by David Law

A Commentary On the Last Rites for The Butcher of Depayin.

Recently on 15 October, there was a State Funeral held for General Soe Win, the Prime Minister of Burma who died of leukemia despite all the first class treatment he had in Singapore earlier this year in January. (Ordinary people get only socialized medicine which is no good at all since going to hospital in Burma simply means a person is going to die).

It was a rapid demise for a leader who carried out Than Shwe’s orders and beat to death over a hundred NLD members during the infamous ambush in Depayin, June 2003. They died trying to protect Daw Aung San Suu Kyi while she was touring that part of the country to give speeches and rally the people. PM Soe Win will be reviled in History as the Butcher of Depayin, just like General Sein Lwin, the Butcher of 8-8-88.

MRTV, the government television, featured a short clip of the funeral in which the coffin was carried on a ridiculous gun-carriage at the back of a common military truck. It is a common military tradition to be sent off thus, but the choice of the carriage and vehicle left much to be desired, as was the choice of a coffin.

http://www.reuters.com/news/video/videoStory?videoId=68761&videoChannel=1

If you look at the picture of the way the coffin was placed on the carriage, it looks like a mere piece of military equipment, like an ordinary crate carrying some artillery shells.

Compare Soe Win’s coffin to that of an animal pet’s coffin shown below and note the similarities between the two. The only difference is that his box has some paint on it but otherwise, the plain-Jane design, the junglee-wallah appearance is all too obvious — just an ordinary crate with a lid on it.

The overall philosophical attitude, or tayah kyaht zayar, is that despite all the grandeur, power, privileges, luxury that this SPDC general enjoyed in life, all that was cast aside. In death, he was sent off in something really ridiculous, like a dead pet dog.

And although it is a military custom to send off dead officers on a gun carriage, the choice of a common army truck is really auk – tann – kyaht zayar, really low class, and the choice of a gun carriage is so laughable that it gives stomachache. In the video film, the cargo truck trundles along the road rapidly like a garbage truck, followed by a few cars and busses as if it was part of a supply convoy. Really no class at all and an absolute dishonor to a man who is supposed to be a general. Compare it to the splendid ceremony seen in the Canadian funeral for a sergeant, a war hero — behold the solemn honor guard that marches alongside the stately gun carraige in a most honorable manner. Compare the coffin of the Burmese general vis-a-vis the coffin of this Canadian sergeant in the pictures below.

The procession for Soe Win, by contrast, was greeted by a few dozen bystanders, so few that it is an affront, a ludicrous farce to someone who is supposed to be a general and a prime minister at that. How is it that the government is able to muster by force ( and by fees, about 80 cents per head per family; mandatory attendance or face punishment ) twenty to thirty thousand attendees for shouting rallies to support their idiotic national policies whereas this so-called VIP State Funeral can garner only a few dozen people by the roadside? It just shows how little the generals care for their departed colleague. Why cannot they apply force or provide enough money to get enough people for appearances’ sake? Can’t they see they are committing great dishonor to their fallen comrade? It must be downright depressing for the admirals and generals who attended the funeral to know that they too will be treated like dirt when they die. Compare the coffin of the Canadian Sergeant with that of the Burmese General.

Also note how the Canadians devotedly carry their beloved comrade on the shoulders whereas the SPDC generals merely push the coffin of their trashed comrade on a trolley table — either because they are too lazy or they don’t want to soil their golden general ranks on their shoulders. It is interesting to note how the generals are so afraid of their ranks falling off, yardoo pyoke, if they soil their shoulders by carrying the coffin that they are merely pushing the coffin on a gurney table. It shows how vain AND paranoid they are about their high-and-mighty ranks which truly become rusty dirt once they die. They are too much “Yardoo – Yoodar” (too crazy about their ranks)

Then look at the way the eight-gun salute was carried out. Only eight rifles, and they were bolt-action Lee-Enfield rifles from 1906. What an insult ! Only eight rifles and ones that are over a hundred years old, ones that are handled nowadays by the jungle taw-thah villagers in the Peoples’ Militias. The army gets the latest guns, and Soe Win should have had some better rifles. When you look at the television clip, you will see how the funeral center has not even a ceiling, but just a bare thatched roof with all the rafters visible; on top of it all, the soldiers are aiming right at the roof, so close that even with blank cartridges, some of the thatch could have been blown off.

That shows some very stupid planning on the part of the funeral manager who should have held the rifle salute outdoors. But apparently, no one seemed to care or make any suitable changes — which tells us that Soe Win’s passing away is of no consequence and merely a chore to be gotten rid of, like a piece of garbage.

Again, it is to be philosophized — Soe Win, how very sad it is for you, your relatives, and your friends, that you are having such an ignominious send-off by your fellow generals. How sad your friends must be that in your life, despite all the honors you enjoyed, in death, you are no better that trash that you are.

Finally, because you are packed off like a box of artillery shells mounted on a miserable gun carriage, it is not hard to imagine how you will arrive in Hell. Instead of cremation, you should be placed in a cannon, like in a circus, and fired off into the sunset. You will be landing on your head, and since you are headed for Hell, you will get there upside-down, “Nga Yeah Zout Htoh Kyaht Mae !”, and this is what you deserve !