The Old Men in the Tatmadaw

“They will kill you, and torture you. But at the same time, they're not smart! They only finished like, second grade. The ways they act are parallel to animals. So you don't give them the respect that they want so much. That’s what makes the mystique of the Tatmadaw disappear, is that they're these little, insecure, old men.”

This brilliant quote from the Burmese artist known as "Bart Was Not Here" is so significant and insightful for the moment we're living in. So much of the Tatmadaw's strength over the past few decades was derived not so much from respect or admiration, but rather from constant fear and power. This was not an accident: from its inception, the Burmese military prioritized the value of pyschological warfare, seeing its own people as an enemy that it needed to win over one way or another, either by outright lies and falsehoods at the expense of other minorities, through bullying and intimidation, or by applying for drastic methods like abduction, rape, torture, and death.

So in recent periods of conflict, one barely dared to so much as whisper a contrary word against the military, for doing so could result in being whisked off to an Insein Prison cell in the dead of the night.

But from 2021, it's been a different story.

Bart is getting at something profound by chipping away at what he calls the "mystique" of the Tatmadaw. And Bart is just one of many Generation Z artists and activists who are no longer cowed or deferential to these "little, insecure old men." They are attempting to rewrite the script from the decades of trauma that previous generations have had to suffer under. They are stepping out under the weight of the political, racial, and even spiritual propaganda that Burmese rulers have used on their people for so long.