests 🪧, and this protest movement 🪧 eventually morphed into an armed rebellion against the junta. And that's how we got the current civil war in Myanmar 🇲🇲 that we're dealing with today, or rather, we're not dealing with. But really, the current Myanmar civil war 🇲🇲 is just a new phase of the internal conflict that has been raging on and off inside of Burma/Myanmar 🇲🇲 since the late 1940s. You not only have these EAOs taking up arms against the junta, but you also these pro-democracy groups—many of whom are ethnically Bamar—that are working hand in hand with the EAOs in resisting the junta government.

Luckily, the pro-democracy rebels and the EAOs have started to gain ground, and defeat the junta. In October and November 2023, the rebels launched two major ongoing offensives against the military, called Operation 1027 and Operation 1107, in-which they managed captured several key towns and cities, and managed to inflict serious damage to the military. Several soldiers from the military have even started surrendering, deserting, and switching sides. Many people have seen these recent offensives by the rebel forces that the military's grip on power may be loosening, and that they could actually lose this war to the rebels. Before these offensives, those sorts of opinions were unthinkable.

It seemed as if the military had the upper hand, and that they were going to wipe out the rebel forces, especially with Russia 🇷🇺 providing them weapons, and China 🇨🇳 providing them diplomatic, economic, and propaganda support. But no, that proved to be wrong, and the rebels are giving the military a real bloody nose, and a broken arm. The fact that the rebels have managed to pull this off, and inflict a serious blow to the military, even when the military had the backing of both Russia 🇷🇺 and China 🇨🇳, and even when the rebels themselves are receiving no outside support whatsoever is honestly impressive. I hope the rebels' string of success continues, and they ultimately prevail against the junta for the sake of democracy. We want democracy to win against authoritarian in whatever form it takes.

However, there are some growing concerns over China 🇨🇳's involvement in the Myanmar civil war 🇲🇲. Ever since the rebels began their offensive against the military and winning, there have been some concerns that the conflict might spill over into neighboring China 🇨🇳, or that China 🇨🇳 might get more directly involved, supporting one side over the other. There apparently some clashes or some activity along the Chinese border 🇨🇳, and the Chinese border guards 🇨🇳 began teargassing anyone on the Myanmar side of the border 🇲🇲 who got close.

That started fueling speculation that the Chinese government 🇨🇳 may decide to boost its support for the junta government, or that they decide to drop their support for the junta government in favor one of the rebel factions, specifically the ones in Shan State, to be even more specific, the ones in Kokang. Why exactly the rebels in Kokang? Well, not just because it's the closest part in Myanmar 🇲🇲 to China 🇨🇳, but because the people living there are ethnically Han Chinese. I mean, I could see something like this happening.

The Chinese government 🇨🇳 has been pressuring the junta to take more concrete steps to curb the criminal activity taking place within Myanmar 🇲🇲, and within the border regions with China 🇨🇳, such as phone and cyber scams, slave labor, and human trafficking. Why is China 🇨🇳 so concerned about this? Because a lot of the people who are taking part in these criminal activities are in fact, Chinese citizens 🇨🇳 who were kidnapped, and forced to do these criminal acts against their will. Namely the phone and cyber scams.

 

So, given that Chinese citizens 🇨🇳 are being kidnapped, and are essentially being forced to do forced labor, the Chinese government 🇨🇳 wants these criminal activities to stop, and for Burmese criminal gangs and human traffickers 🇲🇲 to stop kidnapping their people. But, the junta has made no effort to put a stop to any of this. Likely due to the fact the many of the generals inside the military are complicit in these criminal activities, and are profiting from them 🤑.

But, the EAO, the National Democratic Alliance Army has promised to eliminate these criminal gangs, and end all the criminal activity going on in the border regions. So, given that the junta is failing to keep its promise to take a tough stance on crime, the Chinese 🇨🇳 may decide to support the National Democratic Alliance Army and other EAOs inside of Shan State instead to put end to all the criminal activity going on there, and in other parts of Myanmar 🇲🇲.

Not that anyone outside of Asia would really know any of this. Outside of a few news outlets in Australia 🇦🇺 and France 🇫🇷 oddly enough, Western media has not covered the war in Myanmar 🇲🇲 at all. They all covered the 2021 coup, and covered a little bit of the protests 🪧. But after that, most of them stopped covering Myanmar 🇲🇲 all together, even as the situation boiled over into a civil war, and protest movement 🪧 became an actual armed rebellion.

You'd think Western media would've started talking about Myanmar 🇲🇲 more once the civil war started, since that's when things started getting more interesting, but no. They all just moved onto other things, whether it was Israeli-Palestinian clashes 🇮🇱🇵🇸 that happened in 2021, or the American and NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan 🇺🇸🇦🇫 later that same year, or the Russian invasion of Ukraine 🇷🇺🇺🇦 in 2022, or the Iranian women's protests 🇮🇷♀︎🪧 later that same year, or the Hamas attack on Israel 🇮🇱 in 2023, which was more deadly and impactful than the clashes that happened in 2021.

There aren't even that many movies about Burma/Myanmar 🇲🇲. Like, most of the movies that have been made about Burma 🇲🇲 have been World War II movies focusing on the Burma Campaign, and the Japanese 🇯🇵's use of POWs as forced labor to build the Burma Railway. Those are interesting stories to tell, and the Burma Campaign is one of the least talked about military campaigns of World War II, in a theater that already tends to get overlooked or forgotten about in favor of the War in Europe. But, they really don't tell you anything about Burma 🇲🇲's politics or its people, and what they're like today.

 

 

 

(This is poster for The Lady ♀︎, the biopic about Aung San Suu Kyi directed by Luc Besson, and starring Michelle Yeoh as Aung San Suu Kyi. I can't believe that Luc Besson actually made a movie about Aung San Suu Kyi. I didn't even know this movie existed until I wrote this post. If you don't know who Luc Besson is, he's the director of movies like La Femme Nikita, Leon the Professional, The Fifth Element, Arthur and the Invisibles, Lucy, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, and Anna. La Femme Nikita, Leon the Professional, and The Fifth Element are probably his most well-known and most beloved movies. They're the movies that most people think of when they think of Luc Besson. He hasn't really directed anything that is as critically acclaimed or has as much of an enduring cult following as any of those movies. And indeed, he's produced more movies than he's directed. My least favorite films from him would have to be Lucy and Valerian.

 

Valerian was his attempt at making another Fifth Element type movie by adapting the comic book series that inspired The Fifth Element. But, it just fell flat, and didn't live up to the hype, whatever hype there was, and has largely been forgotten about. Probably would've been better off just making a Fifth Element 2. Probably would've yielded the exact same results for a little bit more nostalgia value. Lucy was just pure garbage, and I refuse to ever watch it again 😤. I will never forgive that movie for perpetuating the 2% of your brain 🧠 myth 😡. As for Anna, that movie is okay, like it's way better than Valerian and Lucy. But, it's still a pretty weak attempt at trying to do another La Femme Nikita type movie, a female assassin movie ♀︎. 

 

Even Lucy sort of fit into that mold of the "female assassin movie ♀︎." Even if the character, Lucy wasn't an assassin, and was basically a superhuman with telekinetic and telepathic powers, and the movie as a whole obviously had a more science fiction twist. And I guess, Anna wasn't really an assassin either, she was technically a spy. She was a KGB agent, who then started working for the CIA as a double agent, secretly turning against the KGB. But still, a lot of things we see her do in that movie are assassinations. So, she still counts as a female assassin ♀︎, and the movie as a whole fits the female assassin ♀︎ trope. Luc Besson definitely likes his sexy women ♀︎ with guns, and both Lucy and Anna fit into that.

 

A lot of Luc Besson's recent movies have just been inferior versions of movies he made in the past, like he's trying to go to his roots, and go back to what made him popular. The YouTube film essayist, Patrick H. Willems said that's what George Miller's comeback so great, the fact that he made Mad Max: Fury Road, a sequel and soft reboot to the Mad Max franchise that he created. And he recommended the same thing for Robert Zumeckis. 

 

But, Luc Besson has been doing that for the past few years, and that hasn't exactly been working out for him. And a lot of people would say that didn't worked out for Lana Wachowski either, even though that's essentially what she did with The Matrix Resurrections. She went back to the franchise that made her, and her sister, Lilly Wachowski so popular, and such big sought after directors. It was only because the Matrix films that they were able to make movies like Speed Racer, Cloud Atlas, and Jupiter Ascending. 

 

But, a lot of people hated The Matrix Resurrections. I wasn't one of them, but a lot of people did dislike that film, and thought it was inferior to obviously the first Matrix film, but even inferior to the two sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. So, returning to the well, and going back to what them popular doesn't always work out for every director. 

 

But anyway, it is bizarre that Luc Besson would even touch a subject matter like this. He isn't exactly known for making prestige dramas about real-life people. He's known for making bombastic, stylish, sexy action movies, and gonzo science fiction movies. It's also bizarre that he would cast Michelle Yeoh in the lead role. Why would he cast a Chinese woman ♀︎ from Malaysia 🇲🇾 as an ethnic Bamar woman ♀︎ from Myanmar 🇲🇲? The only thing I can think of is that Michelle Yeoh is the only actress that he could find that resembled Aung San Suu Kyi in any way, and was also good at acting. I mean, Michelle Yeoh does essentially look like a sexier version of Aung San Suu Kyi. The resemblance is sort of uncanny. Not as uncanny as the resemblance between Ashton Kutcher and Steve Jobs, but still pretty close. Even Michelle Yeoh's voice is somewhat similar to Aung San Suu Kyi's voice if you listen to them. 

 

Now, while this movie was received positively in Asia, it was not received well in the West. The main thing people took issue with was the portrayal of Aung San Suu Kyi herself. The movie glorifies her, and deifies her, rather than portray her like a real person, which is what a lot of people wanted to see. Or at least, that's what a lot of people in the West wanted to see. A lot of Asians seemed okay with this portrayal of Aung San Suu Kyi, though I'm sure there were plenty of outliers and naysayers. It's the nature of humanity to have someone who's a contrarian, and doesn't conform to the popular opinion, especially in regards to film. And I'm sure that there are plenty of Asian people out there who didn't like this film, and didn't like the way it portrayed Aung San Suu Kyi. 

 

But, why did so many in Asia accept this movie as is, and even praise it? Well, I think it's mostly because it's Michelle Yeoh. People like Michelle Yeoh, and people in Asia specifically like her. She's a great actress, a skilled martial artist, and seems like a very kind and friendly person, most of the time. Why do you so many in Asia cheered for Michelle Yeoh when she won an Oscar for Best Actress at the Academy Awards for her role in Everything Everywhere All at Once? Because they saw it as much of a triumph for them as it was for her. It was a win for Asian representation in Hollywood. So, if you put Michelle Yeoh in your movie, people are probably going to enjoy it a lot more than if it didn't have her in the lead role. That is especially the case for Asian people, who identify more with her, than any non-Asian Westerner probably does. And also because Aung San Suu Kyi is more well-known inside of Asia than outside of Asia in the West, and her story, as well as the story of Myanmar 🇲🇲 as whole, isn't really told or heard outside of Asia.  

 

For a lot of Westerners, their only exposure to Burma 🇲🇲 and its history and politics are World War II movies like The Bridge on the River Kwai and To End All Wars, and Rambo 4. So, when you have a French director 🇫🇷 like Luc Besson take interest in this subject matter, of course Asians are going take notice, and latch onto it immediately. Because from their perspective, this is all they're going to get. In some ways, they were right because this is the only biopic about Aung San Suu Kyi, and this is the only movie out there about modern Burma 🇲🇲 besides Rambo 4.  

 

But, western people wanted to see an honest portrayal of Aung San Suu Kyi that didn't glorify her, or glamorize her, or deify her in any way, but just presented her as a real human being with flaws. But, that's not what Luc Besson delivered. This especially became an issue in the mid-2010s after Aung San Suu Kyi defended the military's actions in the Rohingya genocide, and even denied that the genocide happened. It's not a good look to present a woman ♀︎ who is a politician and is a genocide denier as perfect and infallible, or even as a messianic figure which is what the film portrayed her as from it seems. 

 

But, to be fair, this movie did come out before the Rohingya genocide took place, and before Aung San Suu Kyi got flack for publicly defending the military and denying the genocide. So, this is a movie that didn't age well at all. Still, I wonder what Michelle Yeoh thought after the 2021 coup happened. Did she have any sort of sympathy for the woman ♀︎ she played in a movie 10 years before? I don't know. I doubt she even issued a public statement on the matter. I think she was too busy promoting Everything Everywhere All at Once and winning awards for it to care about what happened to Aung San Suu Kyi and what's happening in Myanmar 🇲🇲.)

 

The only movies that I can think that have been about Burma 🇲🇲's modern history post-World War II, are The Lady ♀︎, a biopic about Aung San Suu Kyi, starring Michelle Yeoh as Aung San Suu Kyi that borders on propaganda because of how much it glorifies and deifies her, and the fourth Rambo movie, simply called Rambo.

 

 

(This is the poster for Rambo, the fourth entry in the Rambo franchise. This movie was apart of Sylvester Stallone's comeback in the 2000s. He had made Rocky Balboa two years earlier, and he was returning to his second most iconic role, John Rambo. Stallone's decision to set the movie in Myanmar 🇲🇲, and have the movie center around the civil war in that country, specifically the war between the military and the Karen ethnic group, was pretty inspired. From what I understand, the reason why he decided to set the movie in Burma 🇲🇲 is that he wanted to highlight what was happening in that country, since even back then, the internal conflict in Myanmar 🇲🇲 was still ignored by the international community. He even casted some Karen actors in some of the Burmese roles 🇲🇲, including the guy who plays the main evil general or even colonel, whatever he is. That guy is played by a Karen actor, who took a huge risk by agreeing to play that part. To this day, this is probably the most mainstream movie about the internal conflict in Myanmar/Burma 🇲🇲. It managed to tackle this topic in a very respectful and brutally honest way, even though this movie was an action blockbuster meant to entertain. And now, ever since the 2021 coup happened, and ever since the civil war broke out, this movie has gained some newfound relevance.)

 

Of those two movies, Rambo (2008), or Rambo 4 if you prefer, is the only one that people actually remember, and is the only one of the two that was actually about the war, and actually showed what the war was like up until that point, and the insane depravity that the Burmese military 🇲🇲 stooped down to. It's an extremely violent movie that definitely does not shy away from showing the Burma army 🇲🇲's most heinous war crimes and atrocities during this decades long civil war. It's a movie that's more relevant today than it was back then when it was made.

But even worse than the lack of movies about Myanmar 🇲🇲, is the seeming apathy that most countries around the world have expressed about this conflict. Sure, the coup happened in 2021, nearly every western country, including the United States 🇺🇸, placed sanctions on the junta. But, after that, almost no western country paid any attention to the conflict, even as the Biden administration started framing the current geopolitical reality as a struggle between democracy and autocracy, and positioning America 🇺🇸 as the main defender of democracy.

But, they just turned their attention elsewhere, whether it was Afghanistan 🇦🇫, Ukraine 🇺🇦, and now Israel 🇮🇱 and Palestine 🇵🇸. There was just no room for Burma 🇲🇲 in the administration's foreign policy agenda, nor did they try to make any room for it. It just isn't a priority for them. The same goes for pretty much every other country. There's just a general forgetfulness, ignorance, or indifference towards this conflict. Like, I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who don't know that there even is a civil war going on in Burma 🇲🇲 at all. Even the ones that support the junta like Russia 🇷🇺 and China 🇨🇳. Maybe not China 🇨🇳 anymore, considering that the war is starting to affect them now somewhat.

For this reason, some have taken to calling the civil war in Burma 🇲🇲, the "Forgotten War," the same term people refer to the Korean War 🇰🇵🇰🇷 as, which yeah, it sort of fits. That war's being remembered and talked about more now, but it's still not remembered as well or discussed as much as either World War II or the Vietnam War 🇻🇳. There's always those conflicts in the world that slip through the cracks, and are ignored and/or forgotten about, and the international community does nothing about. In the 1990s, it was the Liberian Civil Wars 🇱🇷 that were the "forgotten wars," even if the Second Liberian Civil War 🇱🇷 ended in 2003. In the 2000s, it was the Nepalese Civil War 🇳🇵, even if that conflict started in the 90s. In the 2010s, it was the Yemeni Civil War 🇾🇪, even if that war is still ongoing to this day. And now, in the 2020s, it's the Myanmar civil war 🇲🇲 that's being ignored and forgotten about.

I'll link some videos that can give you a better understanding of this conflict, and all the players involved. I've only scratched the surface, and I don't really feel like I did this topic justice. This is a very complicated conflict, and there are things that I may have gotten wrong, or left out. So, I hope these videos will help you understand this conflict, and this country a lot more since our media isn't covering any of this. In some way, I do understand why Western media hasn't been covering this topic.

The Myanmar conflict 🇲🇲 is very complicated, and very multifaceted, and isn't as straightforward as either the Russo-Ukrainian War 🇷🇺🇺🇦, even the Israel-Hamas war 🇮🇱, or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict 🇮🇱🇵🇸 as a whole. It's not easy to explain or understand for most people. And Myanmar 🇲🇲 itself is not really a major power in global affairs. Nothing that's happening there is really affecting the rest of the world, or has the potential to radically change global politics in the way that the Russian invasion of Ukraine 🇷🇺🇺🇦, or the Hamas attack on Israel 🇮🇱 and the war in Gaza could.

So, a lot of western media outlets just choose not to cover the war in Myanmar 🇲🇲, even though it is a bloody conflict 🩸, and is a humanitarian disaster. Not to mention it is a direct assault on democracy, since the military overthrew the democratically elected government, and set up their dictatorship in its place. If that's not attack on democracy, I don't know what is. So, I do think more people should talk about what's happening in Myanmar 🇲🇲, especially now that the rebels are winning. And I hope western governments start doing more to support the rebels, and pressuring the junta government.

I also hope that other Southeast Asian nations also take more proactive steps to pressure the junta, and support the rebels, whether it's through ASEAN or not. Especially Thailand 🇹🇭 since Thailand 🇹🇭 is not only one of the most influential members of ASEAN, and one of the most influential Southeast Asian countries, but also shares a land border with Myanmar 🇲🇲. So, if any country is the best position to support the rebels, and weaken the junta, it's Thailand 🇹🇭. Because so far, Thailand 🇹🇭 has been the junta's main international backer ever since they seized back full control of the country. Without Thailand 🇹🇭's support, the junta will be in a much weaker position than they are, even right now after these two recent offensives by the rebels.

If the ASEAN organization itself does decide to take action in punishing the junta in Myanmar 🇲🇲, if these Southeast Asian countries decide to express their opposition to the junta through that organization, then I would suggest doing what the African Union did to all those countries in the Sahel region in North Africa that had successful military coups, and suspend Myanmar 🇲🇲's membership in ASEAN. It doesn't have to be permanent measure. It can just be temporary for however long the junta is power, and then they can reinstate Myanmar 🇲🇲's membership after the internationally recognized government is back in power. But, even if they don't, the rebels are proven that they're more than capable of defeating the military themselves.

 

 

 

(These are two maps of Myanmar/Burma 🇲🇲. The one on top is a administrative location map. It shows Myanmar 🇲🇲's location in Southeast Asia, and it shows the administrative divisions of the country, which are those lines inside of light brown or beige colored section. The map below that one is the flag map of Myanmar 🇲🇲, meaning that it's the shape of the country, what the country looks like, but it has the flag superimposed on it. I have a bunch of those, and I think they're pretty cool. I thought I would show the Myanmar flag map 🇲🇲 since I'm also showing the location map.)

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Here's a link to Ed Nash's Military Matters's multi-part series talking about the war in Myanmar 🇲🇲, its origins, and the different players involved:

 

Part 1:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg15FAJ9enw

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8H_0Tbn_m0

Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_KWi4sxxqA

Part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWJxwY85nXw

Part 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIcNdx53y6E 

 

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A link to another video by Ed Nash's Military Matters talking about the military's defeats in the recent October and November offensives by the rebels:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX1KFg0RUQw 

 

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A link to a video by a YouTube channel called World in Chaos talking about the war, and how forgotten it is: 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmAjV5SaEuc 

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A link to a video by the Australian news organization 🇦🇺, ABC News In-Depth giving a 13 minute summary or explanation of the war in Myanmar 🇲🇲 and its origins. This one's useful because it mentions the 8888 Uprising, and shows that anecdote about the military hunting protesters down in the hospitals, and killing them. It was made months before the two rebel offensives in October and November, so keep that in mind when you watch it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StDA-aki1gk

 

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Here's another video talking about the rebel side in the Myanmar civil war 🇲🇲. It's by Channel 4 News, and it talks about the age of the rebels. They refer to them as the Gen Z Army in the title, and in the video because most of the rebels are apart of Generation Z, my generation. So, the Myanmar civil war 🇲🇲 is one that could truly be considered a "Gen Z war":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fo8-v8lZ95M

 

 

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Here's a video by the French news organization 🇫🇷, FRANCE 24 English talking about recent trouble on the Chinese border 🇨🇳:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_pn4nN_86I 

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Here's a PBS Frontline documentary about the Rohingya genocide, if you want to know more about that event, and know a bit more about the Rohingya's plight than what Ed Nash said in his video, and know more about Aung San Suu Kyi's disgusting excuses and denials of it. I wish PBS Frontline would do a documentary about the current Myanmar civil war 🇲🇲 as well, but this is all we got:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD6mtlQzP18

 

 

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Oh, and as an added bonus, I'll include an alternate history video by TheAlrightyOne exploring an alternate timeline in-which, Aung San, Aung San Suu Kyi's father, is never assassinated and lives to be the leader of Burma after independence: 

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N91VadXLWc