The Pyusawhti

This recent cartoon by the Burmese artist JMP is especially disturbing. Even without translation, the casual viewer can discern the intended meaning here.

In the scene, we see a general raising a gun to the head of a defenseless woman, with flames rising behind her as a man holds a sword to her head. The monk is secretly accepting a wad of cash from the general behind his back, while saying, "This is happening to you because you have old kammic debts."

As vile and discomfiting as this image is, it must be stated that little in this sketch is from the mind of JMP himself. This cartoon is made from the news. The man is likely a member of a Pyusawhti group, which are pro-military units causing havoc throughout the country. The very image of the woman is also, sadly, from the news, as pro-military accounts shared videos of a bound woman having her head cut off by one of such groups. Horrific. And the flames in the background indicate the villages that the military are now burning day after day throughout the Burmese countryside.

JMP adds a collusion between the nationalistic monks and military leaders to this incident. It is significant that the only words in this image are spoken by the monk, who is manipulating (and perverting) Buddhist beliefs to explain her death. Yet more than that, the religious undertone of these words actually justifies her murder. This is perhaps a reference to Sitagu Sayadaw's infamous speech to a military battalion which has since been interpreted as indicating that the soldiers would not face severe karma given that their victims were Muslim.

I am also intrigued by the Pyusawhti man wearing a swastika on his arm. The ancient Indian symbol is still used today around Hindu and Buddhist sites in Asia, and has nothing to do with the later repurposing of this motif by Hitler. However, it is not a symbol that anyone actually wears in Burma today, and yet the armband depicted in this image only brings to mind Nazi soldiers. I wonder if JMP is using this historic connection to highlight a similarity between nationalistic monks in Myanmar today, and the Nazi regime in Germany last century.

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Here is a commentary given by the Facebook page "Burmese Protest Memes and Signs Translated and Explained" on this cartoon:

The mantra that suffering and death in this life are atonement (ဝဋ်ကြွေး) for crimes in a past life has been used widely by the military and monks under their control to keep the people docile. The message is that your misfortune is your own fault, and those who wrong you cannot be blamed, they are merely instruments of justice.

Many powerful monks continue to benefit from the military, who in turn make a big show of making merit to legitimise their image and actions.

Despite the overtly theological sense of ဝဋ်ကြွေး the phrase itself has origins in secular justice and dates back to the monarchic era when a particularly cruel queen responsible for many deaths was finally executed on the orders of the king, these words being the king's condemnation.