Silent Lonesome Man

In the mid of March 2021, more than thirty Chinese factories were set ablaze by unknown assailants. Shortly aftermath, the Chinese government and its embassy in Myanmar condemned the arson attacks, accusing the perpetrators of being "instigated by the West". The condemnation possibly drew into the protesters, who are actively fighting against the junta since the 1 February coup. In the end, it was mocked by many Burmese online users for its hypocrisy. Yet, the reaction of China is nothing surprising. In fact, it is revealing the true paranoia of a totalitarian regime. China, now the world's most powerful dictatorship, is facing an unwanted challenge in Myanmar. Despite its attempts to whitewash history, the protest in Myanmar makes me questioning back what is China behaving, for certain. This is definitely not the only moment we see China's grotesque propaganda methods, it also helps us to see the maniac level of the Chinese regime: a regime that is paranoid of everyt...

Speaking on the ongoing Myanmar protests, which claimed the lives of more than 500 citizens, the protest has led me to think and question the desire of the protesters, and its willingness to commit for a long term run. At the same time, my soul spun to see on Vietnam, a country that is considered as the most brutal dictatorship in Southeast Asia, even above Myanmar; yet the Vietnamese people in majority, instead of taking its stance in solidarity for democracy; have chosen a cold-blooded extrusion of democratic activists, even banishing them away. Then, I look at Vietnamese abroad. Majority of them are refugees who fled from Vietnam, and surely they are more vocal for democracy, and absolutely, they did demonstrate by calling for solidarity, supporting the Burmese protesters. Yet, their call has been mocked as a foxed move, and this was owned by an action on January 2021 that stayed as a stain forever on the status of Vietnamese former refugees. To think, can Vietnamese ever speak for ...

A day ago, I heard that the ethnic Karens, a Christian minority living in the Southeast bordering Thailand, had fled into the Thai border trying to get refuge in Thailand. Then, only a few hours later, a new report surged that the Thai government had instructed its soldiers to expel any kind of refugees fleeing to Thailand under the pretext that "the border is safe". And this came after the Karen National Union addressed its support for anti-coup protesters in Myanmar and its assault on a military outpost that killed 10 Tatmadaw soldiers. The Tatmadaw, or Burmese Armed Forces, has been retaliating violently and dispatching over 4,000 troops trying to crush the Karens, like how they're doing to its own citizens. Thus, Thailand's reaction has been very much appalling and is harmful to the Karens. For the wider international community, this move is condemned and it shows that Thailand is complicity in helping the Burmese junta in killing Burmese citizens; only weeks ago,...

When people are talking about the widespread uprising in Myanmar nowadays against the junta, so many people try to draw parallels with some kinds of other dictatorships. Some think of South Korea's military junta. Some think about the reformed communist dictatorships in Vietnam and China. Some look at the old Indonesian, Filipino juntas or current Thai monarcho-junta. There are even comparisons to the strongman rule based on monarchial power like Cambodia, or isolated outcast North Korea. Well, yeah, it is not wrong to compare, but there is a major problem. And we need to address it immediately. The root For most of its history since independence from Britain in 1948, Myanmar, or also known as Burma, has always been beset with military coups and violence, as well as government's mismanagement. And this is what led to the downfall of Myanmar from grace. In the history of ancient and medieval Burma, the country produced three major empires, the two latter, Taungoo and Konbaung, w...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Back in 2003, Turkey welcomed a new Prime Minister, the former mayor of Istanbul. His name was Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Just 49 years old at the time, he belonged to his newfound AKP (Justice and Development  Party, Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi). He governed a relatively secular, modern, industrialised Turkey, and by the end of 2000s, Turkey appeared to be on the right track, as usual. And Erdogan didn't have any intentions to stay long in power since there was "nothing to do". Then, the Arab Spring broke out. It changed the political landscape across the Middle East. In response, Erdogan started to unveil his inner self, slowly weakening opposition groups and placing figures loyal to the party and his family members in charge of Turkey. But this didn't sit well with most of Turkish population, who were enraged by Erdogan's political reforms that trying to undermine the secular and already modern Turkey. Erdogan responded by forc...