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Min Aung Hlaing and junta officials pay a visit to the Maravijaya Temple in Naypyitaw on June 28. / Cicnds
Junta tries another card
After playing the religion card but still failing to win public support in a Buddhist majority country, Myanmar’s military regime is hoping the nationalist card will do the trick. The junta is calling on Myanmar citizens to push for the return of royal jewelry and other heritage items taken from Burma by British colonial rulers.
The same trick has been used by previous military dictators, disguised in the sweet words of ‘genuine patriotic spirit’ and ‘nationalist fervor.’
In 1964-65, the British government returned more than 140 pieces of royal jewelry and other items looted by British colonizers from the Mandalay Palace of King Thibaw following their annexation of Upper Burma in 1885. The items were repatriated at the request of Myanmar’s first military dictator, General Ne Win, who was on a two-month visit to London at the time.
Current junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is now following in his footsteps with articles published in junta propaganda newspapers on June 27 and 28 demanding the return of more Burmese royal items from Britain.
However, the regime has shown no such respect for heritage at home, having carried out artillery attacks and torched villages in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Hanlin. It has done the same in the ancient city of Mrauk-U in western Myanmar’s Rakhine State, the seat of Arakanese kings from the 15th to the 18th centuries and now awaiting approval as UNESCO World Heritage. Elsewhere, it has bulldozed the internationally recognized Neolithic archaeological site of Taungthaman in Mandalay. So, it is obvious that the junta is merely exploiting the looted royal items for its political advantage.
Cronies splash cash for giant folly
Everyone in Myanmar knows that Min Aung Hlaing is building what is touted as the world’s tallest sitting Buddha statue, Maravijaya, in Naypyitaw in a bid to portray himself as the guardian of Burmese Buddhism. Though the statue is almost complete, the junta boss still needs funds for the Buddhism-themed park and religious buildings that surround it it. So, he invited cronies to the park on Thursday and solicited donations.
Among top-flight cronies donating cash at the event were Kyaw Ne Win, the grandson of late military dictator Ne Win; sons of the Than Shwe regime minister U Aung Thaung; bankers U Zaw Zaw, U Khin Maung Aye and U Zaw Win Shein; and U Tun Myint Naing of Asia World. Min Aung Hlaing addressed them all as ‘Dharma friends.’
Min Aung Hlaing received 16.177 billion kyats (US$ 7.6 million) in a single day from his Dharma friends. He then led the cronies on a tour of the eerily treeless Buddha-themed park, telling them that the marble block from which the Buddha statue was carved was handed over to the military by his predecessor, the dictator Than Shwe.
Junta chief hands bauble to Russian ambassador
Ambassador Listopadov is the fourth official from the regime’s main arms supplier to be honored since the 2021 coup. Read more here:
