A remarkable development has come to light in Myanmar, though “remarkable” might be too generous a word. The country’s infamous military Junta has announced amnesties for 5,864 prisoners, including 180 foreigners slated for deportation. In a rare act of ‘benevolence’, General Min Aung Hlaing reduced life sentences for 144 prisoners to a mere 15 years. Such grand gestures may sound commendable at first, but let’s not be fooled. It is clearly a smokescreen to distract the regime’s iron-fisted rule. Conspicuously or not, but absent from the list of those freed is the ousted civilian leader and symbol of Myanmar’s pro-democracy movement, Aung San Suu Kyi. At 79, she is wasted away in detention. Many of the prisoners released include Thai nationals arrested for gambling at border town. The timing? Well, it coincides with the 77th anniversary of Myanmar’s independence from Britain, a holiday often marked by prisoner releases.

While symbolic gestures of mercy may appear to honour this day, but they invite a deeper question: Do such celebrations conceal the deteriorating political and economic realities facing Myanmar today? Granting amnesties on national holidays is a tradition in Myanmar, but the irony here is suffocating, a junta celebrating independence while holding its people hostage to tyranny.

Former U.N Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said, “There remains no place in the 21st century for a military regime that suppresses freedom and denies democracy”. In an era where liberal ideals and democratic values dominate global discourse, it is easy to assume we have outgrown shadows of tyranny. Yet, even in the 21st century, Myanmar stands as a haunting exception, a nation where authoritarian rule has loomed relentlessly for more than half a century. The military coup of February 2021 was a devastating blow to Myanmar’s fragile democracy. Mass protests erupted, met with a severe crackdown that claimed hundreds of lives. In 2022, United Nations documented extensive human rights violations, with accusation of crimes committed against ethnic minorities. The Junta’s actions has drawn international condemnation yet political repression rolls on without a hitch. The coup’s aftermath has not only undermined governance but also devastated the economy completely. According to World Bank, Myanmar’s economy shrank by 18% in 2021 and it’s GDP is expected to contract by 1% by March 2021. The nation’s now ranks among the least developed in the world, plagues by corruption and mismanagement of the economy. Average citizens bear the heavy brunt of such a handicapped state facing rising unemployment, inflation and diminished prospects, while the military elite retain their privileges.

So, the question that arises is, what exactly is the future of Myanmar? It does hang by a thread with a promise of democracy on one end and chokehold of military power on the other. Such celebrations offers a shallow guise of growth, where freedom dressed up in ceremony is as hollow as a drum. True liberation required more than symbolic prisoner releases or national holidays filled with fanfare. It demands dismantling systematic repression, restoring political freedoms and ensuring accountability for the human rights abuses that continues to haunt the nation till date. Think of thousands who marches peacefully in the 2021 Spring revolution, only to be met with bullets and batons. Recall the stories of journalists like Kyaw Min Swe, imprisoned for reporting the truth and of course, the story of mass displaced Muslim Rohingyas suffering from persecution. Celebrations of independence cannot erase these ongoing struggles.