copyright: tomoyo ihaya
It has been one year and 9 months since the Myanmar's military (Junta) took over the country by a coup on February 1, 2021. Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of National League for Democracy and other pro-democracy politicians were detained and imprisoned.
A majority of civilians, including the young generation, started peaceful demonstrations against Junta on the street and for getting democracy and freedom back. However,
all protests were cracked down brutally. People have been killed, tortured, and imprisoned by the Junta force.
The world witnessed democracy in Myanmar was violently taken away after only 5 years, yet, no strong International actions were taken to denounce the military government.
Realising UN are not taking actions, many young people decided to flee to the jungles, to get training, and to fight back to the military force.
I saw pictures of young and old people marching on the streets and videos of people attacked by the military. My heart was aching, thinking of a few friends who are there.
I felt helpless than drawing 'three finger salute' hands, which I could not post till now.
I also thought of situations in Tibet, Uyghur, Gwangju, Taiwan, HK, Iran, Palestine, Ukraine, and many other countries(name it) in different times of the history till present.
Many faces of people standing up for their freedom and democracy.
When we live in a democratic territory, we do not recognise how precious it is.
Here I share a write up by Sue in Myanmar, shared by my journalist friend today.
Wounds Erupt
"Dictators" and "Dictatorship" are the words we, people of Myanmar, (excluding cronies and military supporters) hate from the bottom of our hearts. On hearing these words, loath, disgust, hatred come out automatically.
Living under dictatorship over 70 years is living in the hell over 70 years. From generations to generations, we have been being oppressed. We grew up with trauma, with fear.
For years we had no idea of what freedom is, of what citizen right is, what human right is. "Democracy"is a word we heard in our childhood, and our common sense warned up that we would be in trouble if we fight for it. The word we knew well and had been familiar with is "fear".
We are nurtured, trained and taught that we must be fearful, that we could bad bad if we are fearless, that we should obey and order given by superiors and that we should not complain. This is the pedagogy, this is the education which has been shaping us, shaping our society.
It is only five years ago that we started to know partially and practically what democracy was during the reign of civil government elected by people democratically. WE enjoyed democracy. And we wanted to spend our remaining days of our life enjoying democracy We don't want to be through into the darkness again. We don't want our future generation grow fear like we did. Enough is enough. No more children have to live with fear and trauma like we had to.
When we knew that our leaders and our elected representatives were arrested and that military coup happened, we were shocked, alarmed, and upset extremely. And our old wounds reopen. We felt hopeless. We felt lost. We felt worried. We felt restless. We can not calm ourselves down. Then spring revolution started to break out.
In spring revolution, we all protest against coup, against dictatorship in our own different ways.
This is the revolution that will uproot the dictatorship which rooted over 70 years in Myanmar.
For democracy, for federal, for freedom, for peace, we have been doing anything at any cost.
Artist revolt against dictatorship with art. They poured their emotion onto the canvases. The pieces
are not only painting but eruptions of artist's emotions, of Myanmar people 's wounds. We hope that you, through these pieces, can sense pains, resiliency, resistance of Myanmar people.
Su
「『独裁者』『独裁政権』は私たちミャンマー人が、心の底から憎む言葉だ。この単語を耳にすると、無意識のうちに怒りと憎しみが湧き上がる。７０年以上に渡った独裁政権下での暮らしは、地獄に７０年以上生きたのと同じだった。何世代に渡り私たちは抑圧され、トラウマと恐怖と共に育った。自由、市民の権利、人権。これらがどんなものなのか、私たちは長い間、知らなかった。「民主主義」という言葉を子供の頃に聞いた時、私たちの中の常識が忠告した。「このために戦えば、面倒な目にあうぞ」。私たちが慣れ親しんでいたのは「恐怖」という言葉だった。
私たちは怯えていなければならないと教えられて育った。恐怖を知らなければひどい目にあう。上からの命令に従い、文句を言ってはいけない。これが私たちを形作り、私たちの社会を形作った教育なのだ。
民主主義とはどんなものかを、私たちが知ったのはわずか５年前だ。選挙で選ばれた政権の時代である。私たちは民主主義を謳歌した。残りの人生も、民主主義の中で生きていきたいと思った。再び、暗闇の中に放り込まれたくなかった。次世代の子供たちには、私たちのように恐怖と共に育ってほしくない。恐怖とトラウマと共に生きることがあってはならないのだ。
私たちの指導者と選挙で選ばれた代表が国軍のクーデターにより逮捕されたと知った時、私たちはショックをうけ、憤った。心の中の古傷が口を開けた。希望を失い、不安になり、落ち着かなかった。冷静になることができなかった。そして春革命（Spring Revolution)が起きた。
春革命で、私たち一人一人がそれぞれのやり方で、クーデターを独裁政権に抗議した。これはミャンマーに７０年以上、根を張っていた独裁政権を根絶する革命なのだ。民主主義のために、連邦国と自由、平和のために、私たちは力の限りを尽くしている。
アーティストたちは独裁政権に芸術作品で抗う。キャンバスに感情を注ぎ込む。一つ一つの作品は、アーティストたちの感情の爆発、ミャンマーの人々が抱える心の傷の爆発なのだ。作品を通してミャンマーの人々の痛みと立ち直る力、跳ね返す力、抵抗のちからが皆さんに伝わることを願っている。』スー、美術関係者
As of 29 March 2022, at least 1,719 civilians, including children, have been killed by the junta forces and 9,984 arrested.Three prominent NLD members also died while in police custody in March 2021, and four pro-democracy activists were executed by the junta in July 2022 (wikipedia)
