01 Dec 22 | Belarus, Campaigns, China, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Mexico, News and features, Nicaragua, North Korea, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia
At the end of every year, Index on Censorship launches a campaign to focus attention on human rights defenders, dissidents, artists and journalists who have been in the news headlines because their freedom of expression has been suppressed during the past twelve months. As well as this we focus on the authoritarian leaders who have been silencing their opponents.
Last year, we asked for your help in identifying 2021’s Tyrant of the Year and you responded in your thousands. The 2021 winner, way ahead of a crowded field, was Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, followed by China’s Xi Jinping and Syria’s Bashar al-Assad .
The polls are now open for the title of 2022 Tyrant of the Year and we are focusing on 12 leaders from around the globe who have done more during the past 12 months than other despots to win this dubious accolade.
Click on those in our rogues’ gallery below to find out why the Index on Censorship team believe each one should be named Tyrant of the Year and then click on the form at the bottom of those pages to cast your vote. The closing date is Monday 9 January 2023.
VOTING HAS NOW CLOSED. SEE WHO YOU VOTED AS TYRANT OF THE YEAR 2022 HERE.
01 Dec 22 | Burma, Tyrant of the Year 2022
“As a child Aung San Suu Kyi was a celebrated heroine in my family home and Myanmar, an authoritarian regime determined to squash democracy. For a few years there was hope, although not for the Rohinghya community (thanks to Min Aung Hlaing), until the military coup of 2021,” says Index on Censorship CEO Ruth Anderson.
In February 2021 Min Aung Hlaing seized power – declaring himself commander-in-chief of Myanmar and consolidating all political power into the State Administration Council – a body which he also chairs. He has since sought to quash all dissent. Challenge is not tolerated, politicians have been arrested and imprisoned on spurious charges. Since the coup 2,530 civilians have been killed by the military, 13,000 people remain in detention and 128 political prisoners have been sentenced to death, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
In a series of court cases since the military coup, former leader Aung Sun Suu Kyi has now been sentenced to 26 years’ imprisonment.
“These acts alone would warrant his crown as Tyrant of the Year but when you also consider his personal treatment of the Rohingya community then it’s difficult to see how anyone else qualifies for the title,” says Anderson. “Even before the coup Min Aung Hlaing was accused of acts of genocide against the Rohinghya minority – over one million Rohingya have been forced to flee Myanmar, and available data suggests that over 24,000 Rohingya have been systematically murdered by the state, over 18,000 women and girls raped and 36,000 thrown into fires. All by direct order of Min Aung Hlaing. The UN has declared that he should be tried for war crimes at the Hague. This man is a tyrant by every definition.”
26 Jul 22 | Asia and Pacific, News and features
People protest in Myanmar against the military coup in 2021. Photo: Htin Linn Aye
The last time a political activist was hanged in Myanmar was in 1976, when the ethnic Chin student Salai Tin Maung Oo, 25, was executed for sedition. I was hoping against hope that the junta was bluffing when it announced in early June 2022 that it would go ahead with the execution of four political prisoners on death row, Phyo Zeyar Thaw, Kyaw Min Yu, Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw.
I knew too well what the regime was capable of. Since the February 2021 coup, daily atrocities by security forces, extrajudicial killings and tortures to death of hundreds of civilians are well documented. The lives of two of my poet friends in their prime, K Za Win and Khet Thi, were cut short by the regime in March 2021 and May 2021 respectively for their leading role in the anti-coup protests.
Zeyar Thaw and Min Yu (AKA Jimmy) are big names in Myanmar. Jimmy belonged to the 1988 protest movement. He spent a total of 21 of his 53 years of life behind bars as a prisoner of conscience. Zeyar Thaw belonged to a younger generation, politicised by the 2007 Saffron Revolution, a protest led by the Myanmar monks. Myo Aung and Thura Zaw are likely to be ‘the 2021 generation.’
The original Burmese title of my poem is The Rope. I translated it into English and gratefully accepted an editorial suggestion that The Rope be retitled On the Ropes. Whatever happened to the sacrifice of all the activists since Tin Maung Oo, not to mention many nameless martyrs before and after him?
Wherever we are, we earthlings may be on the ropes against tyranny of all sorts — from dictatorships in the East and blatant lies by elected politicians in the West to ubiquitous corporate greed and hypocrisy. Because of this failure in leadership and our lack of common sense as a common species, we may as well be on the ropes against the biggest blow of our times, the climate crisis.
On the Ropes
In all manners of capital punishment
hanging is
the most hideous.
To ancient Greeks
the rope takes away more than life.
It takes away decency
even in death.
Had the Romans hanged Jesus
—instead of nailing him on a crucifix—
the Christian church wouldn’t
have had much impact.
Would you hang around
your neck an icon of a broken-neck Jesus,
hanging by the neck
on a noose?
Be it short drop, pole method,
standard, or long drop,
the hanged is condemned
to indignity.
Once the neck snaps midair
the body shits and pisses itself,
the eyes bulge,
the tongue sticks out of the mouth,
if not stuck between the lips,
bloodied and bitten.
The Klan loves to lynch their victims.
Only racist hatred justifies the rope.
Hanging cannot be accomplished
without gravity.
This makes the innocent Gaia complicit
in our human crime—
in its ferity and finality.
A version of this poem was circulated in SUSPECT newsletter on 16 June 2022.
26 Jul 22 | Asia and Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, News and features
Phyo Zayar Thaw gives a speech in Myanmar during a protest in 2021. Photo: Maung Sun
Kyaw Min Yu and Phyo Zayar Thaw were prominent voices in the democracy movement in Myanmar. But on 25 July 2022, state news outlet Global New Light of Myanmar released a statement claiming that they had been executed on the grounds of “terror acts.”
Min Yu, also known as Ko Jimmy, was a 53-year-old veteran of the 88 Generation Students Group formed during the 1988 uprising, which advocated against the country’s military regime. He had spent much of the time since in prison, first 15 years for his participation as a student leader in the uprising, and then five years for leading protests during the Saffron Revolution in 2007, a movement sparked by huge fuel price increases.
Throughout his time in and out of prison, Min Yu wrote several books including self-help book Making Friends and fiction The Moon in Inle Lake. He also wrote a plethora of political short stories that were published in Japan under the pen name Pan Pu Lwin Pyin.
Min Yu was arrested again in October 2021, during a raid. A warrant had been put out for his arrest after he made social media posts critical of the military junta coup in February of that year. He had been in hiding ever since. He was accused of advising the National Unity Government as well as hiding weapons at an apartment in Yangon. He leaves behind his wife and fellow activist Nilar Thein and their daughter Nay Kyi Min Yu, as well as his eternal work advocating for fundamental freedoms.
Zayar Thaw was a 41-year-old rap star turned politician for the National League for Democracy party. His band Acid often released songs with lyrics containing thinly-veiled attacks on the military, which aggravated the junta. During his transition from rap star to lawmaker, he became a close ally of pro-democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi and accompanied her to international meetings.
In 2000, Acid released Myanmar’s first hip-hop album, which remained number one on the Burmese charts for more than two months – a testament to the relatability of the lyrics highlighting the hardships of life in Myanmar which drew them into danger.
Taking an even more vehement stance against Myanmar’s military rulers, Zayar Thaw later co-founded the youth movement Generation Wave, following the Saffron Revolution. The activists used graffiti and pamphlets to spread their pro-democracy messages around the nation while also circulating anti-government films. Several members, including Zayar Thaw, were arrested and imprisoned for their participation.
From hip hop and activism, Zayar Thaw moved firmly into politics. In 2012, the same year Aung San Suu Kyi was elected, he became a member of Pyithu Hluttaw, the lower house of Burmese Parliament.
In November 2021, Zayar Thaw was arrested again by the Myanmar military junta for offenses ranging from “possession of explosives” to “financing terrorism.”
Both Min Yu and Zayar Thaw were sentenced to death in January 2022. They were convicted by a closed military court and their appeals were rejected. Human rights experts have spoken out against their treatment.
Global New Light of Myanmar claimed that the two men were charged under counter-terrorism laws, but have given no information about when or how they were executed. The Myanmar government’s horrific grab for power and disregard for human life has left the loved ones of Min Yu and Zayar Thaw with few answers. Both families have submitted applications for information on the unjust executions, but are unsure of what will happen now.
The families of Min Yu and Zayar Thaw have lost their sons, their brothers, their spouses, and their fathers. But their fight for basic freedoms in Myanmar lives on through their organisations and art.
