by Tarja Halonen and José Ramos-Horta
Originally published in Newsweek Magazine. Link below.
There are solutions for the crisis in Myanmar.
They depend on the Tatmadaw, the country’s military forces, moving into the 21st century and realizing that security can no longer be bought by brute force. The narrow military and police-centered notion of security, which served only small sections of society, may have worked in the past. But Myanmar has been opening up for some 10 years now.
For a generation of young people who grew up with at least a semblance of democracy, with resulting steady economic growth and TV and social media at their disposal, the notion of security by military control is an anachronism.
Myanmar’s citizenry has come to expect freedom and the right to have a say in the way the country is governed. This cat will not go back into the bag.
