Myanmar coup

[Laan Yaa Mo]

It's the New Year in Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos on the same days. It's not the Burmese, Lao or Khmer version of
Songkran. They are all Theravada Buddhists. There was no celebration of New Year last year, as far as my faulty memory recalls.

[tamada]

It's the New Year in Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos on the same days. It's not the Burmese, Lao or Khmer version of
Songkran. They are all Theravada Buddhists. There was no celebration of New Year last year, as far as my faulty memory recalls.

Why be so pedantic?

The celebration is broadly the same in all four nations you mention, ie. national public holiday, family reunions and gallons of water.

By calling it a "version" of Songkran, I hoped to imbue a sense of how huge the Myanmar New Year party is and thus how this boycott will be a significant dent in the junta's PR effort. Having personally experienced Thingyan quite recently, it's like Songkran on steroids. Last year it was banned due to Covid-19... but that was already mentioned in the linked article you never bothered to read.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

Happy Tartan Day

[tamada]

Two years of military rule?

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/7 ... -two-years

[Laan Yaa Mo]

One would expect military rule to last much much longer than that. The Tatmadaw have been basically misruling the country since 1962. The only time the military seemed to rule Burma well was during the 1958-60 period.

[tamada]

Myanmar's ethnic armies have effectively declared war on the country's military government, increasing the prospect of civil war. In the face of the army's continued violence against civilian protesters -- the death toll is now more than 600 in the last nine weeks -- many of the country's ethnic leaders felt impelled to take drastic action.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opi ... ral-future

[Laan Yaa Mo]

It can be argued that Burma has been in a civil war since independence. It is a very difficult country to unite owing to the large number of minorities that live within its borders. The ethnic armies have not been a threat to the central government for a number of years now. The Wa State army is perhaps the strongest and most independent of them. So long as the Wa States are left alone to run the opium trade and run casinos for Chinese (from China), they are no threat. In the past, the Karens got as close as the suburbs of Rangoon but were beaten back by the Ne Win led Tatmadaw. Khun Sa ran a fairly organised Shan State Army for a decade or so. It was mostly dependent on selling heroin to addicts in the west such as the Hastings-Main area of Vancouver, British Columbia. The other ethnic armies are little threat to anyone these days. For some good background on ethnic insurgents, read Bertil Lintner, Burma in Revolt: Opium and Insurgency since 1948; The Wa of Myanmar and China's Quest for Global Dominance; Blood Brothers: Crime, Business and Politics in Asia and more

On the Karens, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_conflict

[tamada]

Pro NLD Myanmar Ambassador to the UK "locked out" of their London embassy.

https://news.sky.com/story/myanmars-uk- ... p-12268739

[tamada]

"We can't rely on China, Thailand and other neighbouring countries," he said. "The only country where refugees are being welcomed is India."

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/as ... t-14627978

[Laan Yaa Mo]

This is an interesting article. If India feels the refugees from Myanmar can help it in any way to somehow weaken Chinese influence, they will continue to provide a place of refuge, some funding and possible military training although India will expect the U.S. and the U.K. to become more involved although not in an open way. One can expect Thailand to allow some of the refugees to move back and forth across the border, and possibly hold some secret meetings in Chiang Mai or Bangkok with representatives from other nations.