“Soldiers are no longer different from soldiers in Burma for a long time,” is a phrase that veteran grandfathers in our neighborhood always add whenever we meet. At that time, I was still young, so I didn’t really understand what it meant. But it was only when I became an adult and joined the army myself that I began to understand the meaning of those words.
The time I joined the army was during the democratic government in 2016. Under the democratic government, the whole outside world is changing at a rapid pace, but inside the army, the equipment, from the military uniform to the way of thinking, nothing has been updated and they are still thinking in the same old way.
Things that should be reformed like that, even if they are not updated, should be followed. The practice of good discipline is seen to be gradually decreasing in the modern army. The good principles of the previous army, such as the ethics that soldiers must follow, the ethics to be done towards the public, in this day and age, the ethics that should be followed by each other are only left in the books.
In addition, the skills that a soldier must have. I have seen since joining the army that they no longer attach any importance to standard methods, but only to obtain more quantity. There are certain standards to be a soldier. For example, at least 5 feet 4 in height. Must have good eyesight and hearing in order to be able to follow the training of the army, must have the appropriate fitness.
Before, because the discipline was carefully selected and taught, when a soldier was allowed to return to the village, the stupid people of the village had to avoid going to another village. Because the army has done its military work, it has achieved such a high level of prestige and gained the trust of the people.
But in this day, the army is made up of those who are not tall enough. I have seen firsthand that patients who are not in good health are accepted and are only concerned about the liquid. In addition, according to the requirements of the lower ranks, fugitives who later committed crimes against the police, stations, those who met on the streets started to organize a protest. They made various threats and forced them to join the army.
Because of the consequences of doing things like that for years, the army has been completely destroyed, and finally, as we see now, it is giving the image of a vile and inferior army. Due to the lack of physical fitness that a soldier should have, his ability to fight is reduced and he has no endurance. Fugitives without prioritizing ideological ideas, because they attracted the people they saw, they could not decide whether it was right or wrong, and there were soldiers like human animals who were doing everything that was asked from above.
For the army to be like this, the country suffers as well as the army itself is unethical. The organization that takes a lot of the annual national budget is incompetent. There is chaos without rules and only obeying the orders of a group of people is very dangerous for the people. Only by overthrowing such an incompetent army and quickly building a good future army that includes all ethnic groups can we truly achieve real peace in the country.
Yours Sincerely
Chan Min