The Mindset of the Soldier
While the Tatmadaw has been committing any number of atrocities on the ethnic peoples of Burma for generations, their crimes have largely gone unnoticed and even defended by many in the majority Bamar population, at least before the coup. Simon, a Chin doctor who has unfortunately been a witness to many of these tragedies, spent years trying to understand why Bamar could not appreciate the cruelty of the military. In the following excerpt, he describes how he came to learn about the different ways Burmese soldiers behaved in Burmese cities and the rural, ethnic countryside, which led to this difference in understanding. To hear more from Simon, take a listen to his full interview.
“Most of the majority Bamar people never understood what has really happened or what kind of mindset this military really has.”
“[In] Rangoon, there is a military camp, but the military never goes out from the camp with their uniforms, with their guns roaming around Rangoon city; they never do. If they go outside, they become like civilians behaving in a very good way, a good manner, and then they go to pagoda, etc. So in the eyes of the Rangoon people, they are very good. And they are very obedient. They appear very religious.
But those same people, when they come to Chin, when they come to Shan, they change! Their color changes: they start to torture; they start to oppress; they start to do some things that are unacceptable to people like from me from Chin. So, that is why they never understand. Most of the majority Bamar people never understood what has really happened or what kind of mindset this military really has.
Because with them, they are very good in Rangoon; even if you look, if you try to search for the army in Rangoon city, it's very hard to find them. They are in the camp; if they go out, they dress as civilians and they are very well-dressed, well-spoken. They go to the Pagoda and worship, do a lot of religion stuff. So, they are so much about the Buddhist religion. But when they come to Chin state, they're totally different. That is why the things happened.
I think now these days, when we are getting to know others and with the reading of books, I understand why Bamar people have that mindset. And then I thought, ‘Oh, not all the Bamar, the majority, they are not all doing these things, but it’s the minority of them who are really thriving off of the rule, who really want there to be dictatorship. Oh, these are individual persons, not all of them.’”