Of Myanmar, Morality and Mankind

For the last couple of days, it was little Nurin’s case that sparked the anger in me especially as to the level of morality among fellow Malaysians (whoever brutally killed her shall not rest in peace!!). Today it irked me to see the front page of New Strait Times, which showed the picture of a dead Buddhist monk thrown into the river, amidst the political unrest in Myanmar. What is the Junta government thinking? Can killing those Buddhist monks helped in solving the unstable state of their nation? Being a nation which championed Buddhism as its paramount religion, I cannot accept the fact that such act of "solving problems" is still being practised. Why can’t they just have a proper dialogue? Shooting unarmed and innocent monks does little in stablising the country, in fact it adds oils to fire, creating a greater anger among the people of Myanmar as well as nations around the world. Now with UN and superpower nations like US calling for a global sanctions on Myanmar, there is little hope in making the situation better. Of course, sanction is yet another political tool by country like US to take advantage of the situation. China will of course be in a state of dilemma as well since their investments in Myanmar is far greater than those from the West. But will that help? I personally think sanctions won’t help in changing the mentality of the Junta government. Their concern is to protect their power and create a nation that is "controllable" with less freedom of speech and expressions. For them, such freedom means "challenges and threats to their positions in the nation". And with Nobel-peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi still being imprisoned at her home, there is little sign of making Myanmar a democratic country. Even with democracy, it doesn’t mean it can be a good political solutions. Some nations are still struggling to fully "understand" the true meaning of democracy, by manipulating situations just for the sake of their own wellness and power. It will take a really bold step to solve the problems in Myanmar. The Buddhist monks are now playing their roles by protesting, some had sacrificed themselves. Perhaps, they are trying to help by offering their wisdom and love similar to the Buddha’s teaching below:

Conquer the angry man by love. Conquer the ill-natured man by goodness. Conquer the miser with generosity. Conquer the liar with truth. The Dhammapada

I do pray for a better day in Myanmar. Let’s just hope that Malaysia will remain as stable as ever and eradicate any threats that can disturb such stability. Even tragic cases like the brutal killing of little NURIN should not have happened in our country.