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We should all be outraged at this affront to democratic values, and we and our governments should do everything in our power to protest and to penalise the new dictators. Or should we? You
see, the problem is, the new junta probably won’t be much worse than the shower of racists, bullies and cowards that they are replacing. In 2017, while Suu Kyi’s elected government was in
charge, the Myanmar military launched its infamous campaign to ethnically cleanse the west of the country. Around 700,000 Rohingya Muslims were expelled. Their villages were burned and tens
of thousands were killed and raped by the security forces. Suu Kyi’s many admirers abroad naively hoped that her hands were tied and the army were acting without her consent. We hoped she
might at least express her disapproval of the atrocities even if she was powerless to stop them, but we were to be disappointed. Over the past decade Suu Kyi has questioned the Rohingyas’
right to Myanmar citizenship and suggested that the Muslims have brought the persecution upon themselves by creating a “climate of fear” of global Muslim power. After a BBC interview with
Mishal Husain in 2013, she expressed anger at being questioned by a Muslim. In 2016 Suu Kyi told the US ambassador that the Rohingya were “not recognized as among the 135 official ethnic
groups” in Myanmar. The last nail in the coffin of her and her government’s reputation was her speech at the European Court of Human Rights in December 2019, where she defended her army’s
conduct and did not even use the word ‘Rohingya’ once in a three thousand-word speech. I remember watching her on TV and wondering what had happened to the beautiful, elegant lady who had
once been seen as Asia’s Nelson Mandela. Suddenly she looked rather ugly, as if her wickedness was showing through the cracks in her façade. But surely, I hear you cry, we should be
supporting those brave, mostly young idealists on the streets of the major cities defiantly brandishing their banners and showing their support for modern civilised values. They appeal for
international assistance with their English signs bearing slogans such as ‘Help us stop crime against humanity!’, ‘Stop killing us!’ and ‘Justice for Myanmar!’ (I have heard that irony is
not a part of east Asian culture, and this would appear to be proof positive.) In 2017, CNN couldn’t find anyone in the capital who disagreed with the ethnic cleansing, with a lot of the vox
pops reciting well-worn racist anti-Muslim tropes. They found that the local media all warmly supported the military action. In 2019, Reuters reported on crowds of Suu Kyi enthusiasts in a
Yangon park cheering her on as she delivered her disgraceful address at the ECHR, while the banner headlines in the national newspapers read ‘Stand with Suu Kyi!’ So the big question in my
mind as I watch today’s mass demonstrations is this: If you can kick up such a fuss over a peaceful change of government, why was there not a whimper over an attempted genocide? And if
you’re on your high horses in such numbers now, why were they all safely locked in the stables back in 2017? But then again, it’s good to stay on the right side of history and remain in the
liberal democratic camp. The western media are unanimous in their condemnation of the coup, so it must be wrong and we must support them. A quick surf through today’s online news reveals a
Guardian podcast entitled ‘The Coup in Myanmar and the Fight for Democracy’ and there is an article with the headline, ‘army blocks Facebook access as civil disobedience grows’, while CNBC’s
report is headed, ‘Myanmar’s coup protests are different from past demonstrations’. But wait a minute, these protesters are supporters of a bunch of murderous genocidal maniacs. The finer
points of civic governance, Internet regulation and protest tactics are not relevant here. I don’t remember seeing articles on, say, the gender imbalance in the higher echelons of ISIS, and
this is because mundane issues of everyday policy go out the window when a state is wallowing in legalised murder and rape. Why does the international media find it so easy to temporarily
(we hope) sweep under the carpet the atrocities against the Muslim Rohingya? So to paraphrase Martin Niemoller, ‘First they came for the Kachin (another minority still persecuted under Suu
Kyi’s government), and nobody spoke out. Then they came for the Rohingya, and nobody spoke out. Then they came for us, and there was no one left to speak out.’ Therefore, to the protesters
on the streets of Myanmar’s major cities, I say you’ve made your bed. Now you have to lie in it and stop expecting civilised people around the world to care. _Alun Wessler is a Hong
Kong-based teacher and writer. His novel ‘Odysseus’ is available on Amazon._