Myanmar, a Vento Aureo without the main protagonist
Vento Aureo is the Part 5 of Hirohiko Araki's famous masterpiece JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, a manga that centres around the main characters belonging to the Joestar family fighting against supernatural enemies in real life (with Part 7 and 8 representing alternative timeline), with a significant star mark on their bodies as a sign. Initially intended to end the series after Part 3, Araki has to reset his works after the manga reached a level of popularity unmatched to his initial low expectation. As for 2021, he has already announced he will begin Part 9, temporarily titled JOJOLANDS, but which scenario is for us to guess. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure's popularity is also worth noting because it is the best-selling manga in the history by average sales, with over 0.76 million each volumes.
As for Vento Aureo, or Golden Wind in Italian, the story takes place in Italy by the year of 2001, twenty years before the Myanmar uprising. The story is about the prodigal son of already deceased fathers Dio Brando and Jonathan Joestar, Giorno Giovanna. Dio seized the decapitated body of Jonathan after the explosion of the ship in Part 1, therefore Giorno carried both sides' attitudes as for the effect of Dio's affairs with his unfaithful mother. Giorno was brutally abused and maltreated by his stepfather and other kids once moving to Italy, but his encounter with an injured mafia man changed his fate and dragged him away from Dio's. Still, Giorno is only simply thinking about earning a living by the age of 15, before involving in a bribery affair with Leaky-Eye Luca, who is later killed by Giorno's Stand, Gold Experience. He then involves in a fight with a high-ranking thug of a criminal mafia group, Bruno Buccellati, later revealed to be a member of Italy's strongest mafia group Passione, over the murder of Luca, but spares Bruno's life as he shares a common goal, to topple the tyrannical Boss and reformed the group, a fulfilment to his childhood experience with the mafia man.
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| Vento Aureo's anime edition. |
Part 5 has been the most successful of the whole series so far, and it has been adapted to anime by David Production. Interestingly, Giorno Giovanna is modelled after David, the young man who defeated the tyrannical giant Goliath, and the company also gets its namesakes after the Biblical warrior. The anime added some elements and musical references, which will be somewhat necessary to be used for the article.
It may be a bit absurd to speak about a manga in this story, but Myanmar's glimpse past offers a significant similarity to that of the series, albeit in a greater scope. Myanmar's public resistance against a military that has dominated most of Myanmar's affairs since independence has been inspirational. For some reasons, Vento Aureo truly speaks of what's going on in Myanmar.
Min Aung Hlaing - Diavolo
Perhaps the most important figure that will be the biggest and most hated character, Min Aung Hlaing, for his notorious brutality, and his extreme secrecy. He resembles a lot from Diavolo, the ultimate Boss of Passione.
Diavolo is renowned for his ruthlessness and complete loyalty from the subordinates, and there will be severe punishments for anyone disobeying his order or trying to investigate his identity. At one point, he demonstrates by openly (or ordering the Special Unit's Cioccolata) killing Sorbet, a member of the Hitman Squad (La Squadra Esecuzioni), and sliced him to 36 parts as a reminder. He even tries to kill his own daughter to preserve his power and has a close relationship with the Narcotics Division that appeared in the spinoff Purple Haze Feedback. Of course, for any powerful Boss, Diavolo is very fearful of anyone who can dispose him, so he never trusts anyone at all.
Min Aung Hlaing suits what Diavolo becomes. Ruthless and has an extremely loyal subordinate groups, he also maintains the status quo of extreme punishments and authoritarian power already laid out by previous dictators Ne Win, Saw Maung and Than Shwe. Not just that, Min Aung Hlaing, in the way to display his power, openly routs 300,000 Rohingyas out of Rakhine by guns, jets and tanks since 2017; or even recently celebrating the Armed Forces Day on 27 March with the largest kill-count, more than 110 people. Of course, Min Aung Hlaing celebrated while people are suffering from his army.
However, he is always scared of losing power after removing Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy, and also views other Generals with a level of suspicion. Min Aung Hlaing is obsessed with preserving his power and the military protégé as the mean to pass for a future successor. He is also a drug dealer, with himself continues the business left behind by Than Shwe, much akin to Diavolo's close tie with the Narcotics Squad.
Tatmadaw - Passione
Diavolo's effective control of Passione is pretty much akin to Min Aung Hlaing's power over the Tatmadaw, the Burmese Armed Forces as we know.
The Tatmadaw isn't uniform, but the military of Myanmar has been for a long time, the strongest and most resilient institution in modern Myanmar. Passione, ironically, fits the Tatmadaw as it is the most powerful mafia gang in Italy when Vento Aureo takes place. Just like Passione, Tatmadaw is sealed off from the world, making it an insular organisation. The constitution written in 2008 also reveals this nature, Myanmar would become a democracy, but the military is not to be controlled by the civilian government. The Tatmadaw is mostly run by robotic people, who eat and obey the order from the high command. It is a slavery system based on male patronage hierarchal complex, hence we never see any high-ranking women commanders in the military of Myanmar.
Military defectors - Bruno Buccellati
Belonging to the lucrative military means you are part of Tatmadaw's system, and is unlikely to leave until you paid something for the officers. Therefore, inner rebellions with Tatmadaw aren't frequent.
Nonetheless, there have been a growing number of soldiers openly or quietly defecting from the brutal armed forces. Major Hein Thaw Oo of the Burmese military is by far, the highest ranking officer to have defected from the military, making him the Bruno Buccellati of Myanmar. Like how Bruno was appalled by the Boss' attempt to kill his daughter and his drug trades to the point he immediately rebelled aftermath, Hein Thaw Oo was shocked by the unleashing level of violence by his military fellows. He is now training recruits in the jungle, ready for a final fight against the authoritarian junta.
Of course, Hein Thaw Oo is not alone, as more and more defectors from the army has severely weakened its morale, although the outcome is only for us to guess.
Police defectors - Leone Abbacchio
Apparently, Leone Abbacchio's former possession was a policeman, before being labelled "dirty cop" and was fired from the job for failing to protect his partner. Drunk and losing direction, he thought he was nothing before his fateful encounter with Bruno. From there, he manifests a Stand, Moody Jazz, to rewind the past and to investigate for goods. Although he is sceptical toward Bruno's rebellion, he later joins the fight since he believes it is his redemption for his lost past.
The police defectors of Myanmar fulfil many traits of Abbacchio, filling guilty for not defending the normal people, with the most important figure among police defectors being Colonel Tin Min Tun, who defected in March as he could not stand seeing people brutally murdered by the regime. In the junta's structure, the police stands behind the military (which is quite true as Abbacchio is the vice leader after Bruno).
Protesters - Narancia Ghirga
The story of Narancia Ghirga is a quite sad one when he lost his mother as a child, abandoned by his dad and was later framed for buglary by a supposed friend. When he thought he would die lonely, he was surprisingly saved by Pannacotta Fugo before getting treatment, with Bruno paying the fees. Narancia felt a deep grateful that he vowed to follow Bruno forever, which he did. Although being left backward, Narancia still wishes to go back to school to repair his lost childhood and to live like a normal person before he is savagely killed by Diavolo, which his soul is finally set free from the tragedies to enter heaven.
The people of Myanmar, especially those protesting ones, are the Narancias of Myanmar. Myanmar was supposed to make progress, but the death of Aung San and 1962 coup reversed everything and made Myanmar one of the poorest nations in the world. In spite of the hardship, the Burmese people have determined to reduce the distance with the rest of the world and the open-up of Myanmar in 2011 drawn the similarities to Narancia being saved by Fugo and Bruno.
And like Narancia in Araki's work, many of them would not live on. Mya Thwe Thwe Khaing and Kyal Sin emerged as the first symbols of Burmese protest movement, they were female in a very conservative society, and both died under the bullet of the brutal army. Since then, nearly 1,400 people have lost their lives fighting for restoration of Myanmar's nascent democratic institution.
Aung San Suu Kyi - Trish Una
My comparison to Trish Una may be a bit skewed, but I can't imagine anyone better for this role than Suu Kyi. Trish Una suffered by being abandoned by her dad, who would become the mafia Boss, and lived most of her youth life with her ailing mother, before her mom Donatella died in Sardinia, where she was born. From then until the Vento Aureo event, Trish Una lived as a hostage to the regime of her father before subsequently delivered to Bruno, in which a justice essence prevails unleashing her potential to breakthrough from her evil father, and the light source for Buccellati team to keep the fight.
Aung San Suu Kyi coincided Trish Una by surprise. Suu Kyi lost her dad, the independent hero Aung San, when she was just two, and she revered her mother Khin Kyi as her source of courage before she died in 1988, which greatly affected Suu Kyi's life. She was taken hostage by her father's regime, before temporarily released, then imprisoned again. However, these moments proved vital as it drives the plot of Suu Kyi from an innocent woman with no political interest into a fighter, unofficially lighted the whole Burmese population on their struggle. Even though she was landed prison terms, she remains the undeclared leader of her country by the majority of population.
Neutral EAOs (Ethnic Armed Organisations) - Pannacotta Fugo
Fugo's past was not really that happy though far from being worse like Narancia or Giorno. Coming from a wealthy but pressing family, Fugo has suffered from the lack of care from either his dad or mom, before a professor attempting to molest him when he was 13, causing him to savagely beat the professor and was excommunicated from both the university and his family. His life turned downhill since, but a fateful meeting with Bruno allowed him to stay in the group, the second after Abbacchio. He succeeded in delivering Trish, only to know that Bruno later rebelled against the Boss, but instead, he refused the offer to join the fight, fearing for the future.
The neutral EAOs have commons in many way with Fugo, abused and maltreated but rather prefer to not change anything. In this case, we have the Arakan Army, United Wa State Army of Shan State Army in Rakhine and Shan states, which have been somewhat sympathetic to the protesters but do not want to change the status quo. These groups really do not believe that the protesters will win, so while they do not resent them, they don't care about them either. In fact, these groups are more busy trying to fight to gain territories between themselves rather than even thinking about Myanmar, for instance the Shan State Army fought the Ta'ang Army while the Arakan Army is busy consolidating control for the dream of restoring the Arakan Kingdom in Rakhine.
This makes us little time to wonder what would be their goals. Are they looking to abandon Myanmar for their own sakes?
Active EAOs - Guido Mista
Contrast to Fugo is Guido Mista, a man tends to have some happy-go-lucky attitude with a simple living style, at least before he killed four gang criminals for raping a woman, with himself somehow evaded all the bullets approaching him, a manifestation of his eventual Stand, Sex Pistols. For this reason, he was sentenced to jail for 15 years before Buccellati freed him from prison, which later he joins the group and eventually survives. Although Mista is a bit superstitious person, he is very determined and believes that he and his friends will triumph.
Mista's counterpart in Myanmar are the group of ethnic armies that decided to stand on the side of the protesters, notably the Karen National Union and Kachin Independence Army. The Kachins and Karens, as well as other minorities like Rohingyas, Ta'angs and Chins, did not have any major issues until the repressive regime of Ne Win came, and they have fought for survival for more than 70 years. Although not that so close to the ethnic Bamars from the heartland, they agree to support the people of Myanmar and even take part in the underground National Unity Government. They have proven that they can overcome the historical grievances for a dream of a federal union.
Northeast Indian rebels - The Hitman Team (La Squadra Esecuzioni)
The Hitman Team in Vento Aureo has unique stories that require separate knowledge. Led by Risotto Nero, the group was an instrumental element in Passione's rise to power, however they were never viewed equally by the Boss. Two members of the team, Sorbet and Gelato, tried to uncover his identity, only to be brutally butchered by the Boss' Special Unit. This triggered the eternal hatred against Diavolo among the group and it follows to the event aftermath.
This group is really difficult to compare in Myanmar because all information about Tatmadaw is pretty closed, until the Burmese junta agreed to allow the Northeast Indian rebels to take part in the fight against the NUG and the PDFs. This makes them the perfect dopperganger; Northeast Indian rebels have a long history of fighting for an independent Northeast Indian state from India, though the scale does not match to that of Myanmar. Many of them found sanctuary in Myanmar and received arms from China as a mean to weaken India. The Tatmadaw trades and works with them because they are not natives of Myanmar and thus not hostile to Tatmadaw.
However, the Tatmadaw doesn't view them exactly welcoming, as this group also shares close ethnic kinship with the minorities in West Myanmar, which also has a tendency of against the Tatmadaw. So while they're not hostile, the Burmese junta also sees them a menace and will try the best to make them finish the business, before kicking them out for goods. The Tatmadaw has several times shaken hand with the Indian government to rout these rebels, so these Northeast Indian rebels do not trust the Tatmadaw.
USPD and Tatmadaw's top brass - Elite Guard (La Unità Speciale)
In Vento Aureo, the Elite Guard, or Special Unit as translated in Italian, is only used by Diavolo when the situation is too dangerous. The group has a special place on Diavolo's decision making, and they comprise some of the strongest members in Passione. Although not all of them really obey the Boss, they share similar traits to Diavolo - sadistic, cruel, barbaric and violent - with Cioccolata is the best example of it. This ensures the structure of Passione unchanged.
In this issue, the military proxies like USDP (Union Solidarity and Development Party), or even top brass Generals, who manipulated the world about its open up attempt, belong to the same camp. For instance is Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun, who is a sadist with an absolute loyalty to Min Aung Hlaing and blatant rejection of the crimes his gang committed. Some figures like U Soe Thane, as well as many former cabinet ministers under the previous President Thein Sein, were immediately re-appointed into the new junta regime of Min Aung Hlaing. They were never reformists, they were just sadists pretending to have changed Myanmar to another future. Moreover, their similarities with their new master Min Aung Hlaing and old masters (Than Shwe and Thein Sein), meaning that there will be little change at all.
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This left us with the only protagonist missing - an equivalent to Giorno Giovanna. The Eurasian boy that grew up in Italy has been the driving force by his talents and resoluteness to bring Buccellati to the final victory. But in Myanmar, we have not seen a Giorno Giovanna at all, who can really infiltrate, who can really depose the authoritarian junta and reform it as a cohesive, civilian-devoting military.
This is why Myanmar is a Vento Aureo story without a protagonist. A man who can truly dream for their country to rebuild, to revive and to become better than the current misery. As like the lyrics of Modern Crusaders, a song by German band Enigma and later used for the ending of second part of Vento Aureo anime series, indicated for,
Don't look backThe time has comeAll the pain turns into loveWe're not submissive, we're not aggressiveBut they think we can't defendStand up, join us, modern crusaders aliveWe have the power, to face the future'Cause we are the fightersJust fighting for our rightsThey're accusing, like always without knowingWhat is just fiction or what is the truthThey have no mission, they have no passionBut they dare to tell us what's bad and what's good...
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