Delusions of Grandeur

Episode #407: One month after the coup, Captain Kyaw Kyaw defected from his post as a military pediatrician. After years of seeing the military brutalize the civilians they were supposed to protect, committing systematic war crimes in conflicts with ethnic armed organizations, he had still felt loyalty to the soldiers in the lower ranks who he viewed also as victims. The carnage that met protests against the coup, however, was the final straw leading him to join the ranks of defectors.

In his account of indoctrination and military training, a clear picture emerges of a military leadership that profits off the suffering of the rank-and-file, most of whom are kept in the dark about the historical record and the facts on the ground today. It is also a picture of a military force that is severely debilitated. “I think at least 30 to 40% of infantry soldiers have to be dismissed because of mental instability, drug addiction or alcoholism,” Kyaw Kyaw says. “Half of the brutality, war crimes, and atrocities occur on the front line and among the civilians. A portion of the soldiers are already psychopaths with severe psychological trauma!”

It is an open secret in the military, he says, that the real number of combat-ready soldiers is less than half the official statistics. Corruption riddles the procurement and construction sectors, while cementing the loyalty of top generals whose economic interests depend on the military’s economic stranglehold. In Kyaw Kyaw’s estimate, a significant portion of the military stays loyal only for financial gain, while a minority subscribes to the propaganda. About half, he believes, realize the military is the main perpetrator of injustice, although many are held in check for fear of the consequences if they defect.

Kyaw Kyaw has a warning for an international community that has failed to take effective action: “Injustice can be very infectious. If more countries believe in power, instead of dialogue, instead of justice, it will backfire for every nation in the world.”