Thoughts about Inclusion

In this latest image from JMP, we see an angry monk proclaiming, "This is a free country, and so the people must respect the teachings of the Sasana!" Then in the next image, the monk is instructing the soldiers, "Hey, this guy is not like us, so arrest him!"

There is a lot of context needed to understanding this cartoon, which depicts the sinister relationship between nationalist monks and the military, set at a time when the country was going through a messy transition (prior to the coup). The monk, who is likely aligned with the anti-Muslim 969 movement, is in effect trying to use democratic arguments to reassert the place for "religion" (translated here as "the Sasana"). At a time when many monks began to fear how their religious practices could survive when the country was opening up in every regard, this particular monastic is arguing that these new "freedoms" must also include the freedom for Buddhism to continue to be expressed and taught as before.

Of course, the obvious irony in the second frame is that after the monk argues that Buddhism must not be excluded in the new Myanmar, he is instructing soldiers to arrest a Burmese man who is most likely not Buddhist, insisting that these new freedoms must not extend to him.

Underlying this image is the obvious connection between the monk and the soldiers, as it depicts the monastic as ordering the oppression being carried about by the military. While this may be a somewhat exaggerated take on the outsized role of these nationalist monks, it is clear that many of them did provide a driving force for the military's iron rule.

The cartoon also hints at the challenge that a traditional, religious society has when adopting to a newly open, democratic framework, and the fear that many hold that the conventions and customs they hold dear may begin to slip away.