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Burma's Animal Farm: the Pigs

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Burma's Animal Farm: the Pigs Burma’s Animal Farm: The Pigs By Saneitha Nagani If I were to compare what has happened and what is happening on in Burma under the successive military regimes since 1962 to George Orwell’s satire ‘Animal Farm’, I might or I might not be able to do some justice by highlighting the characters of the animals in the story. I am tempted to use ‘cows’ as the characters representing the military in general and the generals in the ruling council in particular. However, Orwell used the pigs in his fairy story so I might as well stick to the pigs in mine as well. I need to explain why the military is represented as ‘cows’. As far as I can remember from what some of my relatives who were more aligned with the left in Burmese politics told me denoting the military official with the cow started in a play called, ‘Ludu Aunglan’ (People’s Victory). In that play there was a scene where a young village girl was pleading with the military official not to take her cow away. Instead of saying, “Captain, please don’t take my cow” she said, “Cow please don’t take my captain away.” Another story where the military was referred to as cow comes from a joke. This was a joke that you can’t tell in public. It’s something like a joke about Russia too. In Russia, during the time when Nikita Khrushchev was at the zenith of his power, when a guy shouted in public that, ‘The Premier Khrushchev has only a small willy’ he was charged and sent to the ‘gulag’ not for insulting the Premier but for revealing ‘state secrets’. The joke that I am about to tell could not be told in public. When U Ne Win relinquished his post as the President of the Republic but decided to stay on as the Chairman (Okkahta-gyi) of the Burma Socialist Program Party (BSPP) his deputy U San Yu took over as president. San Yu may be president but like in most communist states, Russia or China, the Party is always above the State. Ne Win had to be consulted on any decisions, even on insignificant or trivial matters. President San Yu was very conscious of his health (I was told that that was a keen reader as well). He likes to keep himself fit by jogging in the park, which is known as ‘Bogyoke Pan Chan’ in ‘Kandaw-gyi’ (the park dedicated to the late Bogyoke Aung San (General Aung San) with a big lake named Kandaw-gyi). There was (I hope there still is) a statute of Bogyoke standing with an arm outstretched. Bogyoke being the founding father of the Burma’s military and also the hero of Burma’s independence from the British, San Yu had high regard for him. He stopped by the statute and gave a salute every morning. One day, the statute spoke to him. The statute of Bogyoke said, “Hey San Yu, I’ve been standing here for a long time now I want a horse to ride.” The President was shocked. Even though he could not believe that such a thing could happened he dare not keep it away from the Chairman either. The President told the Chairman about it and the Chairman said that he would come along and had a look for himself. The next morning they went. As usual, the President gave his salute but the statute would not utter a word. Since U Ne Win was notorious for his short temper and his use of foul language when abusing his subordinates, the President got it up to the hilt. Luckily that he was not sacked. In another incident when Ne Win lost his cool and smashed the drums of a band at a party in a hotel across the Inya Lake saying that he could not sleep because of the noise U San Win, the minister responsible of Trade and Tourism (it was told that he has been asleep that night) was sacked the next day. Psychologically bruised and feeling humiliated the President went on with his routine the next day. As he gave the salute to the statute he lamented that, “Bogyoke, you have been unfair with me. When I brought the Okkahta-gyi you didn’t spoke a word.” To his shock the statute replied, “I told you to bring me a horse, not a cow.” Now that I have explained my preference for ‘cows’ to ‘pigs’, I do find Orwell’s use of pigs as much more appropriate than cows in his tale. Like pigs, the generals in Burma are greedy and will eat anything – sweet smelling or foul. They never seem to have enough even when the natural resources of our country is almost depleted because of their pillaging and plundering. Napoleon was the only Berkshire on the farm and Senior General Than Shwe is the only ‘Anyatha’ (the person from Upper Burma - Kyaukse) in the ruling military council. Like Napoleon, he is also the main villain of Burma under military regime. He does not have charisma like Bogyoke Aung San, U Ne Win or even U Tin Oo. However, being a sly character he build up his power gradually. In the aftermath of the military coup in 1988 he was just a subordinate to the then General Saw Maung. Many who knew him saw him as ‘neither brilliant nor a courageous leader.’ A postal clerk who turned himself into a military official and now the Supreme leader by cunningly elimination his rivals who are smarter then him. The other General who was said to have been smarter, being the Chief of Military Intelligence, Khin Nyunt is like Snowball. He was pragmatic than most of the Generals in the ruling council – State Law and Order Restoration Council or SLORC. It later adopted the name State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). The logic behind these changes of names must have been like this; when they took over power from the then Socialist regime in 1988 the excuse was that they (the military) had to step in and saved the country from chaos. They also promised ‘free and fair elections’ would be held and had one in May, 1990. However, when the National League for Democracy won in a landslide they changed their mind. Instead of handing over power to the party that won the majority of seats in the Parliament they changed their status from an ad hoc and temporary one to a more permanent one; thus they became ‘the State Peace and Development Council.’ When there is such a saying that, “Society of sheep begets Government of wolves” then we should not be surprised that the military regime in Burma could get away with reneging their promises. Like sheep, neither the people nor the rank and file in the military calls upon the generals to honour their promise. There were incidents like some ‘pigs’ engaging in revolt in Animal Farm. Some junior officials in the military such as Captain Ohn Kyaw Myint and his colleagues plotted to assassinate U Ne Win and some of the generals in the military leadership. They were somehow betrayed by someone whom they trusted. Their plot was uncovered and Ohn Kyaw Myint was charged on ‘sedition’ and executed. He also implicated General Tin Oo and the general had to pay a big price for his ‘silence’. The other general, Than Tin, then the commander of the Eastern Command betrayed them. He was later promoted to become the Minister for Mines for being loyal to Ne Win. We have ‘Squealers’ in Burma too. The ‘Squealer-in-chief’ I must say is Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan. He was the Minister for Information and I must say that he was the ‘Squealer’ par excellence in his role. Like Squealer he manipulates the language to excuse, justify and extol all of Than Shwe’s actions. In Orwell’s satire Squealer was the first pig to walk on his hind legs. Kyaw Hsan, however, is yet to behave like a human though. The character of ‘Squealer’ could be given to not just one person in Burma. Many of those in the regime who became Foreign Minister fit into that role very well. As a well known definition of a diplomat attributed to Sir Henry Wotton, an English ambassador at the beginning of the seventeenth century that, ‘a diplomat is an honest man sent abroad to lie for his country’ foreign ministers in Burma are men who lie for the generals. They are mostly men, as the former Czech President and playwright Vaclav Harvel mentioned in his essay ‘Living in Truth’, who are unprincipled and spineless, prepared to do anything in their craving for power and personal gain. As long as it brings them some advantage they are willing to support anything at anytime. Whenever I read Orwell’s writings and in particular the ‘Animal Farm’, I could not help but thinking, “What if Orwell is still with us today? What if he could see what’s happening in Burma today?” With his detestation of political phonies he would have scorned on what we have as leaders and politicians today. Pigs might fly but I doubt that there can be many politicians who understand the word liberty as Orwell. For him it is that, “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” END .
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