Letting Go of Hate
“For me, at first, I was involved in politics with strong emotions, as I said. At that time, I became involved in politics because of hatred, because of wanting to get rid of the regime. I was doing lots of things with hate in my heart. But, for me, hate doesn’t bring positive results. It’s just you expressing hate. It didn’t have much to do with consciously building our country. And for effective political work, you can’t do it with negative emotions. They distort and misguide. That’s why if you want to be involved in politics or help your country move forward, or if you want to build a brighter future for future generations, you need to develop a positive state of mind.”
—Phyo Zeya Thaw, Member of Parliament from the National League of Democracy and a former rapper from the hip-hop band ACID, which promotes democracy through the youth movement Generation Wave.
An excerpt from the wonderful new book Burma’s Voices of Freedom by Alan Clements. Check out our talk earlier this year to learn about his 30+ years of working on this book!