Let's talk about social punishment

Tyler Davis
Wed, 24 Mar 2021 02:00:14 +0700

I'm not entirely sure whether or not I agree with this notion of social punishment. It's not that I fear for my own reputation nor that I have something in particular worth hiding. I just don't know if retaliating against the preceived elite is overly beneficial. On the one hand, they are indeed benefitting in one way or another from their relatives' past dealings (often corrupt). But are they "sinful" as well in any of this?

Luckily, there seems to be a workflow. The individual is observed (usually through social media) and the court of public opinion determines whether the individual has said anything worthy enough of being "passed over" Deuteronomy style. Such as,

1. Have they publicly supported CDM?

2. Have the publicly denounced the misdeeds of their ancestors?

3. Have they publicly denounced the military coup?

etc.

These private individuals, however, are between a rock and a hard place. Many, not wanting to dishonor their parents following the traditional ဘုရား တရား သံဃာ မိဘ ဆရာ (Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, Parents, Teachers) teaching that one must always respect these five "gems," especially parents, since they gave you life. In their Buddhist mindset, this is almost an impossible thing to do.

We Westerners and some westernized Burmese people would denounce their family in a heartbeat if they disagreed with some atrocities. I doubt that these "crony kids" would easily be able to do the same.

Nonetheless, there are certain Facebook pages and websites, which I won't link here, that can lead a visitor to a wall of photos with names, known addresses, known affiliates, etc. of these targeted individuals. One thing I worry about is that the creators of such pages may be unmasked one day. Most Burmese people are using a freely available VPN app called "1.1.1.1," which is not private and not entirely secure, in terms of the user knowing exactly what happens to their data. If the data were intercepted, the creators of these pages could face lifetime in jail or perhaps even the death penalty. It goes to show, however, how the Burmese people will use whatever means they have to try to win this fight.